Part of a series of profiles about the Miami mayoral candidates
If there’s one candidate in Miami’s crowded mayoral race who can say “ni hao” with authority, it’s Elijah John Bowdre — a trilingual tech entrepreneur, global traveler, and local advocate who wants to turn Miami into a high-efficiency, low-cost, tech-driven paradise.
He’s just super short on the details.
Bowdre, who lives in Edgewater, is one of the 13 people running for mayor of Miami on Nov. 4. A Florida A&M University graduate with a study-abroad certification from Shanghai University, he says he spent nearly eight years living in China, where he says he helped attract a $500 million investment from Hong Kong into downtown Miami.
He could not provide details. Twice when Ladra called him he sounded like he was on a movie set, so much conversation in the background, and he would said he would call me back. He never did.
Read related: Alyssa Crocker: mother, advocate, fighter — and Miami mayoral candidate
But Bowdre has no Chinese investors — or any investors, really, in his mayoral bid. His latest campaign finance report shows he has loaned himself $1,650 and got another $250 from a friend in Conyers, Georgia.
The lack of money doesn’t seem to hurt his swagger. Bowdre, who says he speaks Spanish and Mandarin also, has a LinkedIn-style pitch that reads like a cross between Silicon Valley and the United Nations — global vision, local roots, and a digital twist.
Bowdre is running for mayor because too many Miamians are working “two or three jobs and sleeping in their cars,” he told WPLG Local 10. His solution? Harness what he calls “the money power in tech.” He wants to use technology to deliver subsidies, rebates, stipends, and bonuses to residents — what sounds like a high-tech redistribution of city resources, built on “enterprise efficiency and accountability for the public benefit.”
That’s a tall order for any mayor, but Bowdre likes to talk big. Again, without details. On numerous occasions, he dodged the questions. He told the anchors that, like most people, they just don’t understand the big picture, but he does and we should just trust him. Riiiiiight. We’ve all heard that before.
Bowdre chairs the Miami-Dade County Cryptocurrency Task Force, where he’s been at the front lines of local discussions about how digital currency could fit into county government. He said he worked with then city commissioner and Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon as liaison to the Overtown Community Oversight Board, working on development oversight for the Southeastern Overtown/Park West CRA — yes, the same zone wrapped around the Miami Worldcenter megaproject.
Read related: Christian Cevallos: Immigrant builder runs for Miami mayor to audit City Hall
He calls himself a “bridge builder,” an educator, and “a strong international global leader.”
Maybe en su propia casa.
Ladra loves a visionary, but Bowdre seems more like he’s practicing a TED Talk in front of a bathroom mirror than a man with a plan. Subsidies through tech? Rebates by blockchain? Bonuses for residents? It’s the kind of thing that sounds fantastic in a pitch deck — but voters might want to know how it works in real life, especially in a city where potholes, police overtime, and rent control eat up most of the agenda.
Bowdre, who obviously likes to dress to impress, desperately wants to be taken seriously. He wants to be seen as part of that new generation of Miamians who see opportunity in innovation — not just in construction cranes and campaign contributions. He says he wants accountability, efficiency, and what he calls “enterprise solutions” for public good.
But what we want are details. And he’s always short on those.
Elijah John Bowdre may be the only candidate in the race who can talk cryptocurrency, city zoning, and Chinese investment in one breath — and somehow make it sound real. But is it just another crypto-fueled Miami illusion?
Bowdre is another one of those candidates who isn’t going to make double digits in the race — Ladra expects June Savage to do better — but his campaign might remind voters that Miami’s future could be written in more than just cement and scandal. It could be coded, too.

Help Ladra keep bringing you deep coverage of the Miami election you can’t get anywhere else with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. And thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

