The Florida Public Service Commission should change its name. Because it is of absolutely no service to the public.

This week, the PSC approved an $811-million robbery, er, we mean rate increase for poor, old Florida Power & Light over the next three years. The utility giant was looking at a measly $1.6 billion in projected revenue next year, according to quoted experts. That just wasn’t enough for those greedy corporate monsters, who by the way got a $75.5 million rate increase approved in 2010 and both a $350 million and a $620 million rate hike in 2013. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky they didn’t get the whole $1.3 billion in increases that they asked for this year.

The amount approved translates to an increase in profits to 10.55% for the giant utility and its shareholders and about $13 more a month for the average 1,000-kWh user by 2019. The average monthly consumption for the 8.9 million residential customers in Florida is about 1,141. Observes say the average bill of $132 a month will go to $147 or so by 2019. Half of that increase will be seen in the bills that arrive in January (about $7 for the 1,000-kWh user).

Not only did the five-member PSC approve this, it did so unanimously and with no discussion of the objections raised by others, like the Sierra Club, which argued that the expansion of natural gas hurst the environment, and AARP. which argued the return on equity for investors was too high and called instead for a $300 million rate decrease for residential customers. Both organizations delived thousands of petitions and comments from Florida residents urging the PSC to deny the increase.

Instead of approving more natural gas plants, the PSC should be making it easier for consumers to choose solar.

Other critics said the ruling flies in the face of the FP&L-backed amendment rejected by Florida voters Nov. 8 which would have limited consumer’s ability to use solar energy. The voters have spoken and we have said that we want solar energy alternatives. We don’t want FP&L to build two dozen new natural gas plants that we don’t even need.

It’s amazing that they would not even discuss how this ruling aligns with the stated desire of voters. Aren’t they the Public Service Commission? Key word: Public.

But while the AARP and Sierra Club fight our battles, where are our esteemed electeds? Why weren’t they at the PSC hearings advocating against this? How come none of the county lobbyists paid with taxpayer dollars were in Tallahassee urging the PSC to reject the rate increase? Why is it that the AARP, which seems to be doing all the heavy lifting in this fight, is the one calling for regulatory reform?

Where are our esteemed electeds?

Newly-minted Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who in November beat incumbent Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla — who, ironically, works for FP&L as a lobbyist — is the first to cry foul, calling the rate “disappointing” — an understatement when he could have said it was highway robbery — and calling it “further evidence of the need for reform in Florida away from a monopoly system overly controlled by a small handful of giant utilities.”

I’ll say.

“That’s bad for the consumers, bad for the market, bad for the environment and ultimately bad for our democracy,” J-Rod added in his statement.

But from the rest? Nada. Silence.

But even though I suspect other Democrats who have spoken against the rate increase — Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava — might make statements of their own, J-Rod is a lone Democrat voice in a field of Tallahassee Republicans who have long defended FP&L’s hold over us.

Maybe what we need is a Democrat at the PSC. Under former Congressman Joe Garcia‘s watch — he was chairman of the PSC from 1991 to 2000 — FP&L lowered rates by $1 billion, the single largest energy rate cut in Florida’s history.

Both the Florida Democratic Party and the Republican Party of Florida will claim victories in Tuesday’s election after several state seats switched colors.

In the 305, we had four seats flip — two in the House and two in the Senate.

Both House seats were open (one due to term limits and one due to ambition) and both went from red to blue. But the Senate seats were one up, one down, thanks mostly to redistricting that left both incumbents vulnerable to state reps that ultimately got the best of them.

The first of those is Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, who lost a negatively charged contest with 46% of the vote against State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who got 49%. The senior of the DLP political brothers, Miguel raised and spent more than twice as much as Rodriguez (that we know of). DLP’s latest campaign finance report lists $937,000 in contributions compared to J-Rod’s $479,000. Plus DLP had another $750,000 or so in two PACs (Floridians for Ethics in Judicial Elections and Foundation for Human Values). Nobody knows how much more he had in non-profits or secret non-existing PACs like the one that sent a mailer recommending Democrat candidates — and DLP and Sen. Anitere Flores in her senate race.

He should have stressed his track record as an independent moderate, reminding people not only about his single-handed murder of those outrageous guns on campus laws last year but also the fact that he created the required county commission super majority vote to move the urban boundary line. His message, which wasn’t delivered effectively, should have been that he is in a better position to represent his district in a GOP majority Senate where he would be Big Man on Campus next legislative session. He tried to knock down Mr. Do Gooder and failed.

