Proposed law would force him to call special election
While everybody and their tio knew that former State Rep. Vicki Lopez was getting appointed to the Miami-Dade Commission seat vacated by Eileen Higgins and her Miami mayoral run, the governor still sat on his hands instead of calling the special election the minute her resignation hit his inbox. And now? Congratulations, HD 113. You are officially the next Florida district going into the 2025 legislative session with zero representation.
No seat. No vote. No voice. Nada.
There are already five candidates chomping at the bit: Three Republicans and two Dems. But apparently, the governor likes to wait until the celestial alignment suits him politically. It’s practically tradition at this point.
Read related: Three wannabes are vying for House seat 113 — but there’s no election yet
This isn’t an isolated pattern — it’s a whole Ron DeSantis production. Just look at Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties, where voters also won’t have lawmakers in place when session gavels in next month. Why? Because the governor took 73 days to call a special election after promoting Sen. Jay Collins to lieutenant governor, and 67 days after tapping Rep. Mike Caruso for a county clerk post. Both special primaries are now scheduled for the same day the 2026 session starts — and the general elections won’t happen until after session ends.
That’s not a coincidence.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit earlier this year after DeSantis blew past legal deadlines again for the vacancies in Florida State House District 3 and Senate District 19 seats.
Even Jeb Bush and Rick Scott — not exactly humanitarians — at least understood you don’t leave entire districts voiceless for months. Historically, governors have called special elections within a week of a vacancy.
But apparently our governor likes to run the Legislature with empty chairs as long as they’re in districts that won’t affect his agenda.
HD 113 should be livid. They’re already missing out on committee weeks — that’s where lawmakers build relationships, negotiate bills, and get carve-outs for their constituents. Instead, residents of Brickell, the Roads, and Little Havana are stuck watching everyone else get their legislative wish lists in while they sit on the sidelines.
And here’s the cruelest twist: there’s legislation filed right now that would stop this nonsense.
Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky dropped SB 460 this week, and it basically says: Basta. Senate Bill 460 would force the governor to call special elections within 14 days of a vacancy — or within five days if the vacancy is close to session. It even creates a legal escape hatch: if the governor refuses to do his job, any voter in the district can petition a court to set the dates.
Imagine that — Floridians being able to compel their governor to let them vote. What a radical concept.
Except, of course, HD 113 will not get that luxury this year. Their seat is empty now, the session clock is ticking, and DeSantis is —surprise, surprise — already behind. Again.
There are already five candidates interested in the seat, but they’ve had to file under the 2026 election timeline.
Read related: Two more jump in: Bruno Barreiro, Gloria Romero Roses join HD 113 race
In the red column, we have former Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barrerio, who resigned in 2017 to run for Congress and also served in the State House from 1992 to 1998 — grassroots, small businesses owner Tony Diaz, who had applied for the D5 appointment, and former chief of staff to Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño (before he was arrested and charged with bribery in 2013) Frank Lago, a onetime Hialeah council candidate who also ran for state house a long time ago in that Northwest District.
Democrats are hoping that this is an opportunity to flip a seat and there are two blue candidates already: Newcomer Justin Mendoza Routt, president of both the Historic Bayside Civic Association and the Miami-Dade Young Democrats, and Gloria Romero Roses, who ran for Congress once against David “Nine Lives” Rivera.
Lopez is also listed as the “active” incumbent. But she’s no longer interested. On Monday, she filed paperwork to run in the county District 5 race in August. Maybe Barreiro should run against Lopez, instead. Her election is not a gimme.
And who knows when the special election in HD 113 will be announced?
Ladra can already hear the spin from Tallahassee: “It’s complicated.” “We’re evaluating.” “It takes time.”
Por favor. When the governor wants something — like suspending a Democratic prosecutor or launching a vanity presidential campaign — he moves with lightning speed. When it’s democracy? Pues… mañana.
Too bad the people of HD 113 — including Key Biscayne, parts of Coral Gables, and parts of Miami — won’t have anyone in the room when lawmakers decide whether to pass Polsky’s bill. That irony tastes like a cafecito that’s been sitting out all day. Cold. Bitter. And preventable.
