Looks like Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar is still allergic to her own constituents. Like other Republican lawmakers across the country who keep ducking the angry mobs that want to roast them over tariffs and immigration, Miami’s own absentee rep is no different.
Enter Richard Lamondin. Never heard of him? You’re not alone. He’s a Miami-born entrepreneur, an environmental guy with no political résumé, but plenty of chutzpah. And tomorrow night he’s stepping onto the stage Salazar won’t touch: an actual town hall.
That’s right. While La Elvira hides behind press releases and Fox News hits, this newbie is inviting people to St. James Baptist Church in Coconut Grove to talk about real issues — healthcare, housing, small business survival, immigration, all the stuff people have been wanting to scream at Salazar about but never get the chance because she won’t face them.
Lamondin’s pitch is simple: The difference in leadership has never been more clear. Salazar won’t show up. I will.
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
There could be another Democrat biting at the chance to face Salazar heading into an August primary with Lamondin. Robin Peguero, a former prosecutor who was a lawyer for the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot who lives in Coral Gables and teaches at St. Thomas University’s College of Law. Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, who lost a primary to Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Báez-Geller — who decided to try for Florida House District 106 against Rep. Fabián Basabe instead (more on that later) — withdrew from the race last month, three months after he announced, and endorsed Peguero.
“We need someone who understands the legal process inside and out, who comes from an immigrant family, who converses with ease in a district where people speak to you first in Spanish, then English,” Davey said. Peguero’s father is from the Dominican Republic and his mother is from Ecuador.
Now, are either of these political newbies ready for Congress? Who knows?
Salazar, a Cuban American, is one of three Republican congressional incumbents in Florida being targeted this cycle by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The other two are Cory Mills (District 7, Deltona) and Anna Paulina Luna (District 13, Seminole). But this is familiar territory for Salazar, who faced nationally-backed opponents each year since she beat Democratic U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala in 2020. Despite that, Salazar won re-election last year with more than 60% of the vote.
Lamondin’s green — and not just in the eco-business sense. But one thing’s certain: if he keeps showing up where Salazar won’t, voters are going to notice.
Read related: Internal poll has Richard Lamondin in striking distance vs Maria Elvira Salazar
And he already has lined up some key people to help him amplify his message, aside from uber political consultant Christian Ulvert, who is handling his campaign. Lamondin will be joined Tuesday by representatives from the ACLU of Florida, a group of pastors, and dozens of Miami residents who are tired of watching their congresswoman disappear when it’s getting hot in here.
The town hall is from 7 to 830 p.m. Tuesday at St. James Baptist Church, 3500 Charles Ave.
So maybe Lamondin isn’t just some political rookie tilting at windmills. Maybe he’s found Salazar’s weak spot: She can’t take the tough questions from the people she supposedly represents.
And if María Elvira Salazar won’t show up for her constituents, why should her constituents show up for her next November?

If you would like to see Ladra write more about next year’s midterms in Florida, consider making a contribution to Political Cortadito. And thank you for supporting independent, grassroots government watchdog journalism. 

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Well, it’s that time of year again when homeowners open their mailboxes and get that little love letter from their city: the tax bill. And in at least nine Miami-Dade cities, it’s going to sting more than usual. Some of these hikes are jaw-dropping.
But for property owners in Pinecrest, it’s not as bad as it could be. In July, the city council approved a ceiling tax rate of 3.86 — or $3.86 per $1,000 of taxable property — which was a 64% tax rate increase. Sixty-four. That’s not a typo.
People got really riled up, however, and after three budget workshops — where one imagines there was screaming and chairs thrown — the council lowered that rate to 2.503, which amounts to an increase of about 15 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The average home in Pinecrest is valued at $2.1 million and that homeowner would pay an additional $314 in taxes under the proposed 20125-26 budget.
This is the rate that will be discussed at the first pubic hearing Tuesday.
“Resident input played a key role in guiding the Council’s decision-making, leading to the newly proposed lower rate,” says an update on the city’s website. So, now it’s only a proposed 6.5% increase.
