What is possibly the nastiest race ever in the city of Coral Gables ended Tuesday with the election of a lawbreaking newcomer who used a shadow Trojan political action committee to attack his opponent with lies.
Attorney Jorge Fors beat former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, 51% to 49% with a 173-vote lead, which is not a mandate but enough to win the seat. Only provisional ballots remain to be counted, but the gap seems too wide for it to make a true difference.
It was close all the way to the end and Cabrera never came close to the 753-vote lead he had on Fors in the first round, when there were four wannabes running in Group 4.
Read related: Coral Gables voters return Raul Valdes-Fauli, send two to runoff
The first votes reported Tuesday were absentee ballots and Cabrera got 51% of those, which represented a slight 87-vote lead. But with 87% of the precincts reporting, those same percentages switched sides and Fors was winning with a 128-vote lead. That expanded to 166 votes with 96% of the precincts reported.
By then, Cabrera — who entered the runoff with 39% of the vote to Fors’ 30% — had conceded defeat.
Cabrera was cast by Fors as a pro-development career politician, but both had development and real estate interest money in their campaign. Cabrera raised $55,450 during the two weeks leading to the runoff and Fors raised $37,175. Their totals raised were $184,920 and $166,425, respectively.
But someone — we don’t know who — also spent at least $50,000 on five mailers from a shadow Trojan PAC on Fors behalf. The Jensen Beach-based Leadership for Florida’s Future has no expenses and no contributions listed for March, so we won’t know who the new commissioner’s benefactors are until May 10th or 11th.
Read related: Secretly-funded PAC attacks Ralph Cabrera with mystery mailers, lies
If even then, because the people who run the PAC told Ladra early on that the first mailer was not sent by them.
Voters elected Tuesday a man who committed homestead exemption fraud, claiming an exemption on this Little Havana condo he did not live in for eight straight years. This is something you have to fill out and apply for every year in March. So it’s not like he made a one time mistake.
The fact that he “self reported” months after he opened a campaign account and three months before the election — also right around the time Ladra started asking around about it — does not mean that he didn’t try to cheat his neighbors, indeed all of us, by paying less property taxes than he was supposed to. For eight years.
Read related: Florida Bar investigates candidate Jorge Fors for homestead fraud
They elected a man who is under investigation by both the Florida Bar and the State Attorney’s Office and whose political action committee smeared Cabrera with vicious lies in an attempt to make voters stay home, which apparently worked.
There are 33,144 registered voters in Coral Gables and 6,026 voted, representing just over 18%. The first round April 9 had a 26% turnout, which means that more than 2,400 voters decided to stay home for the runoff.
Commissioner Fors must be so proud.

Read Full Story

When it comes down to it — and there are less than 24 hours to vote — we can’t trust Jorge Fors with the future of Coral Gables.
This is a man who cheats on his property taxes for eight or nine years in a row — filling out a bogus homestead exemption on a Little Havana condo each March. A man who doesn’t respect the democratic vote of a group of Little Gables residents and thinks he knows better and wants to impose his will.  A man who hides behind a mystery PAC to smear his opponent without disclosing who is funding those lies.
“This is the first time in Coral Gables that I see this negative campaigning with blatant lies based out of a shadow Trojan horse PAC,” said Commissioner Vince Lago, who is supporting former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera in the race (as is Commissioner Pat Keon).
“The idea that you can just be ambiguous and attempt to destroy not only someone’s political career but their character… that to me is unacceptable,” Lago said, adding that he is concerned about the PAC’s investment.
Read related: Secretly funded attacks Ralph Cabrera with mystery mailers, lies
There have been at least five mystery mailers sent for Fors by the Jensen Beach-based Leadership for Florida’s Future political action committee since mid March — but nobody knows who paid for them. That’s at least a $50,000 investment from a special interest that wishes to remain hidden for some reason that can’t be good.
“This is a serious financial commitment to the impact of a campaign,” Lago said. “Who would want to make that impact?”
That’s a really good question. Who is Fors going to work for if elected? How can voters trust him not lie, cheat or steal the taxpayers’ money?
Sure, Ralph Cabrera has his faults but nothing like that. He’s moody and can be sarcastic. He doesn’t mince words and is brutally honest. He won’t just tell people what they want to hear. An insurance consultant, Cabrera is a little nerdy and anxious. He is both self-deprecating while sometimes having a chip on his shoulder. If you cross him, he might write you off.
But Ladra would say those are slight faults and most could be beneficial in a public official.
Read related: Florida Bar investigates candidate Jorge Fors for homestead fraud
The key word is honest. He would never cheat on taxes or lie about a homestead exemption — if only because it would haunt him 24/7.
And he loves Coral Gables. All he wants to do is protect the city from over-development and help it move forward with smart initiatives. He did a lot during his 12 years on the commission and, before that he served on the planning and zoning board and other committees. He wants to keep the quaint quality of life that he and his family have enjoyed for decades.
Jorgie-Come-Lately, who bought a house a year ago, hasn’t done anything for the city. He hasn’t even sat on a committee. He has no track record — except the negative campaign he’s run — and zero history in Coral Gables civic life. Ladra believes he hasn’t even been to one commission meeting.
Most of all, he has proven before and throughout the campaign to be dishonest. When it comes down to it, we don’t really know who he is. And we don’t really know who is behind him.
That is why we can’t trust Jorge Fors.

