Part of a series of profiles about the Miami mayoral candidates
If you listen to Emilio T. González long enough, you might start to believe Miami’s former city manager really is the retired Army colonel who’s going to march into City Hall, root out the corruption — and straighten everyone’s ties while he’s at it.
But then you remember — he used to run the place.
Yes, the same man now promising to fix the dysfunction in Miami government was knee-deep in it from 2018 to 2020, when he served as City Manager under Mayor Francis Suarez. Back then, González managed a $1.7 billion budget, 4,400 employees, and one very fragile relationship with Commissioner Joe Carollo, who spent most of those two years accusing him of all sorts of things, including forging documents about his own home improvements.
González, who jumped into the 2025 race early and has come out grinning from every debate, was cleared of those charges. But it’s no surprise that in this year’s mayoral race, the ex-manager and the always-litigious Carollo are circling each other again, both trying to look like the hero riding in to save Miami from itself. But Carollo is increasingly seen as a clown. And Gonzalez is the man who did actually get the race back on the ballot through a lawsuit after the city commission cancelled it to move the elections to next year.
Read related: Ethics board clears former Miami city manager Emilio Gonzalez in deck case
Nobody else did that. Just Emilio Gonzalez. He deserves the hero status that some are giving him.
He doesn’t come, however, without the ifs, ands or buts — weakness that are also his strengths
First, the GOP support. Gonzalez has gotten endorsements from Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and, even as far away as Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas. These aren’t exactly a shock — they share Republican credentials. Gonzalez was the director of the National Security Council under President George W. Bush and then served as the director of the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services department. And the city of Miami’s core elderly Cuban voters are solidly Republican, so it sells with them.
But these electeds do not typically weigh in on a city of Miami election and it does make one wonder how much control Gonzalez would give to the state and the federal government if he is elected mayor. He has already been attacked by the Miami-Dade Democrats in mailers and texts that refer to him as the MAGA mayor. Can we trust him? Will he help to deport our neighbors?
Are those matching suits?
Gonzalez said he will be a mayor for all of Miami. And, while he went to Tallahassee weeks ago to talk to Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia about the DOGE audit of Miami and sat in the front row of the invitation-only press event last week, has been courting the black vote hard, going to inner city churches on Sundays. “My allegiance is to the working families of Miami,” he told Political Cortadito.
And Ladra has spoken to some non-GOP voters who were so impressed with his knowledge and his plans that they will bubble in his name. They see him more like a Reagan Republican than a Trumpster, but his loyalty to the GOP is still a little unsettling.
His penchant to bring up his Army service is another weakness that is also a strength. While some voters respect it as a sign of leadership and patriotism, younger voters, Dems and independents might think that means he would welcome troops sent to Miami by the Trump administration.
Read related: Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins
The third strike is also seen as a plus in some ways, and that is his city of Miami experience. González has been part of the leadership circle before. Plus: He knows where all the bones are buried. Minus: He may have helped bury some of those.
He’s not some fresh-faced reformer stumbling in from the suburbs. This is a man who’s been a federal bureaucrat, a national security advisor, an airport boss, and the city’s top administrator.
He’s been inside the machine. Now he’s running on fixing it.
“I’m running to restore trust in City Hall,” González said at his kickoff event. “Our residents have lost respect for our leaders. They don’t believe anything they say.”
González’s campaign theme is fiscal accountability. He says he wants to audit the city’s $400 million Miami Forever Bond — $100 million earmarked for affordable housing and $300 million for resiliency — to find out, in his words, “where it went.”
“When I left the city, our budget was $1.5 billion. Today it’s $3 billion,” he says. “We have doubled in five years. We got $400 million from the bond, $140 million from the feds. Where is it?”
That’s a great question. The problem is, Emilio was sitting in the manager’s chair when that bond money started flowing. If there are accountability measures missing, it could be his fault. He could have built them in then.
Still, his message resonates with Miamians who are sick of watching the same people trade favors and feuds while the grass at the parks rises with rents. González says he’ll run a leaner government, cut property taxes, and prioritize police and firefighters — “the real public servants,” as he calls them. He has a bunch of endorsements from former and current law enforcement.
Read related: In Miami mayoral bid, Emilio Gonzalez goes for the law and order vote
He backs the governor’s plan to phase out ad valorem property taxes altogether, which sounds nice until you realize that money funds half the city’s general budget. His answer? “If families can tighten their belts by ten percent, so can the city.”
Sure, Colonel. But when was the last time a family’s “ten percent” came out of code enforcement and pothole repairs?