Does that mean that the village pulled a bait and switch, intentionally setting a high limit to make a smaller increase more palatable? As in, ‘Whew, we dodged a bullet?’ But not really.
While residents will see the higher 3.86 millage rate figure on their tax bills, “this was solely a statutory requirement and not the final rate under consideration,” the Pinecrest website states. Florida law requires municipalities to set a proposed millage rate each July. Municipalities can go lower, but cannot go higher than this figure. And they can go lower still through the final budget hearing Sept. 16.
Read related: Miami-Dade’s billion-dollar disconnect: Tax collector flush, county in the red
During the budget process, people expressed concern that the increase was to pay for a discount version of The Return of Parrot Jungle and what some have said are unneeded projects like the SUP.
No, not ‘Sup, like your teenager greets you. SUP stands for “shared use path,” and the one on Ludlam Road could cost taxpayers a cool $4 million for just one stretch. That’s the second phase of a bigger plan to lace 11.2 miles of SUPs across the leafy village, with curbs and road widening included, because Mayor Joe Corradino apparently thinks Pinecrest is the Netherlands.
Because it is a predominantly residential community with limited commercial businesses and no industrial properties or tourism revenue, Pinecrest relies heavily on property taxes to fund nearly all village services. Mirroring Miami-Dade, this year’s budget process in Pinecrest has been challenging, with budget pressures that include:

Police equipment upgrades and competitive compensation to retain officers.
Inflation affecting insurance, materials, and operational costs.
Reduced state and federal funding.
Essential infrastructure maintenance.
Maintaining a $5 million emergency reserve for disaster response and federal funding delays.

The village has announced that it will still fund the following capital improvement projects:

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Looks like there’s a new kid sniffing around the mayor’s race. Well, not exactly a kid — he’s 51 — but definitely new to Miami’s political playground.
Fred Voccola, a tech bro with a billion-dollar company under his belt and its name on the arena where the Miami Heat play, is suddenly flirting with a run for city mayor. Why? Because he’s sooooo frustrated with corruption and “all this crap that goes on in City Hall.”
Ladra has to ask: Was it really the city’s failed stunt to delay the election, as he says, that finally pushed him over the edge? Or was it Mayor Francis Suarez whispering in his ear? You know? One tech bro to another.
Because this smells a little like a Baby X recruitment project. Suarez, who is termed out, needs someone to protect his “legacy” as the crypto-tech mayor and see his pet projects through. And while his dad has indicated an intention to run, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who was also the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami, is just too old school.
Read related: Ken Russell qualifies for November Miami mayoral race; ADLP dips one toe
And he also knows that papi is an underdog among the known potential candidates, who include current Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who was suspended after his 2023 arrest on public corruption bribery and money laundering charges that were later dropped, but lost a re-election bid to Miguel Gabela — and former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, the one who sued the city to get the cancelled mayoral and commission races back on the ballot. Francis is all about Francis.
So, who better than another wealthy “outsider” who buys into the Miami-as-Dubai fantasy?
After all, they do seem to admire each other. Suarez even had Voccola on his Cafecito Talk podcast three years ago. You can still see it on the mayor’s X feed.
Voccola says he can’t be bought. “Ain’t nobody gonna bribe me,” he told The Miami Herald last month, bragging that there isn’t enough money in the world. That might be easy to say, however, when you’re the co-founder and CEO (he just stepped down in January) of a software company with more than $1.5 billion in revenue had have personally parked $200,000 (or so he says) in your very own political action committee, Leadership for Miami’s Future, which filed paperwork with the state division of election last month, but was first called Moving Miami Forward.
He even dared people to try. Cute. But Miami doesn’t do cute — it does complicated. It likes messy.
The would be candidate, who sounds like a Francis Suarez reboot, also told the Herald last month that he wasn’t committed yet to the race — but voters started to get text messages over the weekend that indicate a campaign is in the works.