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If you think the race for Miami Beach mayor between incumbent hallway monitor Steve Meiner and quirky comeback kid Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez is the craziest thing on the city’s ballot this year (more on that later), think again.
The race to replace Rosen-Gonzalez in the Group 1 seat features a clusterbunch of seven candidates. But only one of them has a family history that makes all the others look downright boring. And, also, electable.
Republican lawyer Monique Pardo Pope — who introduced herself to voters as coming from a working-class Cuban family that believed in “sacrifice, service, and standing up for what’s right” — forgot to mention one tiny detail: Her father was a Hitler-loving serial killer sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Oooops.
Only in the 305, ¿verdad?
Manuel Pardo was a Sweetwater cop-turned-vigilante who fatally shot nine people in three months back in 1986. He idolized Hitler, kept Nazi trinkets in his Hialeah apartment, tattooed his Doberman with a swastika, and told the court the only thing he regretted was that he didn’t kill 99 people instead of nine drug dealers for money and cocaine. Some say Pardo may have been the inspiration for the series Dexter, about a Florida medical examiner who becomes a vigilante serial killer.
Pardo was executed in 2012 after Gov. Rick Scott signed his death warrant.
Read related: Kristen 3.0? Miami Beach firebrand commissioner vs Mayor Steve Meiner
Documentary filmmaker Billy Corben was the one who connected the dots last month in a video that went viral faster than you can say #BecauseMiami. The Miami New Times followed with a report that has far too much detail on Manuel Pardo’s crimes — and his special relationship to his daughter — for Ladra to recount here. Read it.
Pardo Pope, 44, says she prays every day for the families of her father’s victims, and called herself another “victim” of his crimes in a letter to New Times. But her Instagram tells another story. That’s where she calls her papi her “hero,” her “guiding light,” her “eternal best friend” — and quotes his last words, which include a farewell to her. She even posted a photo of herself earlier this year cheesing next to now Sen. Scott, the guv who green-lit her dad’s execution.
Awkward. And creepy.
To be fair, Pardo Pope was only 4 when her father went on his killing spree. She says her earliest memories are of him as the Marine, the cop, the protector. That’s the dad she remembers. But voters might be surprised to learn that she chose to highlight her Pardo surname on the ballot — the very name that’s synonymous with one of Florida’s most notorious murderers.
In a social media post in response to the Corben video, Pardo Pope says she never hid the truth and that “political activists sensationalized my childhood trauma for clicks, ratings, and personal gain.” She’s now calling the sudden spotlight “bullying” and “smears.”
One thing is certain: You gotta admire the kind of self-confidence it takes for the daughter of a Neo-Nazi serial killer to run for office — in Miami Beach, of all places.
Meanwhile, the other six candidates — Daniel Ciraldo, Brian Ehrlich, Ava Frankel, Matthew Gultanoff, Omar Jimenez and Monica Matteo-Salinas — are probably wondering how they’re supposed to get any attention in a race where one contender’s campaign slogan might as well be: Daughter of Dexter.
The Miami Beach general election is Nov. 4, with a Dec. 9 runoff if nobody cracks 50%.

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There’s a Miami mayoral debate Thursday night, but the biggest news isn’t who’s talking. It’s who’s not going.
The Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, which is hosting the debate along with Griffin Catalyst, the philanthropic arm of billionaire Ken Griffin, decided to only invite the candidates who polled above 10% in a survey Griffin’s group commissioned.
Their list: Former City Manager Emilio González, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former City Commissioner Ken Russell and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Mayor Sir Xavier L. Suarez, who was the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami in 1995. These are the candidates out of the 13 in total who will get the spotlight — and airtime, because the debate streams live on NBC 6 and miamiherald.com.
Read related: One-liners and other memorable moments from Miami mayoral debate
Two of the loudest figures in Miami Politics are apparently not going: Commissioner Joe Carollo reportedly made the threshold and was invited, but had not confirmed as of late Wednesday. And former City Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla — running a redemption tour after political corruption charges were dropped last year — was left on the outside, looking in. He apparently did not even get 10% in the Griffin poll.
You know that’s going to sting.
The four who were invited also polled the highest — along with Carollo and ADLP — for the Downtown Neighbors Alliance debate last month, which became a political food fight of insults and zingers.
Thursday’s debate will be moderated by Miami Herald politics editor David Smiley and NBC 6 anchor Jackie Nespral at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. It starts at 7 p.m., runs about 90 minutes, and while the audience is invite-only — and Ladra has asked to see the guest list — the rest of us can watch live on NBC 6 or stream it on miamiherald.com.
Who’s in — and what they bring
For Suarez, this is a homecoming of sorts. The elder statesman — or elder showman, depending who you ask — gets a primetime platform to remind voters that he was mayor before most of these other candidates were even in politics. He’s been trying to position himself as the grown-up alternative to the circus Miami has become under “El Loco” and “ADLP,” who, ironically, won’t be there to defend themselves. He will appeal to the nostalgic voters.
For Russell, who left a commission seat in 2022 to run for Congress, it’s a new venue in which to pitch himself as the rational, reform-minded alternative. He’s been hammering a message about transparency and ethics — two words that haven’t exactly been trending in Miami City Hall.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
For Higgins, the only woman on stage who is trying to become the first female mayor of Miami, it’s an opportunity to stand out. She’s already known countywide as a commissioner who digs into budgets and bureaucracy, and she’ll likely highlight her work on housing and transit. She might even call out the city’s dysfunctional permitting process, again.
For Gonzalez, a onetime President Bush appointee to U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services, retired Army colonel and Trump fan, it’s a last chance to appeal to the other side of the aisle. A consistent conservative voice pitching tax relief and “back to basics” government, he touts the endorsements of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and, most recently, U.S. Senator from Texas Ted Cruz. But all that could turn off Democrat and Independent voters, which he needs to win.
Who’s out — and why it matters
Carollo wouldn’t dare show up to a debate hosted by The Herald, which he calls the Miami Gramma, referring to the Communist Party’s newspaper in Cuba. Ladra doubts that Diaz de la Portilla would have gone, if he had even invited. He told Political Cortadito that the Griffin poll wasn’t realistic. “You have to be an idiot to believe that,” he texted Ladra.
“I am in a runoff with Higgins,” added Diaz de la Portilla, who paid $27,500 last month for his own poll, which he declined to share.
The organizers say the cutoff was 10% in the Griffin Catalyst poll. That’s convenient for them — and a little convenient for Griffin, who’s been spending big on “civic engagement” efforts since moving Citadel to Miami from Chicago.
But let’s be honest: Any debate without Crazy Joe and ADLP is going to feel… quieter. No fireworks. No finger-pointing. No reason for extra security. That might make for smoother television, but it also sanitizes what has been a messy, colorful race — and takes two of the biggest political personalities in the city out of the mix.
Ken hitting Eileen is not as much fun as when he hits Alex.
Read related: Fundraising reports for Miami mayoral race show millions are being invested
And by cherry-picking who’s “serious” enough to stand under the bright lights, the debate hosts are shaping the narrative, perhaps to their favor.
Suarez gets legitimacy. Higgins gets exposure. Russell gets a chance to look sensible. González gets validation.
But in a city where politics is performance art, this debate might end up remembered less for what’s said on stage than for who got cut from the script.
The lights go up at 7 p.m. Thursday on NBC6 and miamiherald.com.