González’s backstory reads like a Miami patriot’s dream résumé: born in Havana, raised in Tampa, served 26 years in the Army, taught at West Point, worked in the Bush administration, worked as a lobbyist and ran Miami International Airport for four years before taking over City Hall.
He calls himself “battle-tested.” And it’s true — the man’s been through bureaucratic wars in Washington and political minefields in Miami.
But Ladra’s skeptical when lifelong insiders try to sell themselves as reformers. You can’t be both the firefighter and the guy who built the house out of matchsticks.
González’s resignation in early 2020 came amid mounting tension on the dais — and, let’s be real, a toxic culture that didn’t start or end with him. He said he left to care for his sick wife, which Ladra respects deeply. But the whispers that he was pushed out have never quite gone away.
Now, five years later, he’s back with a vengeance, promising to audit, cut, streamline, and sanitize the very government that once spat him out. He says he will end the abuse of power and weaponization of government by having “swift and serious consequences,” including termination, for employees who “intimidate, investigate, or retaliate against residents, whistleblowers, or small business owners. He also says he will create a “permanent oversight presence” at city hall by inviting the Florida State Attorney’s Office, the Floria Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO), the City of Miami’s new Inspector General Office, and federal law enforcement. Notice no mention of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the county’s IG or the county commission on ethics, which is another sign of his GOP stripes.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
Nobody doubts that Gonzalez, the only one of the front runners never elected before, is a serious contender. He consistently is one of the top three in polls, hanging with Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins and former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell. And is campaign financing is also on par with Higgins’, with a political action committee that has collected more than $900,000 since March, including at least $500,000 from his own asset-management firm.
That’s either confidence in his own campaign or the most expensive self-love gift in Miami politics this year.
Emilio González is polished, prepared, and pragmatic. He knows how the city runs — and how it breaks. He’s saying the right things about accountability and corruption. But this isn’t his first cafecito at City Hall. If Miami’s voters want a real outsider to clean house, they might not find him in the former city manager’s office.
Still, Ladra will give him this: when he says Miami deserves better, he’s not wrong. The question is whether the colonel’s brand of “reform” means new rules — or just new generals.
Because in Miami politics, the war never really ends.

Help Ladra bring you deep coverage of the city of Miami, the type of coverage you can’t get anywhere else, with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

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But the math ain’t mathing on $94.5 million in bloated budget
Leave it to Tallahassee to come to Miami and tell us we’re spending too much cafecito money.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia — the same Republican pit bull who used to run the state GOP and branded himself with the slogan “Government Gone Wild” — brought his latest traveling roadshow to downtown Miami Thursday to declare that City Hall has gone wild with spending.
Standing in front of a crowd of mostly friendly faces — and at least one mayoral candidate trying not to nod too much — Ingoglia wagged his finger at Miami’s $1.2 billion tax-funded budget, saying it’s “millions too high” based on inflation and population growth. Specifically, $95 million too high. This was a very performative presentation of the first findings of the promised state DOGE audit. That’s the Division of Government Efficiency that models itself after the national one.
Only problem? When reporters asked Ingoglia for the actual math, he said those numbers weren’t available.
So, basically: ‘Trust me, I’m from Tallahassee.’
Read related: Miami, two more Miami-Dade cities may have state DOGE look into books
He did say that if Miami had “kept spending in line” with inflation since 2000, the city would be spending about $95 million less today. But he didn’t say what should be cut — parks? trash pickup? code enforcement? — or how he’d handle the thousands of commuters who use city services every day without paying city taxes.
So, it was really just an invitation-only campaign event for former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who has gotten the endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and just about anybody on the state’s GOP train. Ladra fully expects Gonzalez — who was sitting in the front row like teacher’s pet, but didn’t speak (he’s too smart for that) — to use the event in campaign literature any day now.
Last month, Gonzalez posted a photo of himself in Tallahassee with Ingoglia, saying DOGE would do a full “deep-dive audit” once he becomes mayor. So, they’re not already doing it? What are they doing now? Just a quick perusal of the budget?
Ingoglia’s stop was really part of a statewide “cut the fat” tour he’s using to push his 2026 full term campaign — and possibly to help bossman DeSantis build support for a constitutional amendment to cap or even eliminate property taxes.
“We’re doing this in an effort for serious property tax reform,” Ingoglia said at the news conference, “including possibly the elimination of homestead property taxes altogether.”
He promised “detailed breakdowns” of wasteful spending “later,” but for now, it was more bark than bite.