Meanwhile, J-Rod stuck to the ground game that helped him beat the younger brother, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, in 2012. The DLPs need to get back to basics. Knocking on doors and actually pressing the flesh is harder than recording robocalls and cute radio spots that use old Cuban sayings like a crutch. But it is also effective.

Maybe Miguel can do that when he runs for Coral Gables mayor.

Flipping the script on that race, but ending another political dynasty nonetheless, Democrat incumbent Sen. Dwight Bullard was rejected by voters who instead elected Republican State Rep. Frank Artiles to the position (51% to 41%). They must have been moved by the multiple mailers and TV and radio spots calling Bullard a terrorist sympathizer.

Andrew Korge might also want to apologize to the Democratic Party for causing some early primary damage to the cause.

Does this mean that Artiles can move back into his house in Palmetto Bay? We are going to hold him to his promises about beating back the MDX tolls and electing a sheriff in Miami-Dade.

But Ladra suspects that his victory is bittersweet, knowing that he left his House seat to a Democrat.

Robert Asencio could be this election cycle’s unicorn, having won a Florida House seat with less than $100,000 and proving that anyone can get elected. He and Daisy Baez were elected to the Florida House in districts 118 and 114, respectively. Asencio beat David “King Nine Lives” Rivera, who maybe has run out of lives, by a mere 45 votes to become a state rep. Even though Rivera outspent him by at least 3 to 1 and tried to label him as a “child abuser” based on an internal affairs investigation that was possibly taken out of context. Maybe it worked. Maybe Asencio would have won with a bigger margin had that child abuser thing not surfaced.

As of the latest campaign finance reports, dated through Nov. 3, Rivera had collected $272,000 in contributions (on top of a $50K loan to himself). Asencio raised $77,768 and loaned himself $11,650.

Daisy Baez had to spend a lot more to beat off Republican John Couriel as both vied for the open seat left by termed out State Rep. Erik Fresen. She spent $274,000 as of Nov. 3, but also had $118,000 in in-kind assistance, mostly from the Democratic Party. She needed it against the Couriel bank of $438,500, plus $60K in in-kind (maybe the state GOP ought to step it up).

Each had run before — Baez got a respectable 44% against Fresen in 2012, the same year Couriel lost to Sen. Gwen Margolis — so they each had campaign experience and some name recognition for newbies.

But Baez got just under 51% and a lead of 1,301 votes.

So, if we’re keeping score, there was one switch from red to blue in our Miami-Dade delegation and one switch from blue to red in the Senate. But there were two switches from red to blue in the House for a net gain in the 305 of three Democrat flips.

That there weren’t more is a big failure of the state and local Democratic Party because more seats were flippable. After all, someone you never heard of named Anabella Grohoski Peralta got 45% of the vote against Sen. Rene Garcia with less than $5,500 raised against his $190,000 spent through Nov. 3. And a guy named Patricio Moreno got 45% against State Rep. Carlos Trujillo after he spent $5,764 against the incumbent’s $385K. Y un fulano Carlos Puentes, who got 45% of the vote against Jose Oliva, the next speaker, without raising a dime on a loan of $2,240. Oliva has spent $243,000.

Imagine how many more seats would have been flipped with more resources.

Most of us have been preoccupied — perhaps obsessed is a better word — with the presidential or the Miami-Dade mayoral election. But there were a lot of other races that culminated with Tuesday’s vote. Here are some highlights:

Sen. Marco Rubio beat Congressman Patrick Murphy back to gain another six years in office. He has said he will serve all six years. And that is probably true — especially now that Donald Trump won the presidency. If he likes it and wants to stay, the Republican Party will have to back The Donald in 2020. So this means we will have to wait until 2024 to have our first Hispanic president. Good thing Marquito is a young man.

Rubio’s onetime BFF, former Congressman David Rivera lost his bid to go back to the State House — by 45 votes. Isn’t that close enough for a mandatory recount? His 49% showing is much better than he fared in his bid to get back into Congress in 2012, where he lost the primary with just 8 percent in a five-man field (even Joe Martinez beat him). But still, we have a new face in Tallahassee: Robert Asencio, a former Miami-Dade Schools Police lieutenant won one of two House seats that turned blue. Rivera had waged a negative campaign, calling Asencio a child abuser based on a 2003 complaint from the mother of a student who was physically pulled off a bus for acting inappropriately. The investigation was closed without any findings.

