Miami’s big GOP fundraiser goes to ultra blue Miami Beach
Are nonpartisan municipal races a thing of the past?
The Democrats made them do it.
That’s what Nelson Diaz, chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, said about an email they blasted Wednesday for Zoraida Barreiro, who is running in the special shotgun wedding election for the county commission district 5 seat vacated by her husband Bruno Barreiro, so he could run for Congress.
“Of course we’re going to help Zoraida,” Diaz told Ladra last week. “And you can blame the Democrats. My preference is not to do that. It’s important to have independent, free elections at the local level. But if Democrats are going to get involved to push their radical, left wing agenda, then we will get involved.”
And so they did.
“We Need to Stop the Democrats,” the email reads.
“The Democrats are trying to force a radical, left-wing liberal that just recently moved to Miami from out of state. She is so out of touch with our community, she has stated her support for the elimination of the Homestead exemption. If she wins, they will have enough Democrats to take down the tax deduction and it will increase our taxes,” it says, urging votes for Barreiro.
“We cannot allow the Democrat to win!”
Read related: Dems push full court press for Eileen Higgins in special District 5 county race
Sure sounds like a desperate cry — and Ladra is pretty sure Higgins would not advocate lifting the Homestead exemption, which isn’t the county commission’s purview anyway, but, hey, it’s a good tactic in the working class parts of the district: “Oh! My! God! She’s going to raise taxes!” It’s almost as good as “She’s a communist!”
Diaz said Higgins said as much in a Spanish-language TV interview. But la gringa — whose Spanish is okay but could be better — was only saying what many electeds at the county and cities are saying: That this additional exemption voters are likely to pass in November is going to drain government coffers and cause serious cuts. Government officials and sitting electeds everywhere are worried about that and planning.
“It must have been misinterpreted in my terrible Spanish,” Higgins said, adding that the county mayor has done a good job. “We have to plan for it. When we sit around meetings and say we want more buses we have to remember that when we vote in November.”
Democrats have been actively and publicly helping Eileen Higgins in this race since the very beginning. She was the only Democrat running against three Republicans, including former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla. The party paid political consultant Christian Ulvert, who took precious time from a gubernatorial candidate. And Higgins had local electeds, state reps and even another gubernatorial candidate endorse and promote her online.
She won the first round with 35%, two points over Barreiro, forcing a runoff. Democrats like to think they did that. After all, it’s not their first rodeo.
While it’s the first time the local GOP steps into a traditionally non-partisan municipal race, Diaz said, the local Dems have been involved in them since at least Daniella Levine-Cava ran for Miami-Dade Commission. Her race in 2014 against incumbent Lynda Bell, who happened to be a staunch right-to-life Republican, became the first local non partisan election the Miami-Dade Democratic Party got really involved in. Since then, they’ve helped Homestead Mayor Jeff Porter, Miami Beach Commissioner Micky Steinberg and Miami Commissioner Ken Russell.
Read related story: Eileen Higgins would upset the apple cart, add checks and balances
“We’ve always had the approach that if you’re running for office, who you affiliate yourself with, what party, speaks to the types of decisions you’ll be making at the dais,” said Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman Juan Cuba. “Even though it’s local, we’re dealing with zoning and services. And you also deal at the local level with national issues — minimum wage, affordable housing, police oversight.”
Sanctuary cities. Gender-neutral bathrooms.
“We do want to make sure we are electing people who align with our values, especially at the local level where we need more people who will fight for working families,” Cuba said.
The Miami-Dade Commission already has a Democrat majority. And that doesn’t necessarily translate to a “progressive agenda” when it comes to the votes. The mega mall development, for example, was passed with Levine-Cava as the sole dissenting vote. In fact, that happens to her a lot. And the ordinance to hold immigrant detainees for ICE — to remove Miami from the list of sanctuary cities and please Donald Trump — was sponsored by Sally Heyman, a Democrat and former state rep.
On the flip side, Mayor Carlos Gimenez endorsed Hillary Clinton — though one could argue that was a publicity stunt since his son works for Trump — and Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, another Republican, is very friendly to labor, which is usually a Democrat characteristic. Barreiro has long been considered a moderate Republican because he pioneered LGBT issues. But he represents Miami Beach, so maybe he sorta had to.
Read related: Lynda Bell vs. Levine-Cava debate becomes heated spar
Levine-Cava, the first Democrat elected to the commission with the party’s help, says she doesn’t see the commission as a partisan body. “It’s more about local issues and quality of life. Transit is not a Democrat or a Republican issue,” she told Ladra.
Well, maybe not. But let’s bring up the idea of raising taxes for it or having special taxing districts and you will see partisan division.
Some people fear that this marks the end of nonpartisan races in Miami-Dade and they could be right. Florida law requires judicial candidates to stay non-partisan, but how much you wanna bet that we know who is a Republican and who is a Dem. Candidates in the big cities like Miami Beach and Homestead are already using the invisible “D” and “R”behind their names for campaigning. Small cities are likely next in an increasingly divided and polarized political society.