But hey — maybe silence is representation now. At least in Ron DeSantis’ Florida.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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Don’t laugh, but this week will be “Artificial Intelligence Week” in Tallahassee. Because if there’s anything our elected officials need more of it’s that, right?
And just next week? Nah. Of course not. It’s always artificial intelligence day in Tally. This week is just when it’s official
Florida House Speaker Daniel “Danny” Perez has declared Dec. 8th through 12th “Artificial Intelligence Week” and has assigned a group of lawmakers to spend the final interim week “studying the growing effects of AI.”
It makes sense if you think about it: They are surrounded by artificial intelligence every session — lobbyists writing bills, ghostwritten talking points, and those press releases where legislators pretend they understand technology beyond their iPhones.
But this is different.
“We all recognize that AI may open new economic vistas,” Perez wrote in a memo earlier this month, before immediately throwing in a warning. “At the same time, we see stories about how AI can be abused, have adverse effects on education, or harm emotionally vulnerable users.”
Ladra didn’t know he was talking about TikTok-addicted teenagers and the Florida Legislature, but mira, he’s not wrong. Recently, an older Republican relative asked about a story she saw on her feed about the Marco Rubio clinic that doesn’t exist.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, has already been warning about “very dangerous” impacts of AI — though somehow not as dangerous as the bipartisan bill he vetoed this summer that would have actually studied its impact on Florida jobs. That bill passed with only one dissenting vote, probably the one legislator who still thinks Ask Jeeves is a thing.
Read related: How long should Florida’s guv be able to spend on a ‘State of Emergency’?
This is not completely new to the legislature. Last year, DeSantis did sign a bill requiring disclaimers on certain political ads made with AI. So now campaigns will be forced to tell voters when the lies were generated by machines and when they were generated the old-fashioned way: by political consultants.
He also signed a bill creating an advisory council on new technologies. Which, judging from past advisory councils, will produce exactly one glossy report no one reads and then disappear into the same drawer where the state keeps its “inflation relief gas cards” and “COVID data transparency.”
Back in Miami and not to be outdone, former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who is in a tight runoff for mayor, rolled out a whole tech-future vision last month. Blockchain, crypto, AI — all the buzzwords. Miami as the world capital of emerging tech. Jobs, innovation, unicorns, pixie dust. Ladra has seen this movie before. It starred Francis Suarez, cost the taxpayers a fortune and ended after the FBI started asking questions.
But sure, let’s do it again.
And while Speaker Danny Perez and the Tallahassee brain trust spend the week “exploring” the promise and perils of AI, Congress is already moving on one of the biggest, scariest threats out there: the scammers.
A new bipartisan bill — yes, bipartisan, a word as rare in D.C. as a Miami commissioner without a side hustle — would jack up the penalties for con artists who use AI to fake voices, faces or entire identities. It’s called the AI Fraud Deterrence Act, sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat who actually understands technology, and Rep. Neal Dunn, a Republican from Maryland who probably just knows a good idea when he sees one.
Read related: Miami’s mayoral race has gone full partisan – just like Ladra warned
Under their proposal, anyone using AI tools to create fake audio, video or texts to commit fraud could get slammed with $1 to $2 million in fines and 20 to 30 years in prison. That’s mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering — you name it. Oh, and if you use AI to impersonate a government official? Up to $1 million and three years in the slammer. No get-out-of-jail-free card just because the voice on the line isn’t technically “you.”
“Both everyday Americans and government officials have been victims of fraud and scams using AI,” Lieu said, warning that it’s not just grandma getting tricked out of her savings anymore. It’s national security in the crosshairs when someone can clone a Cabinet secretary’s voice for kicks.
And that’s not hypothetical. It’s literally happening. Federal investigators are still chasing down whoever spoofed calls and texts earlier this year using White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ number — calls that went to senators, governors, CEOs and anyone else on speed dial. Donald Trump himself confirmed that “they breached the phone” and tried to impersonate her. Several of the VIPs told reporters the voice sounded AI-generated. Ladra bets it didn’t try to sell them solar panels or miracle gummies, either.
