A judge last week dismissed a motion by a Miami City Commission candidate who thought her name should be first on the ballot and wanted the election delayed so that new ballots could be printed.
The frivolous lawsuit isn’t the only time that Denise Galvez Turros has been in court. But it’s the only time she’s been in court with that name.
She was just Denise Victoria Galvez when she was charged in 1994 with credit card theft of more than $300. But she probably wasn’t married yet. Another arrest — for driving under the influence and disorderly intoxication — is from December 2010 and under the name Danise Turros. No Galvez. And I guess she didn’t want to correct the officer who spelled her first name wrong (so it would be harder for anyone like me to find).
That’s probably why she’s smiling in the mugshot.
So, we guess she is only Turros when it’s convenient.
She doesn’t use it in her business. She doesn’t use it when she speaks on TV as cofounder of Latinas for Trump. She only uses it when she’s getting arrested. Or trying to get elected. Gotcha.
Galvez is in PR — she owns a boutique firm called GTMPR (which used to be Go To Marketing) — so she should know: If you want to make a stink about your name, make sure that stink doesn’t come back on you. If you have something to hide, don’t rock the boat. I hope she consults her clients better than this.
Read related story: Denise Galvez (Turros) sues for Miami ballot reprint — with her name first
The candidate made us curious when she sued last month to throw out the ballots and reprint new ones with her name in the coveted top space. Many political observers think this “pole position” gives the candidate an advantage among low information voters who might just check off the first name. Galvez — who didn’t know that she needed to hyphenate to get the G counted as her first last name letter — probably thinks that is her only chance against the other two candidates, Manuel “Manolo” Reyes and Ralph Rosado.
Well, maybe her only chance to get double digits.
But Ladra agrees with the principle: Her last name starts with a G. There are going to be more and more compound names sans hyphens and this community needs to have policies reflective of that. In the future. Ladra calls on Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White to do whatever it takes to make that change. That can be your legacy.
Galvez did not return several calls and text messages and one email to seek her comment or information about the circumstances of her arrests — or why Turros was good enough for the 2010 charge. She did, however, call my mom (she’s a friend of the family’s) 20 minutes after Ladra called her. But she didn’t answer when Mami called her back the next day. The candidate, who had already blocked me on Facebook, blocked me on Twitter last week after I started following her, which is a terrible sign for someone who wants to be a public servant.
What did she expect when she signed up for this? She already had to hope this didn’t come out. And then to file an injunction to stop the election two weeks before it’s over? After absentee ballots had already gone out? Boneheaded. You should only do that if you are okay calling attention to yourself and your name.
Another sign that Galvez is not ready for prime time.

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Both Zoraida Barreiro and Joe Carollo filed their first campaign finance report in their race for the same city of Miami commission seat and they must be a tad disappointed. 

Sure, $14,000 (Barreiro) and $10,000 (Carollo) is respectable — for any novice, first-time no-name. But Barreiro is wife of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who must not have tapped his donor pool yet (he raised $140,000 last year before he ended up with no opposition). Maybe he’s not 100% on board? And Joe Carollo is the former mayor of Miami, a former city manager of Doral and a buddy of Carlos Gimenez — or at least a member of his 2016 campaign team, at $6,000 a month for a total of $144,000 billed to the mayor’s PAC.

You think he could loan himself more than the $100 he reported earlier this month.

Read related story: Crazy Joe Carollo adds twist to crazy Miami commission race

But both of them did have significant bundling in their reports, as measly as they were. Half of Barreiro’s contributions come from companies owned by former School Board Member Demetrio Perez and $3,000 came from Lanzo Construction. Carollo got $3,000 from Robert Patino, $2,500 from the guy who owns Dade Outdoor Advertising and $2,000 from Norman Braman and his wife, which is kind of weird since Braman supported Raquel Regalado against Gimenez.

But these two aren’t the lowest scoring candidates in what is already a clusterbunch race with seven candidates so far, and qualifying isn’t even ’til September. This is the open seat in District 3, being vacated by Commissioner Frank Carollo, Joe’s baby bro, who is termed out and, reportedly, running for mayor, though he hasn’t filed any paperwork yet. The other candidates and their paultry little piggy banks are:

• Alex Dominguez, with $4,650, has been fundraising for almost two years.
• Olidia “Lee” Hernandez loaned herself $1,000, but she only just filed on Jan. 27.
• Alfonso M. Leon has raised $36,978 — a lot of it in $27 and $40 and $100 and $200 checks.
• Miguel C. Soliman has raised $27,530 — all of it but $1,000 in the first month reported, May.
• Daniel Suarez, who filed in December, hasn’t raised a dime but just loaned himself $55.

Soliman is the only one with any evidence of bundling, which are multiple donations from the same person — using relatives or different corporations — to maximize impact (and access or investment). He got $6,000 from Luis Garcia, who owns Adonel Concrete and several real estate holding companies.

Read related story: Mr. and Mrs. Sarnoff give up seat to Ken Russell, sans runoff

As has been pointed out before, money is not necessarily a sign of who is going to win the election. Commissioner Ken Russell beat a far better financed Teresa Sarnoff in 2015. But it does tell you who has more ability to get their message out. And if the donations come from residents rather than corporations, it could also indicate voter support.

Of course, it’s early yet. And we still don’t know if there are any PACs involved. Only one is listed on the city’s website. But A Stronger Miami, which filed documents in October, has not raised a dime.

So its doing worse than even any candidate.

A group of activists are having a community meeting Wednesay night to try to stop a developerfrom taking over part of a Miami Park so they can take advantage of special zoning regulations that would allow them to build a bigger and taller building than is currently allowed.

Negotiations with the city are reportedly ongoing for a coalition of developers to build a 10- to 17-story (more than twice what’s allowed), 1.2 million square foot mega complex with more than twice the number of residential units as are normally allowed and 1,000+ parking spaces adjacent to bayside Legion Memorial Park. The developer has promised to give space to the American Legion, which owned the post that was demolished to make room for this development. They also promised to make improvements to the park.

These improvements are a bait and switch carrot. They want the city to give them a slice of the public park so they can have the nine acres total to qualify fo the “special area planning exemption” that allows them to upzone, like Brickell City Center did.

So basically they don’t have the nine acres to qualify for the special plan exemption. And they want us and Miami city commissioners to believe that by effectively “borrowing” a couple of acres of park land to “annex” it to their site plan they can qualify for this bonus. Really?

Let’s forget for a minute that any improvements would be offset by the negative impact the development would have on the park and the surrounding neighborhood: The dust at the Farmer’s Market, the noise during morning yoga, the impact to the walkability of the space, the traffic, the pollution in the bay and, most notably, the shadow that a 15 to 17-story building would cast over the park. What kind of precedent would that set? Would that make all lands adjacent to parks suddenly more valuable because they are more buildable?

An early rendition of the planned development for Legion Park

Ladra bets developers are already poring over maps, looking for the next park to hit up.