Help Ladra keep bringing you deep coverage of the Miami election you can’t get anywhere else with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. And thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

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Part of a series of profiles about the Miami mayoral candidates
It’s not like the Miami mayoral race needed another long shot candidate to crowd up the ballot, but Laura Anderson is running anyway. Anderson is one of the 13 people who want to be the mayor — but the only one who openly identifies as a socialist.
She’s never held office before. She’s not a developer, not a fundraiser, not a well-heeled civic name. She’s a freight railroad conductor, a Socialist Workers Party member, and a downtown resident with a vision that comes from the rails, not the boardrooms.
Read related: June Savage: The uninvited guest who won’t stay quiet in Miami mayor’s race
Born in St. Charles, Illinois, raised in the American Midwest, Anderson lived in Hialeah for about 14 months before she made her way in 2023 to Miami’s Model City neighborhood, where she lives and works for CSX Transportation. She’s a proud union member of SMART-TD Local 1138, a visible face of labor in transit and freight.
Anderson joined the Socialist Workers Party in the early ’90s during her fights against immigrant worker suppression (think Proposition 187 in California), protests over Rodney King, and solidarity missions to Cuba.
She is appealing to the working people of Miami who keep getting squeezed from every direction. Anderson wants a city that centers their attention on labor, housing, public transport, and community programs — not luxury towers and developer tax breaks.
Her campaign messaging is loud and clear in the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey — and sort of new to Miami politics: She opposes U.S. imprialism abroad, calls for amnesty for undocumented workers, and frames the race as part of a broader workers’ struggle. Anderson backs union-led public works programs — more schools, bridges, housing — to put people to work. And she vows to defend workers’ rights, freedom of speech, assembly, due process, and push against capitalist interests she says currently dominate government.
She is going to have a hard time getting that message across with only $1,250 in campaign funds reported through September. But maybe the campaign for mayor is not the point. Anderson also uses campaign stops to promote The Militant newsweekly and socialist literature, often appearing at book fairs and labor events.
Read related: Michael Hepburn writes ‘Love Letter’ to Miami, but will voters actually read it?
There are pluses and minuses to being Laura Anderson. The strengths: She’s authentic. In a race cluttered with suits and slogans, a conductor with union ties carries a kind of moral weight. She also speaks to a class many candidates ignore — the working class, public transit riders, overlooked communities.
Weaknesses? She’s got zero name recognition compared to commissioners, ex-mayors, and big money campaigns. Her platform is ideological and sweeping, while many voters want immediate fixes — trash, water pipes, policing — not system overhaul. And the big one: Socialist identity in Miami politics is the kiss of death. She may as well say she eats babies.
Anderson won’t win this mayor’s race — but perhaps her presence forces the other candidates to address labor, inequality, and the everyday struggles of people who don’t own condos or futures in real estate. In a field crowded with promise and ambition, Anderson is a reminder that governance is not just for the rich and well connected — it’s supposed to be for everyone.