Then there was the summer drama when bad actors were impersonating Secretary of State Marco Rubio — yes, we’re still getting used to saying that — sending bogus voicemails and encrypted messages to foreign ministers and elected officials. Rubio has been deepfaked before, too, including a clip that made it look like he told CNN he’d pressure Elon Musk to shut off Starlink in Ukraine. (Relax, Elon. Nobody’s coming for your satellites. Yet.)
And it’s not just politicians. Taylor Swift has had her face and body dragged into every kind of AI-generated basura imaginable — scams, porn, political attacks. Meanwhile, President Biden had his voice cloned in a robocall scam cooked up by a Democratic consultant trying to help Dean Phillips in the New Hampshire primary. (Phillips didn’t win, but the consultant did get himself a federal investigation, so there’s that.)
Read related: Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz touts new RoboCop car
So while Tallahassee hosts panels about whether AI can help you pay your water bill or catch potholes faster, Washington is dealing with the version of AI that can tank a bank account, a campaign or an entire government.
Perez wants House members to show up this week with “questions and opinions.” Which is cute, considering most of them usually show up with pre-printed position sheets from the governor’s office or their handler and the vague fear/hope someone on their staff remembered to charge their tablets.
The Speaker also called the issue “complicated by the rapid emergence of this complex technology,” which is Tallahassee-speak for: “We don’t know what the hell this thing is but we already plan to regulate it.”
He wants subcommittee chairs to “facilitate” discussions about the positive and negative impacts of AI within their specific areas — consumer protection, education, public safety, economic development, etc. Facilitate? That’s a fancy way of saying attempt moderation while half the members try to figure out if AI is the thing that drives Teslas or the voice in their grandkid’s video game.
Honestly, Ladra is all for Tallahassee studying artificial intelligence. If they study it long enough, maybe they’ll get some artificial knowledge. Or who knows — maybe next session they’ll pass bills written by ChatGPT instead of the same 10 lobbyists who’ve been ghostwriting laws since the Jeb Bush era.
Either way, mark your calendars: Dec. 8–12, the Florida House tries to learn what AI is during Artificial Intelligence Week.
Artificial. Intelligence. Week. In Tallahassee. Where the artificial part is abundant and the intelligence… bueno, we’re still looking.

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Eileen Higgins is bringing in backup this Sunday to early voting in the Miami mayoral election. And not just any backup — she’s flying in Arizona’s newly minted U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego, the Marine-turned-politician who just made history as the first Latino to represent that state in the Senate.
Very impressive. Muy cute. But Ladra has one question: Why this guy?
No, seriously. Gallego, who has campaigned with Bernie Sanders and embraced his role as a liberal firebrand, has an impressive resume. But what does a senator from Arizona — famous for cacti, dry heat, and Kari Lake — have to do with the City of Miami election, where the biggest natural disasters are man-made and usually sitting on the dais at City Hall?
She’s not alone. Former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez has promoted his endorsement from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. But at least Cruz is half Cuban. Gallego is half Colombian, half Mexican.
Read related: Miami’s mayoral race has gone full partisan – just like Ladra warned
Higgins, the former Miami-Dade commissioner who is now the leading candidate for Miami mayor (at least according to her campaign), announced a full day of early voting events this Sunday: churches, a GOTV rally in Hadley Park, a phone bank, and probably a selfie marathon.
And now La Gringa added Senator Gallego to the program — which looks very much like a national Democrat trying to sprinkle some star power on a local race that has been dominated by corruption headlines, the “affordability” crisis and the ghost of Francis Suarez’s Bitcoin fantasies.
Higgins’ campaign message is all about restoring trust, ending corruption, and cleaning up the political toxic spill that is our beloved 33132. And Miami does need a cleanse. A political colonic. Un despojo.
But does bringing a senator from the other side of the country help?
Look, Ruben Gallego is a compelling guy: A Marine Corps veteran — he served in Iraq in one of the hardest-hit units — and Harvard grad, the son of immigrants was raised working class and became a Latino trailblazer in statewide office. Kudos. He talks about corruption and government accountability with credibility. Fresh.