“Kaseya Co-founder Fred Voccola wants you to know: That park in your neighborhood that hasn’t been completed — it’ll be another year. The stalled drainage project causing your streets to flood — you’ll have to wait until after the next King Tide,” a text that came over Sunday afternoon reads. “The nearly $1 billion in lost economic impact from the Miami Marine Stadium Corruption Scandal — gone.
“And they’re al part of… the city of Miami’s 15% corruption tax.”
Ladra doesn’t know what Kaseya exit he pulled that number out of. Or if someone who serves on the FIU Board of Trustees with former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, a lobbyist who funnels campaign money from billboard companies and others into the PACs of electeds, can recognize corruption when its sitting right next to him.
“It’s the invisible 15% tax residents and businesses shoulder — it’s the price of inefficiency and rampant corruption across our city,” the text from Voccola read. And it sounds like the man is underselling — just 15%? — possibly for the first time ever in his life.
Read related: City of Miami election year change won’t make November ballot, after all
Voccola co-founded Kaseya and served as its CEO for about a decade. During that time, he moved the AI cybersecurity and IT management software company from Boston to Miami in 2018, and Kaseya expanded significantly, reaching over $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, growing to more than 5,000 employees, and executing 18 strategic acquisitions. In January, he stepped down as CEO and moved into the role of vice chairman. He remains responsible for long-term strategy and innovation, helping to steer the company toward a potential future public offering while the board seeks a new CEO.
Fred Voccola and Francis Suarez mutually admire each other in an episode of the mayor’s Cafecito Talk podcast in 2021.
Prior to Kaseya, Voccola had leadership roles at several software and internet technology firms. He was co-founder and president of Identify Software (later acquired by BMC Software), co-founder and CEO of Trust Technology Corp. (acquired by FGI Global) and president and general manager at Yodle (acquired by Web.com). He has also been affiliated with Nolio, Intira, and Prism Solutions.
He was the keynote speaker last April at the Miami Tech Summit at — where else? — the Kaseya Center, and delivered the Miami Dade College commencement speech to the class of 2025 three months ago (he promised to learn more Spanish if he gets invited back).
But among the tried and true super voters of Miami, Voccola has no name recognition. He has no campaign infrastructure. No track record in local government. What he does have is cash. Lots of it. Enough to write his own ticket onto the ballot with less than 10 weeks to go.
And let’s not forget the receipts: hundreds of thousands in donations to Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, and the Republican National Committee. That’s not exactly outsider status, no matter how much he wants to say he’s “not really political.”
Let’s see if Voccola really goes through with it, however. It’s all fun and games until you have to have to disclose all your financial business for everyone to see. Qualifying started Friday, but doesn’t end until Sept. 20. The election is Nov. 4. But with the number of candidates signed up or threatening to run for office, there’s likely to be a runoff.
Voccola insists Miami could be the first “AI-first city in the world.” But how out of touch is that? Voters in Miami are more concerned about potholes, parks, and police overtime than about ChatGPT running city government. Will the people who can’t afford rent in this “Dubai of the Western Hemisphere” connect with a billionaire Republican tech mogul who just parachuted into Miami politics?
Maybe. Stranger things have happened here. But if Voccola really wants to “destroy” the first person who tries something shady, he might want to start with the guy who talked him into this race in the first place.

Help Ladra cover this year’s city of Miami general election by making a contribution to Political Cortadito. And thank you for supporting independent, grassroots government watchdog journalism. 

The post Fred “Who?” Voccola could be a Francis Suarez reboot for Miami mayor’s race appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Palmetto Bay may be the “Village of Parks,” but right now it looks more like the Village of Political Theater. All over a patch of 8.7 acres of woods that have been sitting untouched for a century.
On paper, the property known simply as “The Woods” technically belongs to Miami-Dade County. But since 2019, the Village of Parks has been leasing it for the grand sum of $10 a year, promising trails and park amenities that never sprouted. Instead, what’s grown is the political posturing.