When pressed on what “fat” he’d trim, Ingoglia punted, saying the city could afford raises for cops and paramedics if it stopped overspending elsewhere. Sounds great in a press release. Harder to do when you’re paying to keep the lights on and the streets clean for almost 500,000 residents and the thousands of people who work in the city but live elsewhere.
Read related: Miami Downtowners seek state DOGE assistance on tax relief from DDA
City Manager Art Noriega didn’t mince words. “Absurd,” he called it — and “absolutely politically motivated.”
The city fired back with a statement saying the CFO’s analysis was “incomplete,” “shortsighted,” and “unrealistic” for a major urban center that provides regional services.
“As Miami-Dade County’s urban core, the City of Miami serves as the government seat for the majority of city, county, state, and federal agencies. The urban core also houses most of our major corporations and attracts a significant number of visitors each year,” the city said in a statement that sounds a lot like a list of excuses.
“As the primary provider of essential services to those buildings and complex infrastructure, the City maintains primary responsibility for public safety and infrastructure management and operations. The City’s financial and operational stability remains vital to ensuring continued service delivery and sustaining economic vitality for residents, visitors, and the community at large. A formula applied to a suburban or rural city would never reasonably apply to a city that inherently is as complex and unique as the City of Miami.”
Translation: Nice try, Blaise, but this isn’t Hernando County (which he used to represent in the state senate).
And for the record, Miami has been cutting tax rates while growing services, Mayor Francis Suarez pointed out — conveniently from behind a press statement, not a podium.
Read related: Anthony Rodriguez, Florida lawmakers discuss elimination of property taxes
“Recent comments from Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia suggesting Miami ‘overspent’ by $90 million misrepresent the facts. Miami has shown real fiscal discipline, making tough choices to protect taxpayers while maintaining essential services,” said Suarez, who is termed out and looking for more work. He also took a dig at the state, which “has never reduced its 6 percent sales tax, the single largest tax burden paid by Floridians.
“What they’ve offered instead are short-term tax holidays and temporary exemptions, essentially tax gimmicks, not permanent structural relief. Meanwhile, the state’s budget has grown from $92 billion in FY 2020–21 to $117 billion in FY 2025–26, a $25 billion increase, or nearly 25 percent growth in five years,” Suarez said. “Miami isn’t overspending, we’re leading by example. We’re delivering results within our means, lowering taxes responsibly, and setting the statewide standard for efficient, accountable government.”
Ingoglia insists Miami’s got “a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed.”
That line drew a quick amen from — who else? — Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is also running for mayor and never met a “government waste” headline he didn’t love, unless it is about his own lawsuits or his own spending at the Bayfront Park Management Trust, which is another audit we’re still waiting for.
Carollo told The Miami Herald the city “has a lot of fat” it can cut, though Ladra wonders if that includes the extra lawyers they’ve hired to defend all those Carollo lawsuits.
This whole dog and pony show wasn’t really about spreadsheets or efficiency — it was about political theater. Ingoglia’s DOGE tour is setting up his election next year as well as the DeSantis-backed tax amendment campaign. And Miami, with its billion-dollar budget and flashy skyline, makes for the perfect villain.
It also doesn’t hurt that the headlines could help the Gonzalez mayoral campaign.
Ladra is not saying that there should not be an audit of Miami’s books. But it shouldn’t be a political message. It’s worth watching what those DOGE audits actually find — if anything ever makes it past the slogans. Because sometimes, the loudest watchdogs are just barking for votes.
And until Ingoglia shows us his work, this DOGE looks a lot more like a Chihuahua than a Rottweiler.

Help Ladra bring you deep coverage of the city of Miami, the type of coverage you can’t get anywhere else, with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

The post DOGE Days in Miami: Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia calls BS on city spending appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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While everyone’s gossiping about which of Miami’s 13 mayoral hopefuls will make it to the runoff — and whether Joe Carollo will start yelling before or after Election Day — voters might miss the fine print on the four ballot referendums that could quietly reshape City Hall.
Because the devil isn’t always in the candidates — it’s in the charter amendments.
After all the hand-wringing over the election year change — which was so important that the commission actually cancelled this year’s election to get ‘er done — that charger amendment will not be on the ballot. They couldn’t get it together in time, which kind of begs the question of how important it really was. Also, the lifetime term limits item was supposedly “intricately intertwined” with the election year change. Or was that just a sales pitch?
