We already missed one candidate forum in the Nov. 7 Miami elections. Who knew? But there are at least three more scheduled for voters to get to know the people running for office in Districts 1, 2 and 4.

One Grove, the group of Coconut Grove residents and stakeholders who organized during the city’s flawed redistricting process, will have a candidate forum Tuesday beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove. Former New Times Editor Chuck Strouse, now assistant director at the Lee Caplin School of Journalism at Florida International University, will moderate a panel that includes The Miami Herald’s Nancy Ancrum, former Miami Herald reporter Don Finefrock representing the Coconut Grove Spotlight and someone from the League of Women Voters.

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If you’re following the District 2 race in Miami, you’ve likely seen incumbent Commissioner Sabina Covo‘s ads on TV.

This week, Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres, who has a much smaller warchest and can’t afford a lot of network time, posted his first video web ad, a fast-paced 30-second spot that calls for new blood at City Hall and calls out the current state of dysfunction.

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Miami District 2 Commissioner Sabina Covo may have bit off more than she can chew. Many voters have expressed disappointment. It’s one reason why she faces no fewer than seven challengers in the Nov. 7 election, which feels more like a race for an open seat.

Covo has been in office since February, when she won a special election — with only 29% of the vote — among 12 candidates to fill the term left by Ken Russell when he resigned to run for Congress (and lost in the primary). During this time she shines more for what she hasn’t done than for what she has done.

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With a unanimous vote, the Miami City Commission last Saturday decided not to appoint anyone to the District 1 seat vacated by the arrest and suspension earlier this month of Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla. Instead, the District 1 seat will remain empty — like it was a lot when ADLP was still in office — until the Nov. 7 election.

Five people, including the suspended commissioner, qualified for the race by the deadline last weekend. Diaz de la Portilla has no shame. He’s going to play this arrest ala Donald Trump, the victim of a Democrat-fueled plot to undermine him. But even he knows that in the unlikely event he should be elected, Gov. Ron DeSantis will only suspend him again.

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Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is pushing annexation like never before.

The city sent petition ballot cards to property owners in the Little Gables and High Pines/Ponce Davis area. Two town hall meetings were scheduled to talk to residents and hear their questions. And Lago has declared himself the lead negotiator with the county on the annexations.

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The Miami City Commission will have a special meeting Saturday to decide how to fill the vacancy caused last week by the arrest of Alex Diaz de la Portilla on public corruption charges that include money laundering, bribery and criminal conspiracy.

His colleagues see on the dais could do a number of things:

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