Read related: Early voting starts Friday for runoffs in Hialeah, Miami and Miami Beach
On paper, yes, he’s the kind of national figure who can energize Democrats, inspire veterans, and appeal to working-class Latino voters. But Miami is not a normal city. Our political landscape is a surreal telenovela with federal subpoenas, lobbyist entanglements, questionable contracts, and commissioners who behave like they’re auditioning for a new reality TV show on Bravo.
So Ladra has to ask: Is this really about galvanizing voters — or about boosting Higgins’ national brand?
Because Gallego doesn’t have deep roots here. ¿Que pinta el aquí? Just because his last name ends un a vowel? The Miami political machine is hyper-local. Hyper-tribal. Hyper-tropical. And Arizona Latino politics has little in common with Miami Latino politics. So why bring him?
The answer might be the vibe. There is one thing Gallego brings that may actually resonate here: He talks like someone who’s been through real struggle and real sacrifice.
His story is working-class, military, immigrant-rooted. He wrote a book about his service in Iraq and dealing with PTSD. Miami voters — especially in Allapattah, Flagami, Little Havana, Little Haiti, North Miami, and the West Grove — respond to authenticity and survivors. They respond to people who didn’t start life with a silver spoon or a condo on Brickell.
Higgins, for all her experience, has struggled to connect emotionally in the way some Miami politicians do. She’s knowledgeable, she’s policy-driven, she’s competent — but Miami politics is a performance art.
Gallego might humanize her campaign. Give it some grit. Some corazón.
Read related: DNC goes ‘all in’ for Eileen Higgins in hyper partisan Miami mayoral race
And maybe Higgins wants voters to see her alongside someone who has built a national reputation for “calling out corruption” — which definitely fits the vibe of a city where the FBI should honestly get its own office at City Hall.
But let’s not pretend this isn’t also about headlines. Gallego is a rising star in the national party. Bringing him here draws cameras, donors, and maybe even a few Miami Dems who only come out during presidential years.
It screams: “Look at me, I’m the serious candidate!”
But Ladra will be watching whether the Gallego visit turns into a genuine community push, or a carefully staged photo-op tour to boost a campaign that’s been too quiet, too safe, and maybe a little too polite for a city where politics is blood sport.
Higgins says she wants to restore trust and end corruption. Bueno. Lovely goal. We all want that.
But Miami voters might care more about whether she can stand up to — and clean up after — the political animal farm that City Hall has become.
Bringing Ruben Gallego may help her look tougher, louder, and more connected.
Or it may just make people ask… “Y este tipo… quién es?”

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here.Ladra thanks you for your support.

The post Eileen Higgins Brings Senator Ruben Gallego to Miami — pero, why? appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Miami’s supposedly nonpartisan mayoral race has blossomed into a full-blown red-versus-blue circus. Just like Political Cortadito warned months ago.
This week, any last veneer of “nonpartisan municipal election” finally dissolved like azúcar in a cortadito. Now we’ve got U.S. Senators, congressional hopefuls, national party operatives — even Mayor Pete Buttigieg chiming in from afar, and taking the wind out of former Commissioner Ken Russell‘s sails. Russell also endorsed Higgins in recent days.
It’s enough partisan branding to make a swing-state voter blush.
Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who very much wants to be the first female Miami mayor, isn’t hiding the D next to her name anymore — even if the ballot technically does.
Read related: DNC goes ‘all in’ for Eileen Higgins in hyper partisan Miami mayoral race
On Friday, the Higgins camp posted a video of Buttigieg, a former Presidential candidate and U.S. secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025, right before she rolled out a parade of Democratic electeds for the first day of early voting: Sen. Shevrin Jones, Rep. Ashley Gantt, Rep. Wallace Aristide, U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Jenkins, and David Jolly, the former GOP congressman turned MSNBC Republican-in-Exile turned Democrat gubernatorial candidate.
On Sunday, she’s importing U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, the rising-star Democrat from Arizona and the first Latino elected to the Senate from that state. A national figure. A border-state Marine. A progressive fighter. A complete unknown in Miami. What does an Arizona senator have to do with potholes in Shenandoah or the turnover at City Hall or whatever’s happening at Virginia Key this week? Nada.