Now, as Monday’s budget hearing looms, Vice Mayor Mark Merwitzer is out front waving the green space flag, warning residents that Mayor Karyn Cunningham and her administration want to give the land back to the county — “abandoning” it and leaving it wide open to developers.
Read related: Palmetto Bay residents urged village to save Coral Reef Park tree…so they did
“This was supposed to be a park,” Merwitzer said, calling the move a “betrayal” of everything the village supposedly stands for and having a “press conference” about it last week.
Cunningham, meanwhile, says the vice mayor is making mulch out of molehills. She points out the Village has already tucked $9,000 into this year’s budget for maintenance and will be bringing a resolution in October to officially designate the parcel as parkland — a move that would keep it from development.
“There is no proposal to develop this land,” the mayor said in a statement, accusing the VM of straight-up demagoguery. “Residents deserve honest conversations about the budget, not political theater.”
But Merwitzer calls the $9,000 a joke and says that the village is under a “contractual obligation” to the county to turn the 8.3 acres into a pocket park by the middle of next year. “If we do not do that, the county has every legal right to take away that land form us and turn around and sell it to a developer,” the vice mayor said on a social media post over the weekend, urging residents to go to the first budget hearing at 7 p.m. Monday at Village Hall, 9705 Hibiscus St.
Many residents have already gotten flyers about the hearing delivered door to door.
And if you think The Woods are in danger, wait until you see what happens to your patience.
Because let’s face it: this isn’t just about the woods. It’s about who gets to play the hero in Palmetto Bay’s soap opera. Merwitzer wants to be the defender of green space. Cunningham wants to be the responsible steward of taxpayer dollars.
And residents? They just want their so-called Village of Parks to act like it.

If you would like to see Ladra write more about Palmetto Bay government and issues, consider making a contribution to Political Cortadito. And thank you for supporting independent, grassroots government watchdog journalism. 

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Ladra could have told you this was coming.
Donald Trump has been salivating for years at the idea of hosting the world’s power players at his Doral playground, the golf resort he scooped up in bankruptcy and turned into his Miami-Dade monument to himself. He tried to stick the G7 there back in 2020 until COVID got in the way. He wasn’t about to let another shot slip by.
So now, in 2026, the G20 summit of world economic leaders will land in… wait for it… Doral. Not “Miami,” like Trump kept repeating last week– with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez beaming and falling all over himself to thank him at his side in the Oval Office — but Doral. You know, that suburb best known for traffic or arepas.
Trump said the Trump National Doral was perfect because of the weather and nearby airport and insisted that we, the people of “Miami,” wanted it. Pero claro, who wouldn’t want thousands of cops, Secret Service agents, motorcades, barricades and headaches right in time for Art Basel? Doralites already know what traffic looks like when there’s a junior golf tournament. Multiply that by a hundred, add a few heads of state, and you’ve got December gridlock.
But make no mistake: this is all about Trump finally pulling off what he couldn’t in his first term. He has always wanted his name in the backdrop of world leaders’ photo ops, his Crystal Ballroom on the evening news, his private cabanas whispered about in security briefings. He gets to say he brought the G20 to Miami-Dade — while really bringing it to the only piece of real estate that matters to him.
And Suarez? Ay, the mayor couldn’t thank him enough, practically calling Trump the savior of the hospitality industry. “I know you own many hospitality assets and properties,” Baby X said. Wink, nod.
Read related: Donald Trump’s Gold Visa puts the American Dream up for sale for $5M
Never mind that the city of Miami won’t be hosting squat. It’s Doral that will be on the map, as Doral Mayor Christi Fraga quickly reminded everyone, already polishing the welcome sign.
“Doral is ready to shine. From business to culture, we’ll showcase our city on the world stage,” Fraga posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Residents of Doralzuela, where thousands of Venezuelans have remade their lives after fleeing the dictatorship back home, might not be as enthusiastic. The same president who is now trying to deport more Venezuelans than ever — even those who had legal protections just five minutes ago — wants to showcase their adopted hometown as his shiny global stage. He’ll fill his resort with heads of state while ICE fills planes with families.