Help Ladra keep bringing you deep coverage of the Miami election you can’t get anywhere else with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. And thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

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Christian Cevallos, a home developer and former Miami-Dade County community council member, says he’s running for mayor of Miami because somebody needs to go through the city’s books.
“The first thing I’m going to do, and I want to say it real loud,” he told WPLG Local 10. “is I’m going to audit the past government.”
Cevallos, who was born in Ecuador and grew up working odd jobs after moving to Miami — from pizza joints in Little Havana to construction sites — says he knows what it means to build something from scratch. He studied business at Florida International University and later built his own company, America Promanagement LLC, which he says specializes in construction and real estate projects in Kendall.
Well, now it also dabbles in political consulting — as he’s paid himself $5,500 from his campaign account.
He also served two terms on Miami-Dade’s Community Council for District 11, which makes zoning recommendations to the county commission and sounds like a possible conflict of interest, seeing as how he’s in the construction business. But he said it showed him decisions made in ivory towers affect everyday residents — especially families, seniors, and people with special needs.
Read related: Laura Anderson is a rare species: A socialist running for Miami mayor
Cevallos used to live in West Kendall but has lived in the Brickell area since September of 2024 and says his campaign is about fairness and focus. And as he’s bern knocking on doors, he’s learned what voters care about, he said.
“They don’t want to know anything about politics because Miami has had such a bad reputation with politicians that they’re tired,” Cevallos said in his interview with WPLG Local 10. They want opportunities and transparency, he added. He wants to post all the city’s expenses online for everyone to see.
He said he wants to work with small developers, not the big corporations to build real affordable housing, cut the permit process for businesses to 90 days, and do more to keep some of the 28 million visitors who fly through Miami International Airport in the Magic City, instead of being a stop station to Orlando or Miami Beach. “Sometimes we have good parties, but we need to have more activities for people, for families.”
But his biggest talking point might be about taxes. He wants to cut property taxes completely for seniors and says it’s possible to lower overall property taxes by 25%. Where would he find the money: Salaries. He says there are a lot of overpaid city staffers.
Cevallos also is unafraid to call out the city’s neglect of its own communities. “Recently I was walking through Overtown and Little Haiti and some of these neighborhoods that need a lot of help.”
Cevallos’s campaign isn’t flashy — he doesn’t have the deep pockets or the name recognition of the political lifers in the race — but he’s betting that voters are ready for a builder who wants to clean up instead of cash in.
Still, Ladra can’t help but raise an eyebrow. Auditing City Hall sounds nice, but it’s also one of those promises that sound better on paper than in practice. Cutting taxes by a quarter while improving city services? That seems impossible.
But Cevallos insists he’s different — not one of those “big developers” he blames for Miami’s affordability mess. Whether voters buy that distinction will depend on how well he sells it between now and November 4.
Because in Miami politics, transparency is everyone’s favorite word — right up until the lights come on.

Help Ladra keep bringing you deep coverage of the Miami election you can’t get anywhere else with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. And thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

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PACs are where the big money is at
The third quarter campaign finance reports for the Miami mayoral candidates seem to indicate a slow growth in economic means for the candidates. Political action committees are another matter, however, for those lucky enough to have them.
Miami-Dade Commmissioner Eileen Higgins, for example, got only $67,670 for the three month period through Sept. 30 for her campaign account, for a total of $155,000. But she netted more than $407,000 for her PAC, Ethical Leadership in Miami, which is almost three times that. The PAC has collected a total of almost $658,000.
Former City Manager Emilio Gonalez raised $89,800 in the third quarter, his second report, for a total of $159,081. But his PAC, Mission Miami, took in another $222,000 for a total of just over $903,000.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
That’s already almost $2 million between them. But goes to more than $3 million when you add City Commissioner Joe Carollo.
Crazy Joe reported $26,550 in campaign contributions for the quarter, including many small bundles. But that’s because he’s been busy with his own PAC, Miami First, which reported an additional $686,230 in contributions, including $100,000 from an investment firm in Middleberg, Florida, just southwest of Jacksonville. The other biggies are:

