County commissioner wants to qualify by petition
For everyone still whispering that Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins might blink at giving up three safe years on the county dais for a risky run at Miami’s top job — stop. It’s done. There’s no room for doubts now.
Higgins submitted her resignation letter as a county elected, as required by law, effective Nov. 5. Which means she’s officially burned the lifeboats.
“I am deeply humbled and honored by the opportunity to run for Mayor of the City of Miami at a time when our community stands at a crossroads and residents are yearning for meaningful reform and real results,” Higgins wrote in the letter sent Monday to Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Juan Fernandez-Barquin and Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia, knowing that it would be quoted in stories like this.
“For nearly eight years, it has been my privilege to serve the residents of Miami-Dade County’s District 5, representing the communities of Miami and Miami Beach,” Higgins wrote. “I am profoundly grateful for the trust and confidence that my constituents have placed in me throughout my service, and I will always treasure the opportunity to have served as their county commissioner.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
“While it is with mixed emotions that I resign my post, I do so with immense gratitude for the honor of serving the residents of D District 5,” Higgins added. “I look forward to the opportunity to continue serving the residents of the City of Miami as their next Mayor. I bring with me a proven track record of accomplishments, a deep commitment to our community, and a readiness to deliver real results for all who call Miami home.”
Higgins, who Little Havana seniors lovingly call “La Gringa” since she first ran in 2018, also announced that she will qualify for the Miami mayoral ballot the hard way: by petition. Her campaign turned in more than 3,000 signed petitions, topping the 2,048 needed, and making a big show of “grassroots momentum” in the process.
“Qualifying by petition takes people — volunteers, neighbors, and supporters across Miami — who believe in our vision and are willing to act on it,” Higgins said. “That’s exactly what this campaign represents: a movement of residents determined to restore trust, deliver results, and make Miami work for all of us.”
Translation: She wants voters to see her as the anti-Carollo, the antidote to dysfunction at City Hall. The clean, ethical alternative who actually gets stuff done. Her press shop even mentioned her record on affordable housing, small businesses, transit and Biscayne Bay — all of which sound a lot better than what the circus clowns over on Flagler Street are doing right now.
Read related: Miami-Dade’s Eileen Higgins gets $250K for new Miami mayoral race PAC
But let’s be clear: She is abandoning her constituency three years before the end of her term and during a financial crisis with a looming budget shortfall and the consequences of that (fewer services, more fees), which she is going to vote on in the next couple of months — and then disappear. The county will likely have a special election to replace her — three years is too long for an appointee — which will cost the county more. Work that into your budget, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Still, this is a gamble. Higgins had three more guaranteed years in office as the county commission’s senior member. Now she’s chasing history as Miami’s first woman mayor, with fewer than 75 days to make her case citywide.
The field is crowded. But she’s an immediate favorite. A recent poll indicated that the election, if held today, would end in a runoff between Higgins and former City Manager Emilio González, who has been hailed a hero for saving the election with his lawsuit. Gonzalez sued the city to stop the change, by ordinance, of election dates from odd-numbered to even-numbered years, which would have effectively cancelled this year’s mayoral race. He was the only one who took the challenge to court. But that hasn’t stopped Higgins from fundraising off the court’s decision to find the change unconstitutional because there wasn’t a public vote, as required by city and county charter.
There is a clusterbunch of other hopefuls gunning for the certain runoff that includes former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and former Miami Commissioner and onetime Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez. Commissioner Joe Carollo and former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who was suspended after his arrest on public corruption charges in 2023 (charges were dropped last year) — have threatened to run.
The others who have indicated they are running are Laura Anderson, Christian Cevallos, Alyssa Crocker, Ijamyn Gray, Michael Hepburn, Max Martinez and June Savage. But qualification doesn’t start until Sept. 5. It ends Sept. 20. And then we’ll really know how crowded this party is.
Higgins, 61, will need more than good government talking points to survive Miami’s trench warfare politics — where money, mailers and whisper campaigns can flip a race overnight.
Read related: Eileen Higgins pressures Sierra Club and Ken Russell resigns as lobbyist
Still, qualifying by petition instead of checkbook is a smart optic. It gives Higgins her “people-powered” storyline and undercuts critics who call her the establishment choice.
