Robert “Rob” Piper, who last we heard had chaired a political action committee that tried to recall Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo in 2020, filed paperwork this week to replace him on the dais in District 3 this November.
“There didn’t seem to be a great deal of choices,” Piper, who is also president of the Democrats of Coral Way, told Political Cortadito Thursday.
Maybe he means good choices.
Read related: Denise Galvez Turros announces she’ll run for Miami Commission in District 3
The retired U.S. Marine joins a crowded field led, most notably — or notarially — by former Commissioner Frank Carollo, the current commissioner’s brother. Other announced candidates include Oscar Elio Alejandro, a U.S. Navy vet and home renter; activist Yvonne Bayona, president of the Miami Historic East Shenandoah Homeowners Association; Brenda Betancourt, president of the Calle Ocho Inter-American Chamber of Commerce and a frequent speaker at commission meetings; Rolando Escalona, who is the manager of Sexy Fish Miami and a sleeper candidate; and Little Havana activist and booster Denise Galvez Turros, a PR marketing guru who served on the city’s Historic Preservation committee and ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2017.
Candidates in the Miami D3: Oscar Elio Alejandro, Yvonne Bayona, Brenda Betancourt, Frank Carollo, Rolando Escalona and Denise Galvez Turros. Not shown: Robert Piper (pictured above and below).
But the qualification deadline is in September. Some of these people may drop out. Others may join.
Read related: Miami city attorneys conspired, created ‘cheat sheet’ to stop Joe Carollo recall
Piper was chair of Take Back Our City, the PAC that collected and filed more than 1,900 petition signatures to recall Carollo five years ago. The recall was legally challenged by the city on three fronts: that the submission of the petitions on Feb. 29, 2020 was improper because (1) the city does not recognize electronic filings, (2) it was not submitted by the chair and (3) a subsequent hand delivered submission of the petitions on March 2, 2020, was late because the first signature was obtained Jan. 31, 2020, so the window was missed for the completion.
According to the paperwork filed with the city clerk March 13, Piper lives at a home on 17th Terrace that he purchased in 2012 for $275,000. The assessed value today is $550,700 and the market value is $728,500.
But he does not claim a homestead exemption. He says that is because he has tenants in two in-law units that came with his property when he bought it. Records with the Miami-Dade clerk’s office shows he evicted one of those tenants last May.
Piper also has a Washington, D.C., area code on his cellphone. It is where he was stationed before he moved here in 2012.
The election for District 3 is in November. The next deadline to report campaign contributions and expenses is June 30. It will be the first report filed by Piper and Galvez.
There are so many important elections this year. Help Ladra stay on top of every new development with a contribution to Political Cortadito today. Thank you for supporting independent, grassroots journalism.
The post Leader of Recall Joe Carollo PAC joins Miami Commission race in District 3 appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Joe Carollo and his PAC are back to same old tricks 
It is so predictable that the special election for Miami Commission seat in District 4 would have someone calling one of the candidates a communist.
But it still hits strange that it would happen to Jose Regalado, the youngest son of former Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, who arrived in the U.S. in 1962 as a Pedro Pan kid, shipped to the country by his parents in a massive Catholic Church operation to save children from the communist regime taking hold on the island. The mayor’s father, the candidate’s grandfather, spent 22 years as a political prisoner. His brother Tommy worked for TV Martí.
But those details are lost in this classic Joe Carollo tactic, which the Miami Commissioner — who is pushing hard to get Ralph Rosado elected, instead — has used in many, if not all, his campaigns. Carollo, whose political action committee is dropping daily mailers to D4 voters on Rosado’s behalf, doesn’t need proof. Communist is just a word he throws out. Like chavista.
“José Regalado doesn’t care about the pain of our people,” one mailer says in Spanish. “He tells you one thing upfront and does something else behind your back.” It’s intentionally vague, based on pure emotion, trying to irritate Cuban voters with a tired photo Carollo has used time and time again of Academy Award winning actor and known socialist apologist Sean Penn at a Miami Heat game in 2011. They just happened to run into each other. Ladra thinks it was during the Miami Film Festival.
Read related: Manolo Reyes’ widow comes out strong for Jose Regalado in D4 special election
At least this time, Carollo is using it against the right brother. In 2017, he used the same photo in a mail piece against Tomas N. “Tommy” Regalado when they both ran for commission.
But wait, there’s more.

Not only is Regalado a commie, like the rest of his family — but other mailers say the Regalados are laundering drug money for chavistas tied to the Venezuelan government (another recycled attack) and that the 40-year-old candidate is also a “rumbero,” which is cuban slang for partygoer or club aficionado. And how dare he enjoy our nightlife?
Regalado and Rosado are running in the special election June 3 to replace Manolo Reyes, who passed away last month. And Carollo is reportedly pouring at least half a million dollars from his PAC, Miami First, into the race. He is that desperate to get Rosado elected and get a third vote on the commission to move his agenda forward and block any attempts at true reforms like the lifetime term limits that Commissioner Damian Pardo is pushing (more on that later).
If it seems like life or death for him, it is because it is. This race could really either breathe life into Carollo’s power  (and abuse) for whatever time he has left on the dais — which could be longer than we think if the election date is changed (more on that later) — or kill it for good. So Carollo is throwing everything at Regalado to see what sticks. That is also a classic Carollo tactic.
Ladra predicts that nothing will stick. Because D4 is Regalado Country. These people know the Regalados — which also include Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado — are not cartel-cozying communist chavistas. That’s not even a stretch. That’s a giant heap de lo que pica el pollo. El Pollo Carollo, in this case.