Normally, the Miaim-Dade Republican’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner is headlined by a GOP politician. Recent years have seen heavyweights like Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez Cantera, presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio and vice presidential then-nominee Mike Pence last year.
This year, the group will have a poitician’s handler as the keynote speaker.
Well, not a handler. The handler: Kellyanne Conway, former campaign manager turned White House whisperer to President Donald Trump. Conway, whose official title is counselor to the president, will be regailing local Republicans with her alternative facts at the June 27 dinner, which is the group’s main annual fundraiser.
And of course her presence is expected to sell tickets. But the “save the date” notices have a disclaimer so that we don’t confuse Conway with a dancing monkey: “Ms. Conway is a special guest for this event. Her participation in the event is not a solicitation of funds.”
The dinner is still at the DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport and Convention Center, but it’s in a bigger room, said Miami-Dade GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz. The old room maxed out at 450 or 470 people and tickets to the dinners with Rubio and Pence sold out quick. This new room can accomodate more than 2,000 if needed.
Diaz loves Conway, who he says is a model for her courage, but he feels they are not in danger of selling out. 
Still, you never know. Conway is interesting enough that people might go who aren’t necessarily Republican. Ladra is tempted. Or will she have the same Trump effect that Pence and Congressman Trey Gowdy had last year? The local GOP tried to get The Donald himself, but Gowdy was the original surrogate tapped by the then presidential candidate to be the keynote speaker last year. Pence was a surprise bonus. But some anti-Trump Republicans — notably Congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo — stayed away because of the toxic campaign. Might they stay away from the toxic campaigner?
Ladra says nana nina. Why? The difference between last year and this year is two words: White House.
Which leads us to wonder… how does our county GOP always get the big ticket?
“We always get great speakers, but it’s a lot of work,” Diaz told Ladra, adding that they had been in talks with Conway and her peeps since February or early March. That’s a very fast turnaround for the White House, where it can take up to six months to get a response for such a request.
“We have friends in the White House,” Diaz told Ladra. “We have friends everywhere. That’s part of the secret sauce.”
Speaking of secrets, this won’t be the first time that the Secret Service is also a guest, which can make logistics more difficult. “You can’t do this. You can’t do that,” Diaz said. And, no, he can’t go into details.
No word yet on whether Conway, who we imagine has just a tad less security than Pence, will stay for dinner or dine privately in another room like Pence did with his wife and his small army of bodyguards.
Tickets to the 69th annual Lincoln Day Dinner will be on sale in the nexts day or so online at www.miamidadegop.org.
Holding up signs that said “Liar, liar” and “Resign now” in both English and Spanish, a group of Republicans 
protested in front of Democrat State Rep. Daisy Baez‘s Coral Gables home Monday morning — the one that sits outside the district she was elected in — and demanded she resign from office.
Baez lives in House District 112 instead of 114 where she was elected. She admitted to Ladra on Saturday that she was sleeping at her old house in Malaga Avenue and would not tell me if she had slept even one night at the apartment on Anderson Road, where she changed her voter’s registration to a week before the election.
That’s ticked some Republicans off. Like Mauricio Pons, an FIU student who worked on the campaign for John Couriel, who lost to Baez in a very close race last November (51 to 49 percent).
“There are only two things required of our state representatives. One is that they live in the district. The other is that they vote on the budget. That’s it. She failed at both,” Pons said, noting that Baez missed the May 8 vo
te on the state budget, the one vote the legislature must make.
“She doesn’t live in the district. What more proof do you need as proof than her leaving her house in her blue Mercedes at 8:30 a.m.,” said Pons, 20, who happens to live in 112.
Baez definitely is required to live in the district she represents. She does not. She only Saturday put an offer on a property in District 114, she said. Only now do we see the “For Rent” sign that was leaning against a wall in her porch on Saturday, on the front lawn.
Read related story: Daisy Baez should resign, not just drop out of other race
And while she isn’t really required as an individual
member to vote on the budget, passing the budget is literally the only thing the legislature is required to do. And she did skip that part. Records show she neither voted yay nor nay on that. Baez told Ladra via text message that she “had permission from the speaker to return to Miami to be with my mother, who was hospitalized.” She didn’t want to be out that day because she also wanted to vote against the controversial education bill, she said.
Ladra has already said that Baez should resign just on the residency thing. She basically lied to voters when she said she represented District 114 as a voter and elector, as required. She also lied on her voter’s registration form, which is a third degree felony and she could be charged with a crime.
Miami-Dade Republian Party Chairman Nelson Diaz said Baez “failed us as a state representative” and should pay another way — by refunding her salary of about $85 a day.
“She owes us $15,000.”