“I am proud to say that the community is behind me and I am ready to get to work,” Higgins said in an Instagram post earlier this month.
Now the question becomes: Can she turn that petition energy into votes come November? Or will she be remembered as the commissioner who left a safe seat for a shot at City Hall glory — and came up short?
Stay tuned. Miami loves a political novela, and this one just turned the page.
The post Eileen Higgins officially resigns Miami-Dade seat to run for Miami mayor appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Miami doesn’t have Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera anymore on weekday morning radio to let us know what’s really happening at the county, the different municipalities, the state and the country. But, hey, we have Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo every day at 10 a.m. on America Radio Miami 1260 AM to feed us lies.
As if he didn’t already drone on — on and on and on — during commission meetings.
Carollo, who is threatening to run for Miami mayor, gets an hour Monday through Friday to blast his enemies and support his friends — including recently elected Miami Commissioner Ralph “Rafael” Rosado, whose campaign Carollo coordinated — in a show he calls Miami Al Dia. The program sits in between the three-hour programs of Emmy Award winning journalists Sandra Peebles, before, and Carines Moncada, after.
They must be livid.
How is it okay for a politician to have an hourly morning radio show to use for electioneering and political retaliation? It’s basically an hour long ad and there’s no disclaimer. His communications director, Karen Caballero, who is paid $115,043 a year from city taxes, sits there in the radio studio with him, though it’s hard to figure out why, since this is not part of his city job or her city job. Caballero — the same staffer who tricked Ladra into coming to the district office to get served with a subpoena as a witness in a case brought by the mayor of a neighboring city — is the blonde on the bottom left corner in the photo below.
Neither of them responded to several calls and texts for comment.

Remember, this is the same guy who was found by a jury to have violated the First Amendment rights of two Little Havana businessmen by weaponizing the city’s code enforcement against them. He lost and was ordered to pay a $63.5 million. One could say he is now weaponizing the airwaves.
Carollo used the space and time to attack Jose Regalado — who ran against his puppet candidate, Rosado — and the whole Regalado family (including the candidate’s sister, Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, and their father, former Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, now the county property appraiser). He made scurrilous and baseless allegations about every single one of them, calling them communists and associates of drug traffickers.
The commissioner has also used the airtime to blast other candidates who are or are threatening to run for Miami mayor, including Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who has filed paperwork, and former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is just bluffing. He called Portilla’s campaign stunt — handing out fruit to high priority elderly voters — Operation Mamey and called Higgins a Marxist Johnny Come Lately pandering to Hispanic voters (same ol’, same ol’).
Read related: Ralph Rosado and Joe Carollo beat Jose Regalado in Miami D4 special election
“They learned Spanish with JustiLanguage. And all of a sudden they want to be mayor,” he said, referring to what is actually an English instruction school in Westchester. He could have been including former City Commissioner Ken Russell, who has also filed paperwork and has shown pretty fluent and locally nuanced Español on recent interviews and social media posts.
Carollo also calls former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who served in the U.S. Army for 26 years, including a stint as a military attache with the Defense Intelligence Agency and who has also filed paperwork, “Coronel Chiringa” (or Col. Smallshit in English), and former Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina, who keeps getting mentioned in polls, a liar.
Gonzalez said it’s not the first time Carollo nicknames him and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t listen to the show. I don’t think anybody does,” Gonzalez told Political Cortadito.
The station’s program director told Ladra that they are between Nielsen contracts and are not currently measuring their ratings with listeners. How convenient. However, one of the recordings last week has 68 views on YouTube — and that’s over five days.
Colina lives in Miami Lakes and, as such, is not running for mayor, despite being named in some polls. He also doesn’t listen to Carollo’s propaganda and doesn’t care. “It would be concerning to me if it was a more respectable person,” Colina told Ladra. “A vast majority of the people know who Carollo is and know that the majority of the things that come out of his mouth are inaccurate or biased or just self-serving.”
Current colleagues also mentioned. Carollo is all aglow about Rosado, going on and on Wednesday about his “illustrious” swearing in on Tuesday. But two of them are regularly skewered: Commissioners Damian Pardo and Miguel Gabela. Carollo has gone so far as to call Gabela’s wife “La Llorona” — or the crybaby — after the woman showed up to a commission meeting and emotionally testified about being harassed and watched by Carollo and his goons. He also played a song by the same name.