But, like Buttigieg, he’s got star power.
Is Higgins trying to send a national signal? Court Latino pride? Show Democratic muscle? Or is this a warning flare that she needs to beef up enthusiasm in a fractured Democratic base in a city where party labels don’t always behave the way party operatives wish they would?
Not to be outdone, the Emilio González campaign had its own partisan coming-out party. The Republican Party of Miami-Dade threw a “Get Out the Vote” rally at Versailles — because where else do Republicans in Miami go to get their photo-ops and croquetas at the same time?
Read related: Eileen and Emilio headed to Miami mayoral runoff as voters end the circus
Special guests included U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who apparently took a break from signing her 120-page book version of her undignified “Dignity not citizenship” legislation, and red meat-loving Miami-Dade Commissioner Rob Gonzalez, whose aspirations to higher partisan office are no secret. With a “Keep Miami red” theme, it was practically a GOP pep rally with its own Cuban cafetera soundtrack.
On Saturday, anticommunist crusader Alex Otaola, who lost a bid against Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava last year but wants to recall her because he can’t take no for an answer, organized a caravan of support for Gonzalez.
Emilio, the retired colonel, is leaning all the way into the Republican embrace — and he isn’t pretending otherwise. He even says he’ll bring “real reform and accountability,” which is rich considering Miami’s corruption has historically been a bipartisan sport dominated by Republicans.
But hey, no one’s shying away from the branding anymore.
So what does this mean for the average Miami voter?  Two words: voter fatigue.
Turnout is under 12%, and has favored Democrats so far, but Republican voters are closing the gap in early voting. Still, with Democrat and no-party-affiliation voters almost double the number of GOP voters, it seems almost certain that Higgins will win if this is a partisan race.

But Miamians sholdn’t vote based on party registration in city races. They should vote on la calle, on relationships, on whether trash gets picked up on time and whether their rent went up $700 last month. I mean, who cares what the DNC or RNC thinks about the Baywalk?
Both campaigns are pushing national politics into local ground, dragging Miami voters into a proxy battle they didn’t sign up for.
Independents, who are the fastest-growing chunk of the voter rolls, are likely to see all this and roll their eyes so hard they’ll need chiropractic care. They just want a mayor who keeps developers from paving over their neighborhood, stops commissioners from publicly embarrassing us on national TV, and maybe, just maybe, isn’t under federal investigation.
Is that too much to ask?
Read related: Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins
This partisan squeeze comes with some risks. For Higgins, it’s looking like the candidate of national Democrats instead of local residents. For González, it’s looking like the GOP’s Miami beachhead instead of an independent city leader.
Miamians have a long history of not liking being told how to vote by outsiders — whether they come from Washington, Tallahassee, or even Broward.
And now both sides are doing exactly that.
So yes, the race has gone hyper-partisan. Just like Ladra warned weeks ago when this whole thing started smelling like a DNC versus RPOF turf war disguised as a municipal election.
But here’s the real chisme: In a city where half the voters don’t trust either party, and where corruption is the only truly bipartisan tradition, this nationalizing might backfire on one or both campaigns.
Miami voters may simply ask: Who’s actually going to fix the mess at City Hall — and who’s just trying to score national points?

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here.Ladra thanks you for your support.

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It’s been a while since we had a good recall, right?
Temporarily stalled by a “technicality,” an alleged attempt to boot Mayor Daniella Levine Cava from office was revived this week faster than you can say caravana anticomunista.
The increasingly noisy effort is led by none other than Alex Otaola, the YouTube firestarter who sees communists the way some people see potholes: everywhere, and all the county’s fault. He also lost a mayoral bid against Levine Cava last August, getting in third place with almost 12% of the vote, which seems like a lot. Until you count ’em and realize 250,000 people voted against him.
Is this just sour grapes?
Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava crushes challengers in re-election
The planned recall, which hasn’t really technically begun, briefly hit a speed bump last week. Supervisor of Elections Alina García took to social media to announce that the county clerk couldn’t accept the recall petition as submitted because her office couldn’t provide the format.