Read Full Story

The commission seat runoff in Coral Gables has gotten nasty with back-to-back hit mailers attacking former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera with lies and innuendo.
They come from the same Jensen Beach political action committee that sent three anti-Cabrera pieces in the first round — so we know now they are on behalf of candidate Jorge Fors.
But we don’t know who is paying for them.
Leadership for Florida’s Future has no contributions or expenses listed through March, even though at least one of their mailers landed before March 22. And the next reports, which will reflect any activity in April, aren’t due until the second week in May — which means we won’t know who paid for the attacks until after the election.
That’s not a coincidence. That is by design.
Read related: PAC says it did NOT send hit piece on Ralph Cabrera — so who did?
Fors’ campaign manager continues to insist it isn’t them.
“I have no idea where it comes from,” said Steve Marin, who worked with the Leadership for Florida’s Future PAC in 2018 and billed them $63,000 for what he said was work on state primaries.
“I work with 20 PACs,” Marin said. “I have one print house, one mail house, and if I mail it, I have my number on it.”
It’s not his number on the mailers, but Marin has worked on campaigns the PAC has worked on before.
Curiously, the PAC used a different permit number on the mailers sent in the runoff. Ladra can’t find out whose it is — but the Florida Division of Elections or the State Attorney’s Office, which has been asked to look into it, could.
The PAC is run by Michael and Debbie Millner, who told Ladra they didn’t send the first one in March. Subsequent attempts to reach them have not been successful. And they have not returned several messages, so perhaps we shouldn’t believe it.
Read related: State attorney looks into mystery mailers in Coral Gables election
After all, Leadership for Florida’s Future is known for its negative shady work, mostly (if not exclusively) on behalf of Republican state candidates, as far away as Orlando and Sarasota. Closer to home, the PAC was used in 2017 by the Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz campaign for the special senate race against Annette Taddeo.
Diaz also had Marin as a consultant.
And political observers have pointed out that the mailer used the same font as another Marin client, Andrew Vargas against State Rep. Javier Fernandez in House District 114 last year.
So what’s the interest in this little ol’ Gables race? Who is paying for the Cabrera hits?
It could be developers and real estate interests, some of whom have already contributed to Fors’ campaign, according to his latest campaign report. Because while Ralph is for smart development, he has said repeatedly that he would defend and stick by the city’s current and strict zoning code.
It could be the hourly no-tell motels who, like Fors, are against annexation of Little Gables, where one of those establishments flourishes.
Whoever it is, however, is lying.
One of the mailers says Cabrera is pro development But photos used to scare the anti-development voters are of Brickell Avenue, not downtown Gables. And, as stated earlier, Cabrera vows to hold developers to as of right density and height standards, not an inch more.
Read related: In House 114 race, Andrew Vargas won’t speak for himself; lets PACs attack
The other mailer brings up an old and unsubstantiated accusation against Cabrera from a resident who was angry that he wasn’t able or willing to close her street. Police investigated the incident and, after witnesses told them it never happened, found it to be bullshit.
“Exceptionally cleared” is what it says in the police report, which changed the woman’s status from “victim” to “reporting party.” She didn’t even go to the police right away because first she wanted to talk to her lawyer.
But Fors and those in his campaign want to keep as many Cabrera voters as they can from the polling places Tuesday. They know he will perform better on Election Day. And they can’t afford that.
This is voter suppression and voters would be wise to ignore it.