Read related: City of Miami election year change won’t make November ballot, after all
The referendums that did make it to the ballot are:
The ‘We should’ve done this 30 years ago’ charter review commission
The first ballot question is the most harmless-sounding: create a Charter Review Commission to review the city’s constitution every ten years. Apparently, Miami’s been winging it for decades.
Commissioner Ralph Rosado, the new kid on the dais, says he was “surprised” to learn there was no system for regular charter reviews. Welcome to Miami, Ralph. Around here, we don’t fix the roof until it’s raining inside.
Each commissioner, the mayor, and the city manager would appoint one member — which means yes, it will still be political, but at least it’ll be scheduled. The group would hold public hearings, take input, and recommend changes that might later end up on the ballot.
Ladra’s verdict: It could be politically charged. It will be more bureaucracy. But it’s a necessary evil.
PS: Don’t be surprised if the “public hearings” end up happening in front of the same ten political insiders who show up for everything. You know who you are.
The ‘Trust us, we’ll get a fair price’ land sale loophole
This one should make taxpayers clutch their wallets. The city wants to loosen the rules for selling city-owned land — a change pushed by City Manager Art Noriega, who says the current system makes it too hard to sell “excess” property.
Right now, the city needs three bids or voter approval to sell land worth over $500,000. This amendment would let the City Commission approve the sale with a 4–1 vote if they can’t get enough bidders. Voters would still have to approve the sale if it’s waterfront property.
Read related: The city of Miami wants to sell your public land with no public vote
Noriega says it’s just about two leftover residential lots in The Roads neighborhood that the city could not turn into pocket parks, but c’mon. This is Miami. “Excess property” today could be “exclusive luxury development” tomorrow.
Las malas lenguas say this could be about the sale and redevelopment of the Miami Police Department headquarters, which sits on a pricy piece of property in the downtown.
Ladra’s verdict: Hard no. The words “City of Miami” and “real estate deal” in the same sentence should always make you nervous. The city does not have the best track record with its stewardship of public land.
P.S.: Somewhere, a lobbyist just heard this and ordered another bottle of Dom.

The ‘No more gerrymandering (we promise this time)’ redistricting reform
After a federal judge tossed Miami’s last redistricting map for being racially gerrymandered — yes, that actually happened — the city agreed to create a citizens’ redistricting committee to draw future maps.
This referendum would ban maps drawn to favor or disfavor incumbents. Translation: no more slicing up Coconut Grove or Little Havana to protect commissioners’ turf.
It’s part of a lawsuit settlement that already cost taxpayers nearly $1.6 million in attorneys’ fees, thanks to the NAACP, GRACE, and other community groups who were tired of commissioners playing political Sudoku with neighborhoods.
Read related: Miami redistricting map is thrown out again, ACLU’s map is in for now
Ladra’s verdict: About time. But we’ll see how “independent” these “citizens” really are once commissioners start whispering their names into the mix.
P.S.: Expect at least one “concerned citizen” to be someone’s cousin. Probably a cousin with a PAC.
The ‘lifetime ban on professional politicians’ term limits
Here’s the one that’s got City Hall veterans clutching their pearls. Commissioner Damian Pardo’s referendum would create lifetime term limits — two terms for mayor, two for commissioner, period. No more sitting out a term and boomeranging back like a bad sequel.
That’s bad news for Miami’s political lifers who’ve been haunting City Hall since the 1980s. But of course, they managed to carve out a Carollo-sized loophole.
The first version of Pardo’s plan would’ve barred Joe Carollo from ever holding city office again, but the final version says that filling a vacancy — like when Joe became mayor in 1996 — doesn’t count. So, yes, Crazy Joe can still run.
Meanwhile, Frank Carollo is trying to reclaim his old District 3 seat, meaning Miami voters could end up with both Carollos back in power. Somewhere, the city charter just groaned. This amendment would prevent that kind of thing from happening again. So, Keon Hardemon might have to make other plans.
Ladra’s verdict: Vote yes. If we ever want a future that doesn’t look like a rerun from 1999, it’s time to send the dinosaurs to retirement — permanently.
P.S. Someone tell Joe this means he might actually have to get a hobby. And no, suing the city doesn’t count.
Read related: Bait and switch on lifetime term limits proposal for Miami mafia politicos
The bottom line is this: These four referendums don’t have glossy mailers or attack ads, but they’ll quietly decide how much control Miamians actually have over their own government — or whether the same five people keep calling the shots.
So after you bubble in your picks in the mayoral and commission races Nov. 4, scroll down that ballot. Read the fine print. Because in Miami, the quiet questions are sometimes the ones that matter most.