“Residents recently attempted to file a petition to recall the Miami-Dade County mayor but the Clerk’s office cannot approve the form of the petition because the county code still requires the petition to be in a format determined by the former Elections Department — an office that no longer exists,” Garcia wrote, trying to be cheeky.
“While our office is now an independent constitutional office, the county code has not yet been updated to reflect this change, through no fault of our own,” she wrote. “Since taking office in January, we have been working with the county to resolve this issue so citizens have a clear and lawful way to petition their government.”
She said that her office had already provided the same form that the old Elections Department. Which, like, seems logical. The process didn’t change. Just the person in charge. But she said that she needed a “formal agreement with the county that authorizes our office to carry out these duties.”
She thanked Chairman Anthony Rodriguez for putting it on the Dec. 2 commission agenda. “We are hopeful that this will finally resolve the issue so voters can fully exercise their rights without interruption,” Garcia wrote.
Except it wasn’t on the agenda yet. Ladra looked. It was later added to the agenda in the form of a resolution sponsored by Commissioner Oliver Gilbert to “clarify” that the elections supervisor is, in fact, allowed to do the job she already thought she was doing.
And like that — poof — the problem evaporated. Unanimous vote. Crisis averted. The petition lives to fight another day.
Barby Rodriguez, the chief of staff for County Clerk Juan Fernandez-Barquin, — and daughter-in-law to Congressman Carlos Gimenez — said the office would get back to the petitioner “with a response shortly as to whether the petition is approved or not as to the form.” Once it is approved, Otaola — who formed a political action committee called Recall Cava in October — has to collect about 61,000 signatures.
Read related: Mayoral wannabe Alex Otaola wants to bring McCarthyism to Miami-Dade
The ballot question is simple: “Should Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava be recalled?” To the point, but unnecessarily brief.  State law limits the number of words in a recall ballot question to 15 for the title and 75 for the text. This petition question has left 66 words on the table.
State law also does not require a reason for a municipal mayoral recall. Remember when former Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Alvarez in 2011? There was no reason stated then either.
That recall effort against Alvarez — and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Natasha Seijas — began in September 2010 after the county passed a budget that raised property taxes by as much as 14% and increased the salaries of county employees by a total of $132 million. A whopping 88% of the voters unseated them.
This recall feature the same budget complaints after Levine Cava closed a $400 million hold in the county coffers during budget season.
One almost wonders if the little detour was performative. After all, wouldn’t all the former elections department functions automatically become part of the SOE’s purview? Is there anything else we haven’t thought of? The only two speakers at Tuesday’s meeting were there to urge commissioners to approve the measure. And the effort got more ink in the past few days than it ever had before. Nobody outside Otaola’ echo chamber knew there was a recall effort.
And the petition filed Nov. 21 by attorney Ricci Carabeo of VPP Law Firm, on “behalf of his client” just happens to be in the right form. How did that happen if the elections supervisor couldn’t provide him with the form before Tuesday?
The change.org petition was started by Mercy Perez, who was also one of the speakers Tuesday, more than seven month ago. It’s got more than 4,600 signatures — totally symbolic because they have to sign on paper and some are not even Miami-Dade voters.  But make no mistake: this show belongs to Otaola, who opened a political action committee in October named Recall Cava.
Otaola may have finished third in last year’s mayoral race, but he didn’t exactly fade into obscurity. Why would he? He’s got 475,000 YouTube subscribers — more than 19,000 people watching live on a random weeknight — and a very engaged base that treats “Hola Ota-Ola” like it’s the gospel according to San Alex.
And now those followers are being told it’s their civic duty to remove La Alcaldesa from office before the communist apocalypse arrives. Or before Eileen Higgins becomes mayor of Miami. Otaola, who helped push Bryan Calvo to mayoral victory in Hialeah, is backing former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez in the Miami runoff and had one of his famous caravans to support Gonzalez Saturday.
Or before Afghan refugees storm Coral Gables. Because Otaola took the tragic shooting in D.C. involving an Afghan man and somehow used it to attack Levine Cava for welcoming Afghan refugees to Miami-Dade three years ago.