It seems a bit childish at times. Like a high schooler podcasting in his garage.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo to lose appeal on $63.5 million judgement
The commissioner DJ also sometimes fills the space with this-day-in-history anecdotes. One recent Thursday, it was the anniversary of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run and also the release of both the movie Dancing with Wolves and the album The Joshua Tree. He played a little U2 that day, but he daily airs what must be theme songs of old western TV shows, like Bonanza.
He once played the theme to The Godfather on the day Marlon Brando was born. But he just had to mention how former Police Chief Art Acevedo — another regular target of Carollo’s — called the commission a mafia. He marked the birthdays of actor Doris Day, and singer Miguel Bose (he played “Amante Bandido”) and wishes people a Happy Feast Day on occasion.
On the day that Richard Nixon died, Carollo talked about meeting him and getting a campaign check for one of his campaigns. “It’s part of the memory I lived that nobody can take away from me.”
But he always has time for the rants. And when there’s not an election that he’s trying to influence, Carollo is always “reporting” on the undercover activity of the hidden Sandinistas and Chavistas in our midst, alleging that anyone who crosses him is laundering money for the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela. He also constantly rages against the leftist Democrats trying to gain control of the city and hails President Donald Trump, trying to position himself as the Trump candidate in the mayoral election (But so is Diaz de la Portilla, who can’t stop campaigning on the “injustice” of the public corruption charges against him in 2023).
Carollo says on his show that the attempt to move the elections to November of next year is a scheme by “extreme leftist Democrats who want to get control of the city of Miami… by creating Biden districts.” He says any proposal to increase the number of districts is also a Democrat plot. And the lifetime term limits are an attempt to stop him from exposing the real corruption in the city.
In other words, Miami Al Dia is a lot like Carollo himself: There’s a conspiracy everywhere.
Ladra hates to admit this, but it makes for good radio. It’s very entertaining when Carollo gets all hot and bothered and starts to raise his voice in what definitely sounds like practiced outrage. His prolonged silences are just as dramatic. It’s radio theater from the golden age of radio. But it’s bad for you. Like drugs. Ladra might need an intervention.
It’s not the most responsible broadcast.
Luis Gutierrez, the program director for America Noticias Radio Miami, said that Carollo is not paid for his time nor does he pay for the hour himself. Gutierrez says that the commercials he brings pay for the hour and that if Ladra can secure $1,400 per show, or $20K a month, she could have one, too (which is a great idea Mr. Mike Fernandez! Let’s dare them to do it!)
Other sources, and just plain common sense, indicate that this is a quid pro quo for the $150,000 that Carollo had the city paid America TeVe, which was affiliated with America Radio Miami, to cover the New Year’s Eve bash at Bayfront Park. The money came out of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, where there is already an investigation into the commissioner’s alleged misspending of public funds for his private or political gain (same thing).
Read related: Miami paid $150K for one long Joe Carollo commercial on New Year’s Eve
In addition, the commissioner’s wife, Marjorie Carollo, is reportedly the “agent” who buys the air time, meaning she gets a commission, which is usually 15%. That means that if Carollo’s political action committee spent $500,000 on radio ads on the show, which could be a conservative guess, the couple got $75,000 in commission 0ver the 43-day election cycle for the special election that ended June 3. Nice little gig, right?
Gutierrez said he did run it through legal and Carollo’s airtime doesn’t violate any federal rules, “as long as he’s off he air by September,” which is when and if Carollo qualifies for the mayor’s race. If the commission doesn’t move it to 2026 (more on that later).
In the meantime, “If an opposing candidate wants equal time, we’ll take the money. I don’t have a problem with that,” Gutierrez told Political Cortadito. “This is straight business for me. I’m not on the right. I’m not on the left. I’m bipartisan — as long as the money keeps coming in.”
Ladra asked him if she could have an hour of time some mornings if Political Cortadito got enough commercial sponsors to pay $20,000 a month. That’s apparently the value of the “freebie” time Carollo is getting on the air. Could it be considered an “in-kind” donation to his campaign?
Gutierrez said he would have to ask Carlos Vasallo, the owner of the station, who is really good pals with Carollo, if they would put me on the air.