$25,000 from auto mogul and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman, who has been deeply and consistently involved in Miami-Dade politics for decades — and practically funded the historic 2011 recall against then-Mayor Carlos Alvarez — using his personal wealth to act as a major political benefactor.
$25,000 from competing auto mogul Mario Murgado, who took pains to hide it, making it in the name of his Maserati dealership in New Jersey, for whatever reason, instead of Brickell Motors
$15,000 from Bayside Marketplace, which could be gratitude from his days as chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust or could be a shakedown.
$15,000 from construction consultant David Portal.
$10,000 from real estate investor and developer Craig Robbins, in four separate checks.
$10,000 from uber-connected lobbyist Melissa Tapanes.

Carollo’s PAC’s total, just for this election, so far? Close to $1.4 million.
Braman is hedging his bets, giving $10,000 also to the Imagine Miami PAC that belongs to former Miami-Dade Commissioner Mayor Sir Xavier Suarez, who wants his son’s job, which he had in the 90s. That’s more than the $12,850 that he got in total contributions for his campaign account. The PAC reported a total of $106,000, with $15,000 also coming from Maria Martin, wife of developer David Martin, who wants to take over the Rickenbacker Causeway (more on that later); $15,000 from Liberty Mission Critical, an electrical contractor; $15,000 from attorney Fernando Pomares; $12,500 from PMA Consultants, a construction management firm; $10,000 from OKO Group, owned by developer billionaire Vladislav Doronin, who has been described as a Russian oligarch; and another $10K from commercial real estate professional Teresa Blanca.
Former City Commissioner Ken Russell reported a meager $26,592 in contributions for the three months ending in September. His campaign total is an equally unimpressive $101,453. But his PAC, Break the Wheel, reported $43,000 in contributions in the same time. That includes $20,000 in bundled $5,000 checks from real estate investor David Medina and $10,000 from South Pointe Construction and Development, which helped build a medical office building in Coral Gables and affordable housing in Fort Lauderdale.
Read related: One-liners and other memorable moments from Miami mayoral debate
Former City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — arrested in 2023 on 14 public corruption charges, including bribery and money laundering, that were later dropped — had to reach into his own pocket to report anything, loaning himself $100,000 from his “lucrative” political consulting business to add to the $1,000 he got from an auto shop owner in Allapattah. ADLP, who got $100K for his PAC, Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade, from the same couple that was accused of bribing him in 2023 — he is defiant, if nothing else — collected a big fat nothing for his committee in the last quarter, according to his report, which lists a total in contributions at $278,000, but that includes $142K from himself. So he’s mostly self-funding this redemption tour.
Candidates Michael Hepburn, in his fifth try for public office, and former Miami-Dade Community Council member Christian Cevallos are also mostly self funding, but neither has surpassed $40,000. The other five candidates have not gotten even $4,000 in contributions: Laura Anderson, Elijah John Bowdre, Alyssa Crocker, Kenneth James DeSantis, and June Savage.
As far as total spending, so far, Gonzalez and Higgins also lead the pack, with $141,400 and $123,000, respectively, spent from their campaign accounts — and $651,215 and $553,228 from their PACs, respectively. Most of the money went to advertising and direct mail pieces. ADLP has spent $438,000, mostly from his PAC, since November, including $27,500 for a poll in September — right before qualifying, maybe to see if he’d do it — and $5,000 a month to political consultant Sasha Tirador. The rest goes mostly to gas, phone bills printing and “wages” for “campaign workers.”
Ken Russell has spent just over $166,000 as of the end of last month, including $52,000 paid to his political consultant Fernando Diez. He also spent $24,500 on polling data in April and $20K on a vote by mail campaign.
Suarez has spent almost all his campaign money, and all but $82,000 of his PAC funds, including close to $150,000 in “marketing,” which includes $2,500 to former Miami Commissioner Richard Dunn. He also gave $2,500 to the Stronger Miami PAC, which is collecting signatures to, among other things, expand the commission from 5 to 7 or 9 seats.
Christian Cevallos has spent $12,746, including $5,500 to his campaign manager — himself. The rest is mostly on printing, mailing and camp.
There are two more campaign finance reports due before the Nov. 4 election, one on Oct. 24 and another on Halloween. Expect that one to be scary.
Help Ladra keep bringing you deep coverage of the Miami election you can’t get anywhere else with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. And thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.
 
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