Not such a stretch: A mailer sent earlier this month that paints Rosado as Carollo’s puppet and quotes a Political Cortadito exclusive in which the candidate outright lies to Ladra about the commissioner being at a city park with him to direct a video campaign ad.  “Who will control Ralph Rosado on the Miami Commission,” the mailer asks in the headline. “Joe Carollo, who has cost the city of Miami taxpayers well over $15 million in legal fees for his defense and settlements due to his rampant abuse of power is openly funding and supporting Ralph Rosado’s campaign.
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
“Ralph Rosado was caught lying about his close relationship to Joe Carollo,” it says on the other side, quoting the story in Political Cortadito from earlier this month: “Rosado… denied that Carollo had been at the park with him. ‘No. He was not directing. He wasn’t there,’ Rosado told Political Cortadito. When Ladra told him she had video of Carollo and his wife at the park with him and his mother-in-law, and asked if he wanted to change or stick to his answer, Rosado hesitated a little. Then he said, ‘I’ll get back to you.’”
He never did, by the way.
“Tell Ralph Rosado one Joe Carollo on the City of Miami Commission is enough,” it ends.
Actually, one Joe Carollo on the City of Miami Commission is one too many.
That mailer was paid for by Proven Leadership for Miami, a PAC chaired by Miami River Commission Chairman Horacio Aguirre and used for the senior Regalado in his campaign for county property appraiser last year. So was the one sent this week that calls Rosado “a proven tax and spend bureaucrat” with a “documented history of incompetence and raising taxes.”