“I run the station but I don’t set the rules. And I would have to filter that through him,” Gutierrez said.
There will be an update when he gets back to me. But Ladra is not holding her breath.
Would you like to hear Ladra on the air? Give equal time to the truth and help unmask these liars on the air and in elected office? Help with a contribution to Political Cortadito. All funds will go to amplify the content here in every way possible. Thank you for your support!
The post Commissioner Joe Carollo freelances as ‘Miami Al Dia’ morning AM radio host appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Francis Suarez and Joe Carollo want to stick around
In a perfect example of how a good idea can get twisted and turned into an evil plan, the city of Miami Commission is poised to consider a change to the municipal’s biannual election year — from odd to even, to coincide with state and national elections — that would end up extending the terms of all the current electeds by a year.
That means that Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo — who are both facing term limits and are, reportedly, the ones behind this move — will get to stick around until November 2026. Commission Chairwoman Christine King would not have to campaign for re-election until next year.
This idea will be brought to the commission, not this month but at a a later time, by Commissioner Damian Pardo. It is not part of the measure he will bring to next week’s meeting to put lifetime term limits on the ballot, so that, if voters approve, electeds in Miami can’t sit out a term and run for the same seat later.
“These are not things that are tied together,” Pardo told Political Cortadito on Wednesday. “One thing is not contingent on the other.”
But the election year change, when it comes back at a subsequent meeting, is related to the term limits, because there are several candidates already running in this year’s election who would be excluded under the lifetime term limits (i.e. former Commissioner Frank Carollo for his old seat and Joe Carollo for mayor, where he already served from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2001. They and the charter amendment would be on the same ballot. And Pardo says he is trying to avoid a legal challenge.
Read related: Voters in Miami may get to strengthen term limits and ban political retreads
“I asked the city attorney what happens if the candidate and ballot initiative pass at the same time,” Pardo told Political Cortadito. “And he said that may be a challenge that works.”
“If we move the elections at the same time as we’re making the lifetime term limits, it won’t be clean. It would be challenged,” he said. “So we wait another cycle.”
How about we wait another cycle on the change of the election date? Lifetime term limits are not a bad idea. But it’s not worth keeping Carollo and Suarez around for a year. We’re almost rid of them. Can’t we do this later? After they’re gone?
Pardo also thinks that it’s worth the bitter pill we’d have to swallow to get a higher turnout on Election Day. The difference would be from the 10-15% range to the 65 to 80% range. That would completely stop the Joe Carollos and Alex Diaz de la Portillas of the world from getting elected because there are not enough turkeys at Thanksgiving or pastelitos to buy that many votes. Pardo says it more diplomatically.
“That changes the kind of commission candidate you get,” he said. “You will have to appeal to a different demographic. The entire political landscape in the city of Miami changes. Boom!”
He says it is something that he came up with todo solito, and not because Suarez had threatened to veto his term limits thing unless he did this, too, like las malas lenguas say.
But who would benefit the most? Suarez and Carollo.
Suarez has hinted a possible run for governor in 2026 and could use the bully pulpit and fundraising palanca that the incumbent mayor of the state’s most important city would bring. He may also want another year to solidify his legacy and get projects like the Miami Marine Stadium redevelopment started and Miami Freedom Park closer to finished for the postalita photo opps.
And Carollo just knows he’s not going to win a citywide mayoral race and, thus, has no place else to go. Doral just got a new city manager (more on that later), so going back there is out.

That’s why it looks like City Attorney George Wysong has been researching this. He told the Miami Herald that the City Commission has the authority to move the election back one year all by themselves, without having to go to a referendum. What The Herald story didn’t say was that Wysong is relying on Florida State statutes that are really for “continuity, ease, practicality and efficiency,” said former Commissioner Ken Russell, who has filed to run for mayor.
“They are misusing the statute. It’s an overreach for self serving purposes.”
The commission, Russell says, can’t just wave a magic wand and change the election year.
“By charter, we have odd year voting elections,” Russell said on TikTok, where he is campaigning a lot. He said that a change can be put on the ballot by citizen petition or by a commission vote. “But the voters get to decide.
“There will be an election this year for mayor and there will be a change of leadership.”