Read related story: ‘Child abuser’ allegations in House 118 race ring hollow

But 118 is the second of two local House seats that turned blue Tuesday after Democrat Daisy Baez eeked out a victory over Republican John Couriel to replace termed-out State Rep. Erik Fresen (who is rumored to be after J-Rod’s new Senate seat). Both of them had run previous campaigns and had the benefit of having some name recognition, despite never holding office. But Baez got just under 51% and a lead of 1,301 votes.

Former Congressman Joe Garcia lost his own bid to get his own seat back, but not as closely. There’s a glaringly wide 11-point gap between U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo‘s 52% and Garcia’s 41% performance. Ladra suspects that when the numbers are crunched, we’ll find a bunch of Democrats who voted for Curbelo because of his liberal ways marriage equality and sea level rise and his early rejection of Donald Trump. And I bet Garcia is rethinking those ads that compared Curbelo to Trump, who is the apparent winner of the big POTUS prize. Anyway, that giant gap in the year that Curbelo would be allegedly vulnerable — because that’s it, folks, he is welded into that seat now like IRL — should certainly encourage Garcia to stay in the private sector. Ladra said it long ago. The only person that could have beat Curbelo was Ana Rivas Logan. Too bad she decided to run for state senate. Now we’re stuck with him.

Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a former Miami-Dade Commissioner and flagship of a political dynasty, lost a heated battle with State Rep. (now Sen.) Jose Javier Rodriguez, 46 to 49% — and turned the longheld Republican seat (brother Alex Diaz de la Portilla sat there for a decade before DLP took over in 2010) blue. The senior DLP outspent J-Rod more than 2 to 1, which almost proves that it is worth more to knock on 150,000 doors than it is to buy slick commercials that tries in vain to cast a liberal onetime legal aid attorney as beholden to special interests. It’s too bad. Miguel DLP was my favorite senator and, while J-Rod will likely be stymied, the incumbent actually did some good as a senior member of the majority party and may have better represented the district. Oh well. Maybe DLP will run for Coral Gables mayor next year.

Ending another political dynasty in the other really heated and mostly negative state senate race — and flipping the seat the other way — State Rep. Frank Artiles will move to the other chamber after he beat incumbent Sen. Dwight Bullard, 51% to 41%. Guess all that business about Bullard being a terrorist worked. It’s scary to think we may see a resurgence of Artiles’ ugly bathroom legislation targeting transgenders. But does this mean he can move back into his Palmetto Bay house? He was forced to move out after Ladra caught him living outside his state House district in 2010.

There will be two runoffs for the mayor’s seat in Doral and in Miami Lakes, where none of the candidates were able to garner 50% of the vote.

Read related story: It ain’t over in Doral, Miami Lakes with mayoral runoffs

There was a big upset in the Miami-Dade School Board race where Steve Gallon III beat incumbent Wilbert “Tee” Holloway III with a resounding 61%. Gallon got a lot of the community support in a district — which includes Miami Gardens, Carol City and North Miami — where Holloway was cast as an empty suit. And it earned him a 22-point lead Tuesday. The other school board seat went to Gimenez in-law Maria Teresa Rojas, as expected. Not just because she is a longtime teacher and school administrator but also because the voters in that district probably reacted vehemently to a negative campaign in which her challenger was cast as a Fidel Castro sympathizer. Look soon for an announcement of Political Cortadito’s expansion into school board coverage.

We can also smoke pot to relieve certain debilitating conditions and chill out about having our own solar energy one day as voters approved the medical marijuana constitutional amendment but rejected the amendment on solar energy choice that would have basically limited our choices and allowed Big Energy to control everything. Voters were not fooled by that one — except in Miami-Dade where we actually had a majority vote yes on this wolf in sheep’s clothing (56 to 44%). Shaking my head.

There were also a bunch of questions in municipalities from Homestead to Sunny Isles Beach and we will get to those individually if they warrant it in the next few days. Some notable examples: Voters in Palmetto Bay rejected a proposal to annex a part of West Perrine. In South Miami, they gave the green light for the building of a new City Hall. And, in North Miami Beach, voters approved a slew of charter changes, including term limits and one that makes it easier for the council to fire the city manager. Please feel free to make suggestions/ask questions.