And if you don’t, don’t complain to Ladra later when your tax dollars end up paving the driveway of someone’s “excess” property.

Help Ladra bring you deep coverage of the city of Miami, the type of coverage you can’t get anywhere else, with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

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It’s become a tradition in Miami to establish a new residency so you can run for office. And District 3 Commission candidate Rolando Escalona admitted to Ladra that he had moved to a small apartment in East Little Havana after his home, a duplex in West Little Havana, was drawn out of the district and into District 4 in the redistricting process.
So Denise Galvez Turros, who is also running in District 3, fulfilled another tradition: She filed a lawsuit earlier this month to try to get him kicked off the ballot over what she calls a “sham” residency — with less than two weeks left before the election is decided. Ladra wrote about the discrepancy. But instead of letting voters decide, Galvez Turros wants a judge to decide who lives where.
The trial is set for next Tuesday — just six days before the Nov. 4 election — and three days after early voting starts Saturday. Because, you know, nothing says “democracy” like trying to knock your opponent out of the race when people have already started casting ballots.
Read related: Where does Rolando really live? A new case of Miami’s political address dance?
Filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the lawsuit filed Oct. 14 claims that Escalona doesn’t really live in the apartment he listed on his qualifying papers. The city charter requires candidates to live continuously in the district they are running in for a year. Galvez Turros says he and his wife actually live in District 4, based on a mortgage refinance agreement they signed in February that lists that address as their “primary residence.”
That, she says, is the “single most compelling piece of evidence” that Escalona is ineligible to run.
Escalona, for his part, says it’s all political theater from “longtime insiders who will do anything to hold onto power.”
“I live where I say I live,” Escalona said in a statement. “I work hard for my community, and I’m running to bring accountability and integrity back to City Hall. I am a resident of District 3 and am proud to call this community my home.”
His attorney, former state Rep. Juan-Carlos “JC” Planas, who lost a race last year for supervisor of elections, argues that Escalona meets every residency requirement under the law — and that the whole case is “baseless and part of a coordinated political strategy” by Miami’s “entrenched power structure” to eliminate a legitimate threat to the establishment.
“Any suggestion otherwise is a deliberate distortion of facts designated to mislead voters and manipulate the media narrative during a critical election,” Planas said.
That might not be far off. Because let’s be real: Galvez Turros has been going after Escalona for weeks in glossy, expensive mailers that practically scream desperation. And now she’s asking a judge to get Escalona out of the race altogether, because she doesn’t think she can beat him fair and square.
Political observers say that both Galvez And Escalona are competing for a slot on the runoff ballot against former Commissioner Frank Carollo, brother to Joe, who used to represent the district eight years ago. Because the other three candidates — Yvonne Ballona, Brenda Betancourt and Oscar Elio Alejandro — aren’t a threat to anyone. Ladra bets Galvez hasn’t even checked to see if any of them really live in the district. But she went out of her way to get Escalona’s business records, which show the 26th Avenue address, and his wife’s business records.
Read related: Denise Galvez Turros announces she’ll run for Miami Commission in District 3
Miami-Dade Civil Court Judge Beatrice Butchko Sanchez, in granting an emergency motion to expedite proceedings, zeroed in on another detail entirely: a homestead exemption on another property outside the district — claimed by Escalona’s wife, Astrid Gonzalez Nieto, and first reported right here on Political Cortadito.
The judge — who was assigned the case after Judge Abby Cynamon recused herself on Tuesday, said it was a presumption thqt the husband and wife would live together and noted they can only have one homestead exemption. “If you’re claiming a homestead exemption for one property,” she said, “that’s your homestead. Unless somebody’s willing to admit that that’s fraudulent.”
Planas pushed back, saying Escalona has no homestead exemption and that plenty of political couples live separately for residency purposes. “If the property appraiser wants to go after Mrs. Escalona for homestead fraud, that’s a completely separate issue,” he said.
Really? Did JC just throw the candidate’s wife under the bus?
Also, the judge didn’t care. The candidate is just as guilty by association. “I don’t understand how you could be running for an elected position and at the same time have your spouse not following the law when it comes to homestead exemption,” Butchko Sanchez said.
It’s almost like she works for the Galvez campaign. But the optics are messy. Especially in Miami, where residency rules have a long history of being — how shall we say — flexible.
“Mr. Escalona’s sham residency is fatal to his candidacy,” Galvez and her attorney, Reid Levin, say in the complaint. “Mr. Escalona cannot swear to his bank that his primary residence is outside the district while swearing to the city clerk that his continuous residence is within it. This documented pattern proves his intent was never to make the District 3 address his permanent, fixed home.”