He looks like he’s ready to challenge it. There goes Pardo’s reasoning.
Other candidates that may be in the running include Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, and former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who also reacted negatively, of course. “This is wrong,” he posted on social media. “This is a blatant power grab.
“Career politicians want to extend their terms, bypassing voters — in exchange for letting them weigh in on reforms. It’s straight out of the Maduro playbook,” Gonzalez wrote, referring to the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. “The voters must decide and no one is talking about them or to them.”
In what must be a sign of the apocalypse, Diaz de la Portilla agreed with Gonzalez and Russell. “Charter does not allow that,” he texted Ladra late Thursday about the ordinance. “It has to go to the people.”
Read related: Petition aims to add Miami commission districts, change election to even years
That is what a citizen-led petition drive announced last month wants to do — take it to the people. Led by Coconut Grove activists Mel Meinhardt and Anthony “Andy” Parrish, the Stronger Miami political action committee aims to change the election date to even years to increase turnout. They have created a coalition with a group of activist organizations and must collect around 26,000 signatures by sometime in the summer to get the question on the November ballot.
They are also petitioning to put two other questions to voters: Extending the commission from five to nine seats and codifying the fair district guidelines that were mandated by a judge.
The change in election cycles could result in the loss of a year instead, which Pardo said he was amenable to. But that seems to disenfranchise the voters who elected them with a four-year term in mind. So, Ladra is not sure she likes that idea, either, unless it becomes effective after their own next election. Cutting the term short would be wrong, unless voters approve it themselves and have fair warning.
And that’s another big reason why this shouldn’t even be considered. Because nobody told voters that terms would be extended for a year, either.
Help Ladra keep them honest. Consider making a contribution to Political Cortadito today and support independent watchdog journalism. There are important elections this year. Thank you.
The post Miami commissioners could extend terms, gain a year for themselves, mayor appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

The Miami mayoral race this November is getting interesting — and we don’t just mean the announcement this week that former Miami City Commissioner Emilio Gonzalez has formally filed to run, making good on rumors that he’s helped spread since early last year.
Who’s next? Former Miami Mayor and county commissioner Xavier Suarez, father of the actual incumbent Mayor Francis Suarez? Or Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado?
All three of them were on a SurveyMonkey poll texted to Miami voters last week asking them to provide first choice, second choice and third choice options. So were Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins and former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, who had already filed WHEN. Also on the list: Current Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended after his 2023 arrest on public corruption charges related to the giveaway of a public park that were later dropped by the Broward State Attorney’s Office, neither of whom have yet filed any paperwork but both of whom have repeatedly and widely threatened to run.
But there were only four runoff scenarios presented in the version of the poll that Ladra saw: Carollo vs. Regalado or Higgins vs. Regalado or Carollo vs. Higgins or Carollo vs. Diaz de la Portilla. Carollo being in three out of four potential second rounds could be an ominous sign.
Or it could be his poll. Nobody has taken responsibility.
Read related: Long list of potential 2025 Miami mayoral candidates starts to take form
Diaz de la Portilla seems to be campaigning. His Instagram has photos of him talking with constituents — like knocking on doors? — and echoing the extreme political line of President Donald Trump and his minions, clearly positioning himself early on as the Trump candidate. Why not? He’s got that same “persecuted by the Democrat machine” thing going.
On Tuesday night, Diaz de la Portilla posted a photo of him and newly-reelected Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago at Lago’s victory party on Miracle Mile.
“Congratulations to my friend Vince Lago on his re-election as Mayor of the City of Coral Gables! Last night, the residents of the City Beautiful won by choosing to reelect a true public servant, who now has a mandate to continue to serve his constituents with a true vision for the future and leadership,” Diaz de la Portilla posted on his Instagram.
ADLP went to Lago’s 2021 party, too.
Carollo is competing for that Trump cheerleader role in the race on his weekday morning radio show (more on that later), where he’s also already attacking Higgins. Ladra can’t wait to hear what he has to say about Gonzalez. But he may have a problem if Commissioner Damian Pardo gets his way Thursday with a proposed referendum that would provide for lifetime term limits. If it passes, Carollo, who has already served two terms as mayor, would be ineligible to run.
