State Rep. Kionne McGhee will run for the Miami-Dade County Commission seat in District 9 this year that is vacated by the term-limited Dennis Moss. In fact, he’s the hand picked successor.
McGhee hasn’t filed any paperwork and didn’t call Ladra back Sunday, but he was publicly endorsed by Moss Saturday at the Richmond Heights Community Development Corporation Founders breakfast and had told a Miami Herald reporter days earlier that he would back the state rep, who becomes the fourth elected or former elected for sure (there might be five) running for an open county seat due to term limits, approved by voters in 2012, forcing five of the seven commissioners whose terms are up this year to step down.
Read related: Republicans enter House races against Richardson, McGhee
Former State Sen. Rene Garcia, the first to file paperwork, is running in District 13, where Commissioner Esteban Bovo is termed out and most likely running for mayor. Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert is running in District 1, where Barbara Jordan sits now. And former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado, who lost a bid for mayor in 2016, has officially changed her next race (again) to a bid for District 7, where Xavier Suarez sits now while he runs for mayor, too. The three of them have already opened campaign accounts and filed paperwork.
Because open seats create opportunities for non incumbents, three other candidates have also filed paperwork to run in District 9: They are Pastor Mark Coats of Grace of God Baptist Church in Miami, which is affiliated with Grace Christian Preparatory School, Community Councilman and activist Johnny Farias and attorney and activist Marlon Hill, Southridge High Class of ’88.  According to the latest campaign reports, Coats has raised $24,415, Farias just under $5,000 and Hill filed in February so his first report is due in March.
Read related: Tales for Tallahassee: Quick observations from Dade Days
Farias, the only candidate Ladra could reach on Sunday, said he was staying in the race, even though Moss had already publicly endorsed McGhee.
McGhee is a Democrat who was first elected to the state House in 2012 to fill the seat vacated by Dwight Bullard, who was elected to the Senate. Gosh that seems like such a long time ago. He was able to defend his seat in 2014 against a female Hispanic Republican who didn’t put up much of a campaign and last year he was unopposed.
When he first got to Tallahassee, he turned his desk around so that it did not come between him and his guests. I expect that same kind of accessibility at the county level, where he has been South Dade’s principal champion for rail and not really fast buses. Ladra fully expects that to be the gist of his campaign.

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Make no mistake. The lack of early voting on college campuses in Miami-Dade is voter suppression.
In defiance of a federal judge who said the Florida ban on early voting on college campuses had a “pattern of discrimination,” and while other counties scramble to provide campus locations, Miami-Dade is not opening any early voting locations for the Nov. 6 election at Miami-Dade, Florida International University (photographed left) or University of Miami campuses. This unwillingness to take action and do the right thing potentially disenfranchises tens of thousands students who are more motivated than ever to vote thanks to Parkland or Trump or both.
“The Miami-Dade County Elections Department has already confirmed its early voting sites for this election cycle, since preparations for large elections begin well in advance. Specifically, the Elections Department has secured the 25 early voting sites for the November 6, 2018 General Election,” Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Christina White said in a statement Tuesday. Nothing has changed since, Elections spokeswoman Suzy Trutie told Ladra Thursday.
And the 25 locations are an increase from 20 in the primary and 20 for most midterm generals, but was increased to 25 in anticipation of voter growth, Trutie added. One would assume that includes the 41% increase across the state of voters ages 18 to 29 who registered after the high school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Broward.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez abuses power in election interference for lobbyist son
“In selecting early voting sites, the County’s goal is to ensure there is maximum accessibility for all voters,” White’s statement ends.
Well, all voters except students, apparently. And why?
These voters are mostly going to support Democrat candidates. And the Republicans know that. Doesn’t matter what White is registered as. Because Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who last month declared himself the real supervisor of elections so he could do his lobbyist son a favor — is Republican. We know, for instance, that he is raising funds for GOP superwoman Marili Cancio because he registered to solicit for her PAC. So he won’t do the right thing, but it’s not because he can’t. Because he could. He absolutely could make it happen. He’s meddled in elections before.
Remember in 2012 when he suddenly closed the Elections Department voting site on a Sunday as hundreds of people stood in line and then just as suddenly — after much protest and negative news — re-opened it hours later?
Maybe we should have CJ ask him.
Also, FIU did have an early voting site in 2012 at the stadium, where 2,276 people voted. Why would it be so difficult to set that up again? We’re not talking about making it an Election Day precinct. Just a location for early voting. Seems not only reasonable but natural.
State Rep. Kionne McGhee — who is becoming one of my favorite woke electeds — knows Gimenez could make this right. It is why he addressed the mayor in his tweet Wednesday.
“Banning early voting sites on college campuses was ruled unconstitutional. Five major counties have moved to expand EV sites. Students @FIU @MDCollege, and @univmiami deserve a say in the Democracy they’re a part of. What’s the holdup, Miami-Dade SOE and @MayorGimenez.”
The holdup, Rep. McGhee, is that his friends and backers could lose their state races.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez submits late night campaign check
This is one of the many reasons why there should be an independently elected Supervisor of Elections as there are in most Florida counties. But it’s not the only or the biggest reason. When you have a mayor who can declare himself the de facto supervisor of elections so he can grant a week delay in an election calendar to his lobbyist son, you have a problem.
Unfortunately, an elected supervisor of elections is not on the ballot this year. But it should absolutely be on the next ballot, with the caveat that it be a nonpartisan seat. This should be the next priority for the League of Women Voters, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, Engage Miami and all the other groups that say they are for voter awareness and participation.
Because what we are seeing today is voter suppression under the guise of a logistics excuse.