In fact, Ladra has a feeling we will be writing and reading about the results of this ballot for weeks to come.

It may be a contentious election year with many close races as the Democratic Party tries to snatch up some red seats and Republicans try to hold on and/or turn a few of their own.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t still get along, right?

A bi-partisan group of electeds in three contested races got together last week to promote living wage legislation that would pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour instead of $8.10 an hour.

The press conference came on the heels of an announcement Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity that the state’s minimum wage would go from $8.05 per hour to $8.10 per hour. Elected officials around the state are saying that this token nickel raise is simply not enough to keep up with the much more rapidly increasing cost of living.

But Ladra bets most of them are Democrats. In Miami we had two, count ’em, two Republicans.

Taking a break from their campaigns for low-wage workers this morning:

• Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who despite her attack ads calling him a drunk driver, is facing the most serious challenge to her since Annette Taddeo, the OG version (in her first bid for office in 2008) from Democrat Scott Fuhrman.
• State Senator Anitere Flores, who faces attacks of her own from the Florida Democratic Party as they support Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in a redrawn district that is pretty evenly split, or maybe favors Republicans by just a tad. But will they come out to vote?
• State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who left the comfort of a guaranteed slide back to the House so he could change chambers with a challenge to the ever popular Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla in what has become one of the roughest local campaigns this year (more on that later).

Wait a minute. Didn’t the SEIU endorse DLP? Well, Local 1991 did. They represent the nurses and staff at Jackson and also endorsed Flores, Ros-Lehtinen and Sen. Rene Garcia. The other two locals, 1199 and 32BJ endorsed J-Rod in District 37.

Read related story: Public employee labor union backs three GOP legislators

Ros-Lehtinen has long touted her ability to reach across the aisle and build consensus. She is known to be pro equal rights and she seems to have some sanity regarding climate change. She recently helped write a bipartisan letter to UNESCO about Jerusalem and introduced bipartisan a bills to restore rights of Holocaust survivors. And she’s not voting for Donald Trump.

Still, Ladra is pretty sure it was uncomfortable for her and Flores to be standing with J-Rod while he’s attacking their friend, the Flagship DLP, on the airwaves on a year when he could very well lose his seat — even if they were on opposite sides of the podium.

Despite having Democratic opponents in a Hillary presidential year, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Florida are endorsing two Republican incumbents in this year’s election: Sens. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla and Anitere Flores.

They’ve also endorsed Sen. Rene Garcia, but that’s different. Garcia has no opponent. Miguel DLP and Flores, however, are running in hotly contested districts against challengers supported by the Florida Democratic Party in a rush to win seats this year.

And the three GOP senators are the only Republicans AFSCME endorses in a sea of Democrats.

AFSCME is Florida’s fastest growing union, which is part of a 1.6 million member union that advocates for fairness in the workplace, excellence in public services and prosperity and opportunity for all working families. And like most unions, it typically backs the blue ticket.

But they have broken from the trend for these three.

Why?

“Our wages, benefits, working conditions, health and safety, and even whether we have jobs at all, are in the hands of officials who influence our future,” said Willie Pouncy Jr., AFSCME Florida Region 3 PEOPLE Chair. “After reviewing where Senator Flores stands on the issues important to our state and to the members who live or work in her district, we believe she is the best choice in 2016 for our families, our communities and those we serve.”

And they are not alone. In the case of Flores, who helped kill a law that would have scrapped the county’s wage-theft protection program, she also has the endorsement of the Florida Professional Firefighters Association and every elected official in Homestead, all but one Democrats. Diaz de la Portilla regularly enjoys the support of police and firefighter unions.

“I have a proven track record of effectively fighting for working men and women in our community,” the eldest of the DLP brothers told Ladra.

Said Flores: “During my time in office, I have advocated for a stronger economy, raising incomes and more affordable healthcare benefits for hardworking families— matters important to all Floridians.”

So who is Andrew Korge, who is running against Flores, and State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is running against DLP going to get?

Even though the challenge was looming, we knew it was coming for sure when Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla (R-Coral Gables) and State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez (D-Little Havana) were invited as guests to speak about the just-ended legislative session on WPLG’s This Week in South Florida — and it turned into sort of a debate.