Trump swears he and his own family won’t profit from the decision. ¿De verdad? At a resort he owns? Where every suite, cocktail, and catered lunch gets rung up at Trump National Doral? Ladra will believe that when the Venezuelan cartelitos stop laundering money through Doral condos.
So sí, the world is coming to Doral. But don’t let the White House spin fool you. This isn’t about Miami’s “global city” moment.
It’s about Trump finally getting to show off his golf course to the planet — even if he has to snarl traffic, crash Art Basel, and make Miami look like a backdrop for his resort ad in the process.
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With a lucky 13 candidates expressing interest in the Miami mayoral seat, now that Francis Suarez is termed out, only one qualified on opening day Friday: Former Commissioner Ken Russell.
Russell has been openly campaigning for months, after entering the race in March. The former District 2 commissioner resigned in 2022 to run for congress and lost in the Democratic primary against Annette Taddeo (who then lost against Maria Elvira Salazar).
Meanwhile, another former Miami commissioner, Alex Díaz de la Portilla — yes, the same one who was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis after getting slapped with bribery and money laundering charges in 2023 — filed his first paperwork.
Diaz de la Portilla, who has been campaigning in the shadows for months, didn’t qualify, however. Candidates have until Sept. 20 to do that. All he filed was a statement of candidacy and a form appointing a treasurer to a campaign account. Maybe he is still putting his financial information together. It’s pretty complicated. Or maybe he’s still threatening to run and won’t qualify.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is knocking, giving out mameys to be Miami mayor
“The ‘threat’ became a reality, mi gorda,” he texted Ladra Friday evening, after he sent a new photo of his same ol’ goodie bag, except now it has three mameys, an avocado and some sanitizing wipes in it. Did he have those left over from COVID supplies?
Except it’s still just a threat. He could have filed the forms he filed Friday months ago. Why didn’t he just qualify while he was at it?
ADLP might also still be thinking about it. Political observers say he may have a better chance at running to replace Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins — who has announced her own Miami mayoral bid — in the county’s District 5. He has run and lost there before. Right now, the only potential candidates are former State Rep. and onetime Miami Beach commissioner David Richardson, who lost a bid for tax collector last year, and former Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez, who lost the 2024 Republican primary for Miami-Dade sheriff, who is rumored to be asking around to see if he can get the funds (more on that later).
Filing and qualifying ain’t the same thing. There are ten other candidates who filed way before ADLP did. It does not mean they will all qualify. Higgins submitted petitions last month to qualify, but still has to submit her financial statement and other documents. Former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, the one who sued the city and got the election back on this November — after three commissioners tried to cancel it — is expected to qualify soon.
The others on the maybe list are former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, the current mayor’s dad, who was mayor of Miami twice, first elected in 1985 as the city’s first Cuban-born mayor, onetime congressional candidate Michael Hepburn, former Miami-Dade Community Council Member Christian Cevallos, perennial candidates Max Martinez and June Savage and first timers Alyssa Crocker, Ijamyn Joseph Gray and Linda Anderson, who doesn’t stand a chance as an official member of the Socialist Workers Party.
Let’s see how many of them pan out. But it’s almost guaranteed there’s going to be a runoff after the Nov. 4 election. And a poll last month indicates that contest could be between Higgins and Gonzalez.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo has also been threatening to run, coyly tossing out the notion that he may or may not on his daily morning “Loco Joe Show” on AM radio and attacking Gonzalez and Higgins on the regular. But he still hasn’t filed a single page with the city clerk.
Russell was the first and only one to qualify on Friday. He filed everything in the morning: the oath, a change in campaign treasurer, his financial disclosure and a voluntary, signed statement that he will adhere to fair campaign practices (let’s see if ADLP does that).
“It’s official,” Russell posted on social media. He said he will issue a statement over the weekend.
Russell likes to tell the story that his political career started with a sandbox. When the city wouldn’t clean up the contaminated park where his kids played, he rallied his neighbors and did it himself. It’s a great origin story.