But the argument falls hard on one thing: The home he used to live in was in District 3 until they carved it out during a ridiculous redistricting process that ended in court settlement and a judicial order. Escalona is only outside the district because of that. He’s just doing the same thing that Commissioner Miguel Gabela did so he could keep running in District 1, where he always lived, after his house was drawn out of the district intentionally (it was eventually drawn back in). He moved to establish residency. There is nothing illegal about that.
And, as much as she’d like to, Galvez — whose campaign has been smeared with her old arrests for DUI (2010) and credit cards theft (1994) — doesn’t have the first clue about anybody’s intentions. Escalona, whose wife and mother were living at the duplex when he first moved to Little Havana, has since signed a lease on a larger apartment in the same building, because they are expecting their first child. They could rent out the duplex. They could sell it. They could do a lot of things.
Read related: Alex Díaz de la Portilla: Telenovela villain or Miami’s comeback kid?
And even if Judge Butchko Sanchez sides with Galvez, it may not matter.
By now, ballots are printed, mailed, and already being returned. Early voting starts Saturday. Miami-Dade Elections lawyer Oren Rosenthal said it’s too late to remove anyone’s name. The most the court could do is order signs posted at polling places — telling voters that ballots cast for Escalona won’t count — and suppress results after the fact.
And who does this help the most? Why, Frank Carollo, of course. He’s going to head into a runoff against a wounded soldier, either way. He’s just sitting back and enjoying the show.
Because this lawsuit looks less like a good-faith challenge and more like a last-ditch Hail Mary from a candidate who knows she’s behind. Would Galvez Turros be taking this to court if Escalona wasn’t making inroads out there? She may be hoping to win in court what she seemingly can’t win at the ballot box. Because in Miami, if you can’t beat ’em… you sue ’em.
And, if she doesn’t get him kicked off the ballot, it could go either way. Voters might be twice bitten, all of a sudden shy to vote for someone who they aren’t sure lives in their district. Or, if they know Escalona, and they know he has always lived in D3 — and moved precisely so he could still represent them — they could see Galvez as an opportunist and decide not to reward her.

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

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Part of a series of profiles about the Miami mayoral candidates
Let’s go back to the metaphor of Miami as telenovela, where City Commissioner Joe Carollo is the loud, unruly uncle who gets to the wedding late and gets into a fight. Former City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who is also running for mayor in the Nov. 4 election — is the show’s star villain.
ADLP somehow instigated the fight, como la mosquita muerta that he is, then took credit for stopping it and slept with the bride in a broom closet just a few steps from the open bar where he sealed a backroom real estate deal with another former elected who served time for mortgage fraud. All before, as the best man, he toasts the happy couple.
This fictionalized scenario could be part of the biography of the middle child of one of the 305’s most dynamic political dynasties. Before his fall from grace in 2023 — when he was suspended by the governor after his arrest on public corruption charges that included bribery and money laundering (later dropped) — Diaz de la Portilla had been a state rep, a senator and Florida Senate Majority Leader, a respected political consultant who helped craft the state’s medical marijuana legislation and is likely responsible for getting Congressman Carlos Gimenez elected to county mayor in the historic 2011 post-recall election.
His older brother Miguel Diaz de la Portilla was a state senator and, before that, a Miami-Dade Commissioner — the one who created the super majority requirement for building beyond the urban development boundary — and is now a lobbyist representing developers and businesses, focusing on land use, zoning, and permitting issues. His baby brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla was a state rep for one term and a Miami-Dade School Board member for two, and has lost several state, county commission and judicial races since.
The boys — who sort of look like they walked out of a 1980s mob movie in this picture — also have an invisible sister named Maria, who is not in politics and is never seen or heard.
Alex is by far the loudest and most bombastic in the family and has been representing parts of Miami for decades, building a career trading on experience, contacts and an instinct for the inside game.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla finally cons his way back into office in Miami
But he hit on hard times after losing a bid to return to the state house in 2012, followed by a loss in a 2017 state senate primary to former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz (who then lost to Annette Taddeo) and another loss in the 2018 special election to replace Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who resigned to run for office. He didn’t even make the runoff, coming in third behind Barreiro’s wife, Zoraida Barreiro, and Eileen Higgins, who went on to win the seat and is now in the mayoral race with ADLP and 11 other candidates. Because Miami.
