One-time longshot Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Alfred Santamaria has returned to politics two years later — shooting a little lower this time as a candidate in Commission District 10 and adding an o to his name to make him a little more Hispanic.
Javier “The Senator” Souto is a much easier target for Alfredo Santamaria, who used the new Latinized name when he filed paperwork earlier this month intending to run for the seat.
“It’s not a firm decision yet,” Santamaria told Ladra. He has a month to think it over before the qualifying deadline June 19.
Folks may remember Santamaria who — despite having claimed to have found an anti-Zika balm — came in fourth in the 2016 mayoral race that was mostly a match-up between incumbent Mayor Carlos Gimenez and former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado. Ladra always suspected Santamaria was a plantidate. Especially since the newby was able to raise almost half a million (that we know of) between his campaign and his political action committee.
But now one has to wonder if this wasn’t his end game all the while, running for mayor to build name recognition and get his feet wet.
“The main reason I am interested in running now is the same reason I ran two years ago. We need new blood in the county, a new generation to move us forward,” Santamaria said. “The world has changed a lot in the past 20 years and we need to compete to create well-paying jobs in Miami-Dade County.
“My main motivation is to get differen segments of the community engaged and excited from the youth to the Haitian Americans, the black Americans, all the Latin Americans, the Colombians,” said the Colombian-born son of missionaries.
He could be a threat to Souto, arguably the most vulnerable veteran on the county dais, with 25 years on his belt and fewer and fewer lucid moments. Sometimes, it feels like Commissioner Rebeca Sosa is babysitting him up there.
A Killian High grad with roots in the community, Santamaria is a Republican who has worked for both former congressman David “King Nine Lives” Rivera and former Miami-Dade recalled Mayor Carlos Alvarez, as well as the conservative Libre Foundation, where he may have left under questionable circumstances.
Santamaria collected almost $450,000 in contributions between his campaign account ($50,000) and his New Leadership political action committee ($398,000). Not bad at all for a first-time newby with no obviously visible political machinery. He got 8.7% of the vote, a tenth of a percentage point less than the only black candidate, which was 22,277 votes.
Yes, Santamaria got 22,277 people to vote for him, more than a quarter of the people who voted for Regalado.
But he’s an odd egg who talks with a computer voice — as if each word is pre-recorded individually — two alleged PhDs from religious institutions and a self-proclaimed prophet for a mom. For a campaign event, he gave away hundreds of samples of an “anti-Zika balm” that turned out to be antiseptic lotion. He has no known or visible means of support. He says he does consulting for a number of companies and is director of his family business, but is vague on details. And his 2015 tax return, filed as part of his 2016 campaign finance disclosures, listed $27,000 in income and as a “field director,” which I think was his title at Libre.
Ladra has to wonder if he’s not a plantidate again this year, thrown into the race by someone supporting Souto — who Mayor Giveaway Gimenez can count on for anything he wants — to peel anti-Souto votes from another candidate who has been campaigning for months: Jose Garrido, a former Souto district office staffer, real estate agent and land use consultant who founded the Westchester Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce in 2013, filed documents in October and has raised $7,000 so far (and is in the photograph, left).
While Souto has faced a flurry of challenges over two decades in office and has beaten them down pretty solidly, this cycle seems different. The anti-incumbent, anti-Republican voter sentiment could very well spill over to the county commission races as people who have never voted before or have not voted often find themselves suddenly very motivated to cast a ballot.
Souto, who has riased $210,000 to defend his seat, should just retire with dignity while he still can. Maybe, he’ll agree if we promise him he can still be on MDTV once in a while talking about all the great things he loves about Miami-Dade.

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