From there, he parlayed the “dad with a mission” vibe into a seat at City Hall, where he talked about affordable housing, sea level rise, police accountability and fair wages. His current campaign is centered on affordable housing and fighting the corruption he says has so obviously taken over City Hall. “Miami must stop paying tens of millions of dollars in legal fees to defend the corrupt practices of elected officials and their staff and put that money to good use: Improving our neighborhoods,” he writes on his Ken Russell for mayor website.
Since leaving City Hall, Russell has been a lobbyist and consultant, most notably for the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club, a position he may have lost because of pressure from Higgins.
Read related: Eileen Higgins pressures Sierra Club and Ken Russell resigns as lobbyist
Before politics, Russell, who speaks five languages (six, if you count Miami Spanglish), was an international yo-yo salesman (yes, really), which took him to more than 50 countries. Now he says he’s ready for his toughest trick yet: cleaning up Miami City Hall the same way he cleaned up that little park.
“It seems like a mugshot is a prerequisite for running in the city of Miami,” Russell told Political Cortadito. “Voters are over it  and they are not letting Alex near the cookie jar again.”
The charges against Diaz de la Portilla — 14 felony counts from a public corruption investigation — stem from a pay-to-play scheme in which the commissioner was accused of taking campaign contributions totaling more than $250,000 to giveaway a public park to the owners of a private school outside his district. Actually in Russell’s old district. The charged were dropped last November, just weeks before trial. It was being handled by the Broward State Attorney’s Office after our esteemed Miami-Dade SAO, Kathy Fernandez-Rundle, recused herself. ADLP, who was arrested weeks before his re-election failed (lost to Commissioner Miguel Gabela), has been calling them politically motivated from day one.
Ladra bets we’ll continue to hear that refrain again and again as he continues to paint himself as some kind of victim. Like Donald Trump. But taxpayers will be the real victims if the city of Miami ends up paying his $1.3 million in criminal attorneys’ fees.
Anyway, Gabela is not termed out until 2027 and ADLP didn’t want to wait. Besides, the mayor’s office has always been his pipe dream. He has talked about it at least since he lost the state rep race in 2012 to Jose Javier Rodriguez.
And while he had not opened a campaign account before Friday, Diaz de la Portilla raised $278,000 in the second quarter, through June 30, for his political action committee, Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade. That includes $100K from the same couple he was accused of taking bribes from. The Dean has also been posting more regularly on social media, but for some reason started a brand new Instagram account in recent weeks, where he has basically been writing love letters to himself.
Read related: David and Leila Centner give fresh $100K to Alex Diaz de la Portilla PAC
“My commitment to the community is not measured by speeches, but by constant presence, by a sincere embrace and by truly listening to every neighbor,” he posted Aug. 25. “Being with our seniors, sharing with families, and walking through every corner of our communities is what inspires me and gives me the strength to keep moving forward.
“I firmly believe that leadership is built hand in hand with the people. Not from a distance, but from closeness sharing joys, concerns, and dreams. Politics only has meaning when it turns into concrete solutions that improve people’s lives, and that has always been my commitment.”
Cue the violins and the photo ops: Alex hugging viejitos in parks, handing cafecitos to abuelas, and pretending this is about anything other than clawing his way back into political power — one creepy abrazo at a time. It’s too predictable.
There are a whole two weeks for ADLP to make good on his threat, or Carollo for that matter. If Crazy Joe throws his hat into the clown car, he could be the second Carollo on the ballot. Brother Frank Carollo, who was the commissioner in District 3 before Joe, has filed paperwork to run for the same seat again. But the only one to qualify in that race is Yvonne Bayona, president of the Miami Historic East Shenandoah Homeowners Association.
Nobody has qualified in the District 5 race, where King may face one or two challengers: Frederick Bryant and Marion Brown have both filed some paperwork with the city clerk’s office indicating their intent.
The post Ken Russell qualifies for November Miami mayoral race; ADLP dips one toe appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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