Pardo has said that he is not targeting Crazy Joe with the proposed amendment. But it would only apply to Carollo, who was mayor WHEN WHEN, and Suarez, who was mayor from 1985 to 1993 and again from 1997 to 1998 — thought that last term was cut short by absentee ballot fraud so X might say he didn’t really serve two full terms.
Read related: Voters in Miami may get to strengthen term limits and ban political retreads
Russell was on NBC6’s Impact with Jackie Nespral last weekend and said he supported Pardo’s proposed referendum.
“We keep seeing the same people coming back and getting reelected. Half the people I served with there have mugshots. But they continue to get re-elected, and family members and its a lot of these names that we know,” Russell said. “I’m not attacking them personally. I want a system that attracts new blood for the future of Miami to have the potential it has.
“Once the system of government changes, it’s going to attract better talent to run for office.”
Russell, who said he had already raised more than $100,000, said he has really enjoyed his time off since leaving office in 2023 (he resigned to run for Congress) and did not intend to return to government. “I’m telling you, it sucks you back in,” he told Nespral. “There is so much going wrong with the city of Miami. As great as the city is, it’s governance is horrible.
“It’s embarrassing. We all see it on the news every day. The pay to play is alive and well. The corruption in terms of lawsuits. Tens of thousands of dollars have been spent defending the unethical behavior of commissioners,” said Russell, who is an avid TikToker.
He has said that as mayor, he would actually show up to commission meetings and serve as chair of the commission. He would also advance a change to expand the commission from five to at least seven members and work to reverse or mitigate the commission vote made in February at the behest of Mayor Francis Suarez to let the developers of the Miami Freedom Park real estate complex and soccer stadium off the hook for funding $10 million in public parks throughout the city.
Read related: Miami Freedom Park gets its full $20 million back for 58-acre public park
“Over 100 acres of new parks that were to be funded in the city are now being undone… If I’m in office, this is a very easy fix. These parks can be funded by the folks that need to pay for them. They can and they will,” said Russell, who filed bar complaints against Suarez and former City Attorney Victoria “Vicky” Mendez after the vote to give the developers back the $10 mil. They were dismissed immediately.
Gonzalez, a former director for U.S. Immigrations and Citizenship Services, was on WPLG’s This Week in South Florida in February, talking about national immigration issues. He served as city manager from 2018 to early 2020, when he resigned amid a political battle with the City Commission and accusations from Carollo that he had abused his position to avoid code enforcement violations on his home deck. An ethics investigation later found that Gonzalez committed no wrongdoing.
Carollo also tried to fire Gonzalez in 2019. And Russell was one of the no votes that thwarted it.
Commissioner Higgins posted a campaign launch video that starts with news footage of the corruption that’s been swirling around Miami City Hall for years.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins could join Miami Mayor’s race
“We’ve had enough. Families are struggling. Businesses can’t thrive. When City Hall is filled with corruption, nothing gets done
for the people,” Higgins says in the 81-second video, where she speaks a little bit of Spanish, too.
“I’m running for mayor to get things done,” La Gringa says. “I’ve delivered for your as your county commissioner,” she said, citing her experience in affordable housing, helping small businesses and creating and protecting green spaces. “Miami, now I’m ready to go to work for you.”
She ends the video with a reminder of how she was first elected to the county commission in an upset against Zoraida Barreiro, wife of former Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, when La Gringa was relatively unknown. Alex Diaz de la Portilla was in that race, too, but didn’t make the runoff.
“In 2018, we beat the odds. With your support we’ll do it again,” Higgins says. “Miami, this is our time. Nuestro momento.”
The post Miami mayoral race keeps getting more interesting with new candidates, polls appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

It’s been talked about for months, but Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins is widely expected to make an announcement any day now that she’s going to run for Miami mayor this November. And it’s crazy for a number of reasons.
If this had been before former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell announced that he would run for mayor, it might be welcome news. Miami voters needed a qualified and viable alternative to the possibility of Commissioner Joe Carollo or, God forbid, former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla becoming the mayor. But now they have one. And if Higgins and Russell both run, they’re going to divide the non-Hispanic, Democrat and coastal community votes, where both are strong.
Handing the victory over to one of the aforementioned crooks.
But many people are shaking their heads anyway. La Gringa? Mayor of Miami?