In 2019, Diaz de la Portilla ran for city commission — in District 1, not District 3 which is where his actual house was. He wanted everyone to believe that he lived with his brother Renier, his brother’s partner and their child in a two bedroom apartment by the Miami River and not at the Little Havana house he grew up in. But some of the time he lived at the East Hotel in Brickell.
That’s part of what got him in trouble. When he was arrested in September 2023, it was tied to alleged schemes involving campaign money and pay-for-play accusations that included accommodations at the hotel and food and drink and a viewing party suite for one of Renier’s ill-fated campaigns for public office. Diaz de la Portilla was accused of taking more than $250,000 in cash contributions to his political action committee as well as in-kind payments for the hotel and entertainment from David and Leila Centner, the owners of The Centner Academy, who wanted to build a sports dome for their students at a public park across the street. Alex made it happen at the commission, by basically gifting them the park.
The Centners, by the way, have given Diaz de la Portilla’s PAC at least $100,000 for this election.
The criminal case, was sent to Broward County after our esteemed Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez-Rundle recused herself — she had a relationship with the lobbyist that was arrested with ADLP — and they dropped it last year, saying it did not hold up (read: they bungled it).
Read related: Miami’s Alex Diaz de la Portilla arrested on corruption, pay-for-play park deal
But it’s not off brand for Diaz de la Portilla, who has been accused in a series of scandals, aside from his residency question, leading up to his arrest that included:

The discovery of not one, but two ghost employees stealing taxpayer dollars, including Jenny Nillo, a longtime campaign operative and mortgage fraud convict who was drunk driving around doing errands for Diaz de la Portilla in a city car, drinking beer out of a paper bag-wrapped can. Among her duties: Delivering his dry cleaning and picking up his sauce.
The alleged shakedown of the Rickenbacker Marina operator in a scheme where he allegedly promised his vote in exchange for a piece of the pie. A judge dismissed the case last year.
An illegal, alcohol-serving, “pop-up” nightclub in Allaphattah that he was caught at, where he told the code enforcement officer to “walk away.” The officer, who cited the property owner for several violations, Suzann Nicholson, was later fired for failing to “protect” the commissioner.
The late night Beacon Boulevard accident in the city car, where Diaz de la Portilla was “passenger one,” but never named in the accident report, which was managed by the city attorney. We ultimately learned it was his driver/sergeant at arms’ fault, but we never learned who the female passenger was. The other car was allegedly totaled. There was no sobriety test.
Disappearing COVID gift cards. Hundreds of them.
Using the redistricting process to protect his incumbency, drawing an opponent out of the district, and to help out Joe Carollo carving his home into District 3, so he wouldn’t lose it in the $63.5 million judgement against him for violating the First Amendment of two Little Havana businessmen.
Hiring former City Commissioner Humberto Hernandez, who has been arrested on election fraud and mortgage fraud.
Taking political committee donations from former Commissioner Marc Sarnoff at the same time as he was voting on the LED billboards that Sarnoff was representing.

Meanwhile, he lost his childhood home to foreclosure and is in a nasty divorce with his second wife, who he has accused of stealing his mother’s jewelry.
Told you this was telenovela stuff. Someone, call Netflix.
Read related: Body cam video shows ADLP at illegal club; tells code inspector to ‘Walk away’
This campaign for mayor is more like a redemption tour after his charges were dropped. Diaz de la Portillo, who pleaded not guilty, had always called the charges politically motivated. In campaign ads, he compares himself to President Donald Trump and says the radical left tried to shut him down.
He’s doubling down on the anti-woke vote with a second commercial that promise no men in women’s bathrooms. Because that’s more important to him than affordable housing or traffic or sustainability
Still, the underlying theme is that he was vindicated. Which isn’t exactly right. He wasn’t acquitted. The state just couldn’t prove its case.
But while the dismissal cleared him legally, and opened the door for his latest run, it may not have cleared him politically, or in the public eye. Diaz de la Portilla, who lost his re-election bid for the commission in 2023 to Miguel Gabela, did not make the cut in the NBC/Miami Herald debate of candidates who polled at least 10%. Even former Miami-Dade Commissioner Mayor Sir Xavier Suarez was invited.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla rides the Trump train to ‘vindication’ in new video ad
What does Diaz de la Portilla bring to the table? A deep knowledge and understanding of political horse-trading, a fat Rolodex, and the ability to rattle opponents. What does he brings to the microscope: a record that opponents will happily re-air, and a track record that could lead voters to ask whether the “comeback” is redemption or a rerun. In a crowded field of 13, this kind of polarizing résumé could make it to the runoff.