Read related: Bryan Calvo breaks the Hialeah machine, wins mayor’s race outright
Local Democratic strategist Christian Ulvert, Levine Cava’s longtime campaign consultant, wasted no time reminding everyone that Otaola was “rejected by 88 percent of voters” in the 2024 election. According to Ulvert, this is all a “deeply flawed and miscalculated political stunt” by someone who is “not a serious leader.”
He also called Levine Cava “a popular leader” with “deep love and respect” from voters, which is probably why she won her re-election with a solid 58% of the vote in the first round. But its also exactly the kind of thing political advisors say right before the panic texts begin.
Ladra’s not saying Otaola is right. Let’s be clear: his politics are a spicy stew of fearmongering, Trump cult identity, and the kind of Cold-War-era communist hunting that would make McCarthy blush.
But he isn’t irrelevant. Not even close.
This is a man who can snap his fingers and send dozens of flag-waving SUVs clogging up intersections. He can turn an unfounded rumor into a talking point. He can drive 20,000 people into a livestream on a Wednesday night. There are elected officials — plural — who take him seriously. Commissioner Senator Rene Garcia was quoted in the media hinting he might be supportive of the recall.
“I too, have had some issues in reference to some of the park funding that we see, and I have been asking for information, that we are yet to receive that,” Garcia told NBC6 Miami. “So if I am one Commissioner that is struggling, there may be others that are doing the same.”
Of course, everybody says he wants her office. There are at least three other current commissioners looking at it, too. You know who you are.
Otaola and his team must get signatures from 4% of the registered voters in Miami-Dade County, about 61,000 signatures. They have an unlimited amount of time to collect them, but once they are submitted and verified, a recall election must be held within 90 days.
The petition is almost certainly going to be cleared for takeoff by our Republican Supervisor of Elections, who some say was elected to stop all Democrats from moving forward in Miami-Dade.
Whether Otaola gets the signatures is another matter. Sixty-thousand-plus verified voter John Hancocks is no joke. Ladra doubts that half he has that many registered voters in his subscriber list.
But what’s undeniable is this: Alex Otaola has built a real political machine out of a YouTube show, and county hall is paying attention — even if they pretend they aren’t.
The recall may be a stunt. But the movement behind it? Not as easy to dismiss as some Democrats would like.
The post Recall effort vs Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is now on track appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Three days of early voting for the election runoffs in Miami, Miami Beach and Hialeah start Friday and end Sunday. Election Day is Tuesday. After that, we will have a new mayor and new commissioner in Miami and new representatives in the other two cities.
But the races in Miami, where almost 13,700 voters have cast mail-in or absentee ballots as of Thursday, are the main attraction.
In the mayoral contest, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins — who just gave up three years on her seat to run for the top job in Miami — is facing former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who sued the city to get the elections back on in the first place after commissioners voted to move it to 2026 (and extend their terms by a year).
Read related: Eileen Higgins heads into partisan Miami mayoral runoff with momentum
Higgins is the front runner and is poised to become Miami’s first female mayor — following her BFF Daniella Levine Cava‘s historic election as Miami-Dade’s first female mayor. We may soon have two La Alcaldesas.
Turnout is below 8% as of Thursday. But let’s be clear: Without Gonzalez, nobody would be casting ballots in Miami right now.
Ladra thinks he could have won if he hadn’t gone hyper partisan. Gonzalez will be kicking off the early voting weekend Friday at a “Keep Miami red get-out-the-vote” rally at Little Havana’s venerable Versailles restaurant, sponsored by the Republican Party of Miami-Dade and featuring Sen. Rick Scott and Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar.
Also on the ballot is the commission race in District 3, where Joe Carollo is termed out. His baby brother Frank Carollo, who held the seat for eight years before Joe, is running against political newcomer Rolando Escalona, the manager at the popular downtown Sexy Fish. This one is more of anyone’s guess. Frank Carollo — who famously does not get along with his brother — has the name rec. But Joe lost the mayor’s race even in his own district, indicating voters may not want four more years of a Carollo.