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In the two weeks after the city of Miami scheduled a special election to fill the commission vacancy caused by the death of Manolo Reyes, the two candidates have raised almost $100,000 combined. And local favorite Jose Regalado — of those Regalados — who quit his job as assistant building director to run for office at the request of Reyes’ widow, out-raised urban planner Ralph Rosado, who was basically fired from his job as city manager of North Bay Village (more on that later), almost three to one.
Regalado reported a total of $67,470 in contributions raised through May 2, while Rosado had a total of $26,454, according to their first campaign finance reports, filed Friday.
The contributions in Regalado’s report are also from a diverse group of sources. Meanwhile, the contributions in Rosado’s report include bundles from four sources that add up more than half of his take for the one month period. He’s got $5,000 each from developer Sergio Rok and the owners of the Green Acres Trailer Park, $3,000 from the owners of Adonel Concrete and $2,000 from real estate investor Robert Sckalor.
Read related: Manolo Reyes’ widow comes out strong for Jose Regalado in D4 special election
They both have quite a few contributions from lobbyists, including South Miami Mayor Javier Fernandez, who gave to both candidates, hedging his bets. One interesting gift is a $250 check to Rosado, a rabid Republican, from former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, an uber Democrat former state rep who ran against Jose Regalado’s sister, Raquel Regalado, for county commission twice and lost both times. That looks like an obvious example of emotional spending.
Ladra hopes she feels better.
Jose Regalado has some bundles, too. He has $5,000 from gasoline mogul Max Alvarez and $3,000 from developer Jorge Salazar. But there are far more actual people giving to his campaign than to Rosado’s. His expenses are also higher, with more than $10,000 spent on radio and $1,500 for professional photos.
Rosado’s expenses include almost $2,500 in yard signs and $914 for text messages.
Both of the candidates also have political action committees spending money on their respective campaigns.
Rosado has the benefit of Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s PAC, Miami First, sending mailers and paying for other messaging on his behalf. It recently sent a mailer that said Jose Regalado wants to bring red light cameras back to Miami. It’s not true. It’s a tired old Carollo campaign smear he used on Tommy Regalado, the elder son of the former mayor, when both ran for commission in 2017. It was Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado, who was Miami mayor from 2009 to 2017, who championed red light cameras once upon a time.
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
By the way, so did Carollo, who was city manager in Doral when the city was installing its own traffic cameras.
Regalado has Proven Leadership for Miami, a PAC chaired by Miami River Commission Chairman Horacio Aguirre for the candidate’s father, Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado, who was Miami mayor from 2009 to 2017.
Voters won’t get any information on the PAC contributions and expenses until a month after the election. There will be two more campaign finance reports filed with the city clerk’s office before the June 3 special election: one on the 23rd and one on the 30th, four days before the election — and also the day that early voting begins.
The deadline to request a vote-by-mail or absentee ballot is May 22.
The post Jose Regalado is winning fundraising race in Miami’s D4 special election appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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A new political action committee led by Miami activists announced Tuesday the launch of a citizen-led petition to amend the city’s charter, “aiming to create a more representative, accountable and transparent local government.” The petition proposes three changes that would go to voters: holding city elections in even years, expanding the size of the city commission, and adding fair district guidelines.
“We all deserve real representation in government. Too often, our neighborhoods and residents go unheard,” said Mel Meinhardt, a lead organizer for the Stronger Miami PAC and co-founder of One Grove Alliance — which formed in the wake of the illegal and invalidated 2022 redistricting of Miami that cut Coconut Grove into three districts. 
“Voters should choose politicians, not the other way around,” Meinhardt said in a statement. “This amendment will reduce political corruption by ensuring districts are not drawn to benefit any specific party or candidate — a fair redistricting system that accurately represents our city.”
Read related: Coconut Grove residents are ignored as Miami carves up D2 in redistricting
A federal judge already ruled in favor of the ACLU and a group of Grove residents who sued after the redistricting and has ordered the city to establish a process, which should include a committee, for redistricting in the future. This petition, Meinhardt told Political Cortadito, would ensure that the mission of that process and committee is to draw fair districts and not gerrymander for partisan or other reasons, like keeping incumbents in office. “It gives the committee direction,” he said Tuesday.
The PAC was filed its paperwork with the city clerk March 28 and is chaired by another Miami activist, Anthony “Andy” Parrish, another redistricting critic who served on the city’s planning and zoning board.
To get the proposed charter changes on the on the November ballot, the PAC needs to have 26,000 signed petitions by sometime this summer. That’s a hard haul. A coalition of groups — which includes Engage Miami, One Grove, and Florida Rising — are getting members to collect signatures.
The petition also aims to divide the city into nine smaller districts, rather than the five there are now, and move the election from odd years to even years that coincide with the state and national elections, to both reduce city costs and increase participation. These changes would make the city government more representative and elections more accessible, the activists say.
“In the 2023 elections, fewer than 16,000 people voted in a city of nearly half a million,” said Rebecca Pelham, executive director of Engage Miami, in a statement from the PAC.
“This means a very small number of people are making important decisions that impact everyone in the City. We need a system that genuinely represents all of us so residents have a real voice,” Pelham said. “Moving city elections to even years when other statewide elections are held will encourage more people to participate in local elections and be involved locally.” 
There’s a question about whether or not this would extend the terms for the electeds who are there when the change comes. It seems that it would. But the activists don’t know about that. And there might be some backroom movement on the commission, anyway, to get that change of year on a ballot as well, but before the November election, to extend the terms of the mayor and Commissioner Joe Carollo (more on that later).
The smaller districts could also drive up turnout because they not only put elected officials closer the constituents they serve, but also create a dais that is harder to influence because three votes are easier to buy than five.
“The solution to the pollution is dilution,” Parrish told Ladra, using a tried and true environmental slogan to describe the Miami political climate. “We definitely have pollution,” he said.
He wold go even further, requiring each commissioner to work out of a district office. “Instead of having them all at Melreese, which is where they are going,” he said, referring to the former Melreese municipal golf course that is going to become a real estate complex with soccer stadium and a new city administration building in it.
Meinhardt said it was illogical that the city has not changed its representation since it was founded 100 years ago, while the population has exploded. “It’s only getting acceleratingly worse,” Meinhardt said. “I looked around the country for best practices. We’ve got like 90,000 citizens for every commissioner. The average in well-run cities is more like 40,000.”
Read related: Miami should have more commission districts for fairness, not fewer of them
Ladra advocated for more districts two years ago when the redistricting kerfluffle led then District 1 Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla to suggest eliminating districts completely.
Miami is the 43rd-largest city in the U.S., according to the 2020 Census, and the core of the nation’s eighth-largest metropolitan area. But cities of comparable size normally have more districts and more electeds.
Atlanta has a population of 498,715, or just about 30,000 more people than Miami. But Atlanta has 15 city council members — 12 elected in districts and three at large. Long Beach, California, just a little smaller than Atlanta and a little bigger than Miami, with a population of 466,742, has nine district council members. The city of Oakland, which is a little smaller than Miami, with 440,646 residents, has seven district council members. The city of Tampa, pop. 384,959, also has seven districts.
Esto no le conviene a los politicians who are there now. They like having the influence that comes with being one of three votes.
That’s why this is a citizen-driven initiative — because the electeds would never go for this. In fact, Ladra fully expect a campaign against it.
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The post Petition aims to add Miami commission districts, change election to even years appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Several mailers and text messages have gone out in Miami this week to try to tie District 2 commission candidate Damian Pardo to Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is that toxic.

The weak connections are the financial consultant and human rights activist, who is in the runoff against incumbent Commissioner Sabina Covo, was Carollo’s appointment to the city’s LGBTQ Advisory Board and that the District 3 commissioner provided funds for Pardo’s Gay8 Festival. But the truth is that Carollo appointed SAVE Executive Director Orlando Gonzales to that committee and that Pardo was the “at large” appointment. And the Gay8 Festival is in Carollo’s District, which means his office would likely provide financial support to anybody, as he does to other events.

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And wouldn’t that make her just like ADLP?

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