Díaz de la Portilla is Miami politics in microcosm — polished, practiced, bilingual and never boring.
Why voters should squint before they smile: critics will point to the optics — the arrest, the suspension, the late-night mugshots and the messy headlines — and say that a mayor should be above even the appearance of misconduct. Supporters will point to his long track record and argue that the charges were dropped and the man was vindicated.
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With “Crossing gates” and crossed fingers
After years of promises, delays, and more ribbon-cutting photo ops than actual buses, the so-called Bus Rapid Transit system — now rebranded as the MetroExpress — is finally set to open later this month.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who inherited the project from former mayor Carlos Gimenez, now a Congressman, took reporters and the Herald Editorial Board on a “demonstration ride” last week — part victory lap, part PR cleanup — of the county’s first all-electric rapid bus service along the stretch between Southwest 152nd Street and 168th Street. Riders were treated to air conditioning, Wi-Fi, cell charging stations, and a little political spin.
The county wants everyone to believe this is “rail-like.” But let’s be honest, people: It’s still a bus. A very nice, all-electric bus — the longest BRT line in the nation, according to the county — but not the Metrorail train leg to South Dade that voters were sold more than 20 years ago when they agreed to the half-penny transit tax.
Remember that? That was supposed to build real rail from Dadeland to Florida City. Instead, residents are getting a dressed-up bus line — and they’ve been waiting since 2018 for even that.
The 20-mile MetroExpress will run in dedicated lanes along U.S. 1, with 14 stations and all the modern trimmings. The county says the ride from Homestead to Dadeland South will take under an hour during rush hour — instead of the current 1 hour and 40 minutes. That’s good news for the 200,000 people who live within a mile of the corridor.
But here’s the kicker: Those rail-style crossing gates, the same that are used for trains, will block cars so the buses can glide through without delay. They will be coming down at major intersections every few minutes during rush hour, from 6 to 9 a.m. heading north and from 4 to 6 p.m. heading south. Because nothing says “rapid” like more flashing lights and horns on your morning commute. The rest of us? We wait. Even off-peak, the buses get a little green-light favoritism.
Is that a built-in ridership incentive? South Dade drivers may soon be sitting behind flashing red gates watching the buses fly by. Maybe that’s why county officials say the super buses will convince people to ditch their cars.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission to discuss $245 million South Dade Transit station
If not it’s going to be a huge waste of public money. The BRT cost about $300 million, one-third of that from federal money. Rail, the county says, would have cost more than $1 billion and wouldn’t qualify for federal transit grants because of low ridership projections. And last year, the commission approved the construction of the $245 million South Dade Transit Operations Center, a new, state-of-the-art facility designed to support the BRT. The “first-of-its-kind facility” will maintain, recharge and dispatch a fleet of 100 new electric buses. The SDTOC will also serve as a vital emergency command center and is scheduled for completion in Summer 2026. 
None of that has stopped South Dade residents from feeling shortchanged. For decades, the stretch between Dadeland and Florida City has been the forgotten rail corridor — always promised, never delivered.
Instead, Miami-Dade’s transit expansion dreams keep shrinking with every administration. From the SMART Plan to “rail-like buses,” every big fix seems to end with a cheaper substitute.
And will people ride it?
That’s the $300 million question. Even with sleek stations and no extra fare to transfer to Metrorail, the county hasn’t said how much actual time the average driver would save by switching. And once they get to Dadeland South, BRT riders still have to get off the bus and onto the train — another point of friction that could turn would-be commuters right back to their cars.
As established earlier, there are already about 200,000 people living within a mile of the BRT line. And more are coming. The county’s new transit oriented development incentives will bring new mixed-use and residential projects along U.S. 1.
Read related: Miami-Dade makes affordable housing strides with transit oriented projects
In April, La Alcaldesa and Commissioner Kionne McGhee celebrated the grand opening of the first phase of Quail Roost Station, a 200-unit development that brings affordable housing for seniors to Cutler Bay.
Mayor Levine Cava calls it a “transformative project.” Maybe. Or maybe it’s just the latest example of how Miami-Dade keeps paving over its own transit promises — one glossy ribbon-cutting at a time.
Here’s the final stop: If this thing really works — if people truly start riding it instead of just tweeting about it — great. Miami-Dade desperately needs a win in public transit. But if not, the MetroExpress may become another expensive reminder that South Dade asked for a train and got a bus with better PR.
Either way, mark your calendars for Oct. 27. The gates are coming down. Literally.

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