Especially when Rodriguez made a point to respond to something the senior DLP said. “If I can touch on the gun bills, just very briefly,” J-Rod was quick to say. Then DLP responded to J-Rod’s response.

Where have we heard that kind of back and forth before? Oh yeah: At debates.

Ladra called it a showdown preview on Twitter. Yes, watchdogs tweet (find me at @newschica). And I was right: A day later, J-Rod — who had already said he was thinking about it — officially announced last week he was running for Senate against the three-term incumbent, possibly providing us with the second big partisan showdown in the county (the first being the congressional race rematch between U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R) and former Congressman Joe Garcia (D), who Ladra predicts will win the primary against what’s her name).

Keyword: Possibly.

Because Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, “the flagship” of the political brothers, is seen as the most reasonable and moderate of the DLP clan. He is not the typical Republican sheep. As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee refused to hear several ugly immigration bills and the the three open carry gun laws in the legislature this year, effectively killing them all (like he did last year), becoming an NRA target (they sent letters and emails to donors, attacking him).

He went against his own party “because I’m a free thinker,” he told Ladra. “I learned that from my grandfather. You have to listen to everyone. But when it comes time to make a decision, you have to make a decision on its merits.”

He has consistently been an advocate for public labor, who love him. He’s been a defender of education. Teachers love him. When he was a Miami-Dade Commissioner, he created the two thirds majority needed to move the UDB line and impact fee monies for schools from developers. This year, he secured $2 million in state funds for the proposed Underline linear park under the Metrorail tracks. Environmentalists love him, too.

Where is J-Rod going to get his votes?

A shining star who rose to public office from the ranks of public legal service, speaking on behalf of the most disenfranchised for years, Rodriguez could be disappointed with the amount of party crossover he might see in this race. I’m not the only one who likes both of them. A bunch of bilateral supporters are going to be hard pressed to pick between the two.

While he hasn’t passed anything important and most of his sponsored bills die in committee or fail (he is in the minority, after all), he did help stop what he deemed bad legislation at the finance and tax committee,  helped steer $286 million more into education funding and has championed the cause of hundreds of students left in limbo when Dade Medical College closed its doors abruptly last year. He also has a knack for social media, bringing attention to blue party issues like public transportation and minimum wage, off which he lived for a week, sharing his experiences on twitter. He was also one of the first to denounce the proposed bed tax giveaway to the Miami Dolphins in 2013 (God bless him).

“I know what my campaign is going to look like. I’m going to work very hard to let the voters know that I’ve been working for them already,” Rodriguez told Ladra.

So, despite DLP’s hefty experience or any perceived advantage Rodriguez may have on a presidential year in a district that gave Obama a seven-point lead in 2012, this is not going to be a cakewalk for either of them.

“Obama is not on the ballot,” Diaz de la Portilla told Ladra. And while many political observers do credit J-Rod’s initial win against his opponent’s brother, former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, to that presidential wave,  J-Rod also defended himself quite well against Daniel Diaz-Leyva and the weight of the Republican Party in 2014.

Read related story: Jose Javier Rodriguez hangs on despite Danny Boy’s dough

And that was against half a million dollars.

No, this isn’t payback. J-Rod doesn’t seem the type to hold a grudge. After all, he serves as vice chair of the Miami-Dade Legislative Delegation, where Danny Boy’s political godfather, State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz (R-Kendall), is chair.

Redistricting, Rodriguez said, gave him an opportunity to have more impact.

“I can accomplish more in the Senate. It’s a more collegiate body. There’s a lot more I could do,” he said.

DLP says he can do more for the constituents as a member of the majority that can garner bipartisan support for his measures. He passed a bill with unanimous support this year that expands the court’s authority to use mental health and substance abuse programs for youth offenders and veterans.

Ladra isn’t happy about this match, because she likes both candidates and thinks they are both worthy public servants. And it’s not like we have a lot of those just lying around.

And I’m not alone. Like I said, these two share supporters who are now going too have to choose — and it’s not a fun thing to do.

It’s too bad one of them doesn’t run against some of the real lame-os in Tallahassee, and there are plenty of those. But unlike some people (read: Frank Artiles) neither of these guys will lie about where they live to run for office.

So the only thing left to do is look forward to the next, the real debate — with both excitement and trepidation.