And Escalona, for a newbie, has a lot of political support, including the same Higgins machinery run by consultant Christian Ulvert. So, let’s not underestimate him.
Read related: Miami Beach commission runoff: Two women, one seat — and the city’s future
In Miami Beach, you have the uber partisan race between longtime City Hall staffer Monica Matteo-Salinas, who has worked for two city commissioners, and MAGA-backed lawyer Monique Pardo Pope, the daughter of a Hitler-loving cop-turned-serial killer executed in Florida by lethal injection in 2012 who she calls her “hero” on social media that has since been scrubbed. She is also backed by the Christian Family Coalition, which is kind of a double whammy.
Behind Matteo-Salinas you have Commissioner Alex Fernandez, one of Matteo-Salinas’ former bosses, and Commissioner Laura Dominguez — both of whom won re-election rather easily Nov. 4.
“Monica is exactly the kind of leader Miami Beach deserves — compassionate, capable, and committed to doing what’s right for our residents,” Fernandez said. “She understands the seriousness of government and the respect our residents deserve.
“Having worked directly with Monica, I’ve seen firsthand the years she spent helping people navigate City Hall with compassion and integrity — fighting for families, schools, safety, and the character of our city.”
Dominguez echoed Fernandez’s confidence in the single mom and PTA veteran’s ability to serve effectively.
“Monica Matteo-Salinas has earned the trust of our community through her years of service, her compassion, and her results-driven approach,” Dominguez said. “She knows Miami Beach and our potential. Monica is exactly the kind of voice we need on the City Commission: experienced, empathetic, and focused on the issues that matter most to our residents.”
Who does Pardo Pope have, besides Daddy cheering on from Hell? Commissioner David Suarez, whose brother-in-law was arrested in the wee hours of Election Day last month — driving an unregistered golf cart that reportedly belongs to Suarez — after being caught on video removing Dominguez campaign signs and replacing them with developer’s favorite Fred Karlton’s.
Oh, and the bigots at the GOP and CFC, which might as well merge into one at this point.
Still, very few people are interested. Only 3,435 people have voted via absentee or mail-in ballot so far, according to the supervisor of elections website. That’s just over 8%.
Read related: Bryan Calvo breaks the Hialeah machine, wins mayor’s race outright
In Hialeah, where there are two open council seat runoffs, we have less than 5% turnout, with only 3,741 absentee or mail-in ballots received so far.
Gelien Perez, who worked for the city’s Human Resources Department, got 40.5% of the vote Nov. 4 and faces Jessica Castillo, who works in medical insurance sales and came in second with 36% in the Group 3 race. Perez was investigated by the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics & Public Trust, which concluded that there were signs she used her city position to benefit her private real estate business. Several of her real estate clients were also city employees under her supervision and, during that period, received substantial raises.
Now, that’s a great marketing plan.
In the Group 5 race, university student William “Willy” Marrero — the only candidate on Mayor Jacqueline García-Roves’ slate who didn’t lose Nov. 4 — got 25% of the vote in a five-way contest and faces land surveyor Javier Morejon who got just over 23%. This will likely be a close race. The difference in the first round was just 235 votes.
Morejon was chairman of the Hialeah Beautification Board and former vice chairman of the Miami-Dade County Historic Preservation Board. Marrero has served as an intern for Miami-Dade Commissioner Rene Garcia and as the administrative assistant to Hialeah Councilman Luis Rodriguez, who was re-elected Nov. 4. He also serves on the city’s centennial committee. The 21-year-old Florida International University student could become the youngest councilman elected ever, taking the record away from Mayor Elect Bryan Calvo, who was elected a commissioner at age 23.
“That’s okay,” Calvo told Political Cortadito. “Records are meant to be broken.”
Calvo also told Ladra that he has endorsed Perez, who was on the slate with mayoral candidate Jesús Tundidor, and Marrero, who was the interim mayor’s ally, in the two races. “I sat down with all four of them,” Calvo said. “I thought it was important to be conciliatory with the other camps. And out of the candidates there, I think these two are the best ones.”
For a full list of hours and locations for early voting, go the Supervisor of Elections website.
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