Read related: Recycling in Miami: Frank Carollo and Ken Russell on the November ballot
Observers say she has no chance. Miami hasn’t elected a non-Hispanic to mayor in decades. The last one was Stephen P. Clark in 1993. Russell’s chances are also slim. They’re higher because of his institutional knowledge and involvement in Miami issues. But he’s still going to be an underdog. Higgins would be a a flea on the underdog.
They can’t campaign against each other. Higgins and Russell align on possibly every issue — affordable housing, transit, environmental concerns, good government. They’re just going to draw from the same pool and split the vote.
And La Gringa, a nickname given to her during her first Miami-Dade run and which she has come to embrace, would leave a crucial hole on the county commission if she were to resign to run for mayor of Miami. She’s a senior on the county dais, very strong, with almost four years left in her term and a good position to run for county mayor in 2028 (or 2026 if Daniella Levine Cava leaves to run for something else).
That hole Higgins would leave would likely be filled by a Republican Hispanic. Think former Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez, or maybe one of the DLP brothers wants to try for the same seat again (she has beaten both ADLP and his brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla). The commission is currently 7-6 with a Dem majority. A change would definitely change dynamics. We can see the county becoming more MAGA before our very eyes, especially with Tuesday’s vote to end adding fluoride to our drinking water (more on that later).
Higgins has certain influence on the commission as the senior member. She is the longtime chair of the transportation committee and is now vice chair of the infrastructure, innovation and technology committee. She is also Levine Cava’s biggest ally. And a friend to labor, environmental groups and progressives.
These same groups balked when Higgins considered a congressional run in 2022 — which would have also pit her against Russell in the Democratic primary — only to withdraw six days later. They do not like what they hear now.
“I really wish she wouldn’t do that,” said Jeffrey Mitchell, president of the local AFL-CIO and a national transit union leader. “Not because she wouldn’t make a good mayor of Miami, but because she just won her election and we need her on the county commission.
“That would leave a gap and who would fill it? Nobody good,” Mitchell said.
Read related: Surprise Eileen Higgins ‘withdrawal’ in CD27 raises questions, causes confusion
So why on Earth would Higgins consider this? Or is she being pushed by someone like, say, her campaign consultant Christian Ulvert, who doesn’t have a lot of work this year and needs something to do. Plus, he could also run another one of his candidates for the county commission seat, like former Pinecrest Councilwoman Anna Hochkammer, who recently moved into the district with her boyfriend, former Congressman Joe Garcia. Does Hochkammer — executive director of Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, a political committee focused on reproductive rights — meet the residency requirement?
If Higgins announces a run, she can raise money for her political action committee– she can raise tons because she is an elected and people depend on her vote — then when September comes, and the deadline for to resign to run, she could drop out and take the funds raised into a future mayoral race in Miami-Dade, which sounds more possible. Is that the end game here?
Higgins did not return a call or text to her phone. Ulvert hasn’t returned any either. They must know that we know what they’re about to announce.
Neither Carollo nor Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is reportedly already campaigning and asking for money, have filed any paperwork on their effort to run for mayor, according to the city’s website. Russell has. So have perennial candidates Max Martinez, Michael Hepburn and June Savage. Someone named Ijamyn Joseph Gray. Still in the wings is former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez and longtime Brickell Homeowner Association President Ernesto Cuesta, who admits to having been encouraged by several business leaders. Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado has also been mentioned in favorability polls.
There is still time for someone else to show up. Qualifying isn’t until September.
If you like this story and want to see more independent, grassroots, journalistic coverage of the city of Miami, please consider making a donation to Political Cortadito here. And thank you for your support!
The post Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins could join Miami Mayor’s race appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

The Florida Bar last week dismissed two complaints filed by former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell — who later announced that he would run for mayor (more on that later) — against former City Attorney Victoria Mendez and Mayor Francis Suarez, who is an attorney, after the latter gave the Miami Freedom Park developers back the $20 million they had promised to provide for “other green space” and parks throughout the city.
But they still make for interesting reading, hinting at a potential Sunshine Law violation and the possibility that nobody ever intended to make good on that promise.
Russell makes the first disclosure of a 2022 meeting at the mayor’s house where the developers were present and where he was urged to go along with a plan that the public benefit be “under the control” of then District 1 commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was later arrested on bribery and money laundering public corruption charges, which were later dropped.