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The program allocates one hour for the speakers, but Ladra bets the Democrats of South Dade Club meeting Tuesday goes late.

That’s because there are no fewer than eight blue party candidates — one congressional, one state senate wannabe and six House hopefuls — on the schedule. And who knows how many more will just show up to say hi?

Most interesting on the program is Florida Senate candidate Ana Rivas Logan, a former Republican state rep who finally threw her hat in against Sen. Dwight Bullard in the District 40 primary as Ladra suggested and predicted months ago. Was Bullard not available? Or are the South Dade Dems among those who don’t think he can beat State Rep. Frank Artiles in November and want to bet on Rivas instead?

Can you say awkward?

In fact, the only incumbent at Tuesday’s forum is State Rep. Kionne McGhee, who is unopposed (sure, there’s an NPA who opened an account, but she has reported raising no money and Ladra doubts she will even qualify). He almost doesn’t have to speak and can give his time to his party mates.

The other five are:

• Daisy Baez, who is running for the open seat in District 114 left vacated by the term-limited Erik Fresen. It is her second run after getting 44 percent in 2014 with about half his money. There is another Democrat named Albert Santana in the primary, but while he has loaned himself $42,000, he does not look like much of a challenge to Baez, who many expect to turn the seat blue this year.
• Ross Hancock, who wants to run in District 115 against State Rep. Michael Bileca but may face a primary challenge against Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, who most recently failed a bid for Pinecrest Village Council.
• Robert Asencio, a former Miami-Dade Schools Police lieutenant, is running in the seat vacated by Artiles’ dash for the Senate. The longtime public employee advocate — who has traveled to Tallahassee as president and founder of Florida Public Employees Partnership to advocate against pension reform — is the only Dem running in that race, which has five Republicans listed as potential foes, including former Congressman David Rivera and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell.
• Kevin Diaz, one of two Democrats running in District 120 against Holly Raschein. He’s a Miami attorney who grew up in Homestead.
• Daniel Horton, the other Democrat running in District 120, after switching from the Democratic Senate primary in District 39 against Andrew Korge.

That’s from the program. Ladra would not be surprised if Solomon and Santana showed up.

And let’s not forget the congressional candidate, Scott Fuhrman, who is going up against the least vulnerable Republican around, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who hasn’t had a challenge in, well, has she ever? Fuhrman may have an unfortunate name (any relation to Mark of OJ fame?) and rap sheet (several college arrests, a DUI and a fleeing the scene of an accident), but he also has $250,000 burning a hole in his pocket and the Democratic Party’s support in a year when they hope the toxicity of Donald Trump helps them win seats when GOP voters stay home.

Now, how are these eight candidates going to speak in one hour’s time? Ah, because the Kendall Dems have Bob Goldstein, the longtime club president, who has experience cutting politicos off mid-speech.

The event at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami, 7701 S.W. 76th Ave., begins with social time at 7 p.m., followed by club business at 7:30. The candidates will start speaking about 8 p.m.

But don’t hold them to the 9 p.m. end time. Bob’s good but there are bound to be questions from the audience.