The mayor, Russell says, threw him out of the house when he would not agree with that. “Get the f— out of my house,” he quotes Suarez as saying.
Read related: Miami Freedom Park gets its full $20 million back for 58-acre public park
Russell has been a loud voice against the switcheroo that passed last month 4-1 on the commission (only Damian Pardo voted no). He has suggested that Suarez be recalled for this, even though the mayor has less than nine months left in office.
He is running for mayor, in part, because he has seen much his work on the city commission undone. This $10 million give away to the developer seems to have been the last straw. Without that promised public benefit, Russell — who was the 2022 swing vote for the Miami Freedom Park lease — has repeatedly said he would have never voted to approve it. He urged commissioners at the Feb. 13 meeting not to approve the Suarez giveaway.

Then, when the commission ignored him and everyone else who spoke against it, he filed the bar complaints.
The incident at Suarez’s $2 million home on Battersea Road takes center stage not just because of the mayor’s foul language, which insiders know he is prone to in private, but because of the sheer blatancy of the Sunshine Law violation. This is the textbook definition of backroom, behind-the-scenes arm twisting. Suarez doesn’t vote so he can talk to all the commissioners about whatever. But here, he was a conduit to a Sunshine violation by communicating that Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla was on board (a yes vote) to try to convince Russell to vote a certain way (to vote yes, too).
Let’s be clear. If what was communicated was open knowledge, something ADLP had said in public or in the media, then there is no violation. But if the conduit is conveying new information in order to cause the crystallization of a vote, behind the scenes, at a secret meeting  in his house with the deal insiders, then that is a violation of the Sunshine Law. He’s creating a predetermined outcome. Handshaking and arm twisting are supposed to be done in public.
“Prior to the vote, Mayor Suarez explicitly expressed his opposition to my amendment,” Russell writes in his complaint. “He invited me to his home, where unbeknownst to me, developers Jorge and Jose Mas were present, and made it clear that his intent was to ensure that all $20 million remained under the control of Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla (in whose district the stadium project would take place) rather than being allocated for the new parks throughout the city. When I refused to change my position, Mayor Suarez abruptly ended the meeting yelling, ‘Get the fuck out of my house.’”
“For years, I never took a meeting with the Mas brothers outside of the office. I wouldn’t even have coffee with them,” Russell told Political Cortadito. “I think it was inappropriate [of the mayor] to even invite me and not tell me they were going to be there.”
He told Ladra he felt the meeting three years ago was irrelevant. It wouldn’t change his vote. “It’s only relevant now because of the new legislation to undo the tenets I fought for,” Russel said.
Read related: Miami Freedom Park developers want their $20 million parks donation back
The other thing that jumped out at Ladra was that it seemed as if there was never an intention to go through with the $20 million part of the deal ($5 million for the Baywalk has, apparently, not been considered for return). Russell’s complaint also says that the the omission of the amendment that he insisted on was deliberate.
“As City Attorney at the time, Ms. Méndez was responsible for ensuring that the final legislation submitted for the Mayor’s signature correctly reflected the Commission’s action,” Russell wrote in the complaint. “However, when Mayor Francis Suarez signed the resolution on May 5, 2022, the key amendment—explicitly included in the Commission’s minutes—was omitted from the final document.”
Thus, “The legislation did not reflect the Commission’s actual vote.”
Ladra is certain that was intentional and not a mistake.
Suarez himself admitted at the meeting last month that the ballot language on the 2018 referendum was intentionally misleading so the city could have legal wiggle room to switch things up later. Was the legislation also written to allow wiggle room. Was that among the things discussed at the mayor’s house meeting with the Mas brothers after Russell left?
In dismissing the bar complaints earlier this month, an attorney for the Florida Bar wrote in letters addressed to Russell that the actions by Suarez and Mendez “do not constitute violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct” and that the issues raised “are political questions beyond The Florida Bar’s jurisdiction and therefore not reviewable by the bar.”
The letter added, however, that it doesn’t have to end here.
“Appropriate remedies, if any, can be sought through the political process and/or the courts.”
The post Complaint vs Miami Mayor Francis Suarez may show Sunshine Law breach appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story