Read Full Story

In what looks like yet another desperate attempt to gain votes through fear and misinformation, Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors sent an email blast Wednesday vowing to fight annexation.
But Jorgie-Come-Lately — who apparently hasn’t been to a single town hall meeting on the annexations — got a few things wrong.
“The reality of annexation is that our fire and police department will be forced to assume responsibility for a larger area and more households without additional resources,” Fors says in an email with a photograph of the “scary” trailer park in Little Gables, which is a sore point with Gables residents.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors stirs annexation fears for votes
“The same problem applies to other departments such as solid waste, code enforcement, public works and the rest of Coral Gables personnel. Eventually, we will need additional resources to service these areas and they will come at a cost to the taxpayers,” he added.
But this is a bunch of lies, or alternative facts maybe. The real facts are:
(1) There are two areas that are planned to be annexed. Miami-Dade County won’t allow the Gables to “cherry pick” only High Pines and not Little Gables. High Pines is considered a donor area because their tax dollars will surpass the expense of providing expanded services — and probably cover the initial expenses in Little Gables as well. So these additional resources will, indeed, come at a cost to the taxpayers. The new taxpayers. Not the current ones.
(2) Additional resources will be needed and that’s a good thing. The additional taxes brought in by High Pines could pay for an additional police officer or two or three and more code enforcement officers. These additional resources, however, will not be limited to those areas — not when the boundaries move — and will provide better services to the surrounding neighborhoods of current Gables residents as well.
(3) Police Chief Ed Hudak says it’s a good idea because annexation will reduce the city’s borders and make it easier to use the “geo-fence” system of cameras that track license plates as vehicles enter and leave the City Beautiful. It is easier to patrol one border rather than three, Hudak said. And because Little Gables is an enclave and it takes Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue longer to respond, Coral Gables police and fire respond a lot there anyway. This would be a way to get proactive with that neighborhood and get those property owners to start paying for those services they are getting anyway.
(4) Little Gables and High Pines will be annexed eventually by somebody. Miami-Dade County has said that it needs all enclaves — which are unincorporated areas surrounded on all sides by municipalities, which makes them difficult and costly to service — to be absorbed into the adjoining municipalities. If Little Gables does not become part of Coral Gables, it will eventually be part of the city of Miami. Which means that it will be under Miami’s zoning and code enforcement and the Gables will have absolutely no control over what is done or built there.
(5) This will be a windfall for the city. A 2017 study indicates that, with both areas annexed, the Coral Gables property tax revenue will grow by almost $82 million over eight years starting in 2020. After expenses due to increased services, there will be a surplus of $37.6 million.
A graphic on the email that looks like it might be a mailer, Fors even asserts that there could be a tax increase to service the areas and service delays to current residents. Both things are preposterous. If anything, the additional tax revenue — as said earlier, it’s a net gain of about $38 million — could end up lowering taxes for current Gables residents.
“His assertions are completely baseless,” Cabrera told Ladra late Wednesday.
Ralph Cabrera
“The Coral Gables millage rate will not be raised. The city’s services will not be compromised.
“The chief of police wants to proactively attack a troublesome crime area and wants Little Gables. Fors is interested in only ‘cherry picking’ Ponce Davis and High Pines,” Cabrera added.
“The only thing the city has left to do is approve an inter local agreement with Miami-Dade County to annex these areas. Even if he wanted to, Fors can’t bring this back. He isn’t on the prevailing side.”
That’s true. Fors, if by miracle he is elected, is one vote and can’t stop it. He should stop telling voters that he will.
The annexation was approved by the Gables Commission, after multiple public meetings that Fors did not attend, in November 2017. It was a 3-2 vote, with the yeas coming from Mayor Raul-Valdes-Fauli and commissioners Vince Lago and Pat Keon — all of whom will still be on the dais after the runoff April 23. The annexation is far along in the process. The next step is that the residents of the would-be annexed zones to vote.
Commissioners Mike Mena and Frank Quesada, who is not seeking re-election, voted against the annexation. And because they have the same campaign consultant as Fors, las malas lenguas say the anti-annexation movement aims to protect the hourly no-tell motels on Eighth Street.
Steve Marin told Ladra weeks ago that he had nothing to do with the hotels and had never lobbied on their behalf. There is nothing indicating that he has.

Read Full Story

Add yet another big endorsement to Ralph Cabrera‘s bid to return to the Coral Gables city commission: Former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas endorsed the former commissioner in a web video released Wednesday.
“As mayor of Miami-Dade County, I had the pleasure of working side by side with Ralph and I always found him to be a forward-thinking commissioner, someone who always had creative ideas for the city of Coral Gables,” Penelas says in the 38-second message posted on Facebook.
“For example, we worked together to bring a lot of the trolleys that you see now in Coral Gables because he knew that the residents, visitors and people who work in Coral Gables, they needed that first and last mile option,” he said.
“That’s the kind of leader Ralph was then, and I know he is going to be that kind of leader again now.”
Penelas brings big points on Cabrera’s endorsement scorecard, so let’s take another look at the comparisons between his support and the backing for the other candidate in the runoff, Jorge L. Fors, Jr.
Read related: The war of endorsements is on in Coral Gables commission runoff
Cabrera now has Penelas, City Commissioners Vince Lago and Pat Keon, ormer Commissioner and Mayor Dorothy Thomson, former Commissioner Maria Anderson, former Mayor Don Slesnick, the Miami Herald, the police, the firefighters and the gays (SAVE). He also has support, in the form of maximum $1,000 contributions, from Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez and former State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla.
It’s a nice mix of Dems, Republicans and even an Independent.
Fors, who has never served a day on a city board or committee, has former Mayor Jim Cason, former interim city manager Carmen Olazabal and Commissioner Frank Quesada, who has better things to do than run for re-election, and former City Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers, who lost his own comeback bid and doesn’t want Cabrera to get one. Sour grapes.
Quite literally, cuatro gatos.
Wonder if the same lopsided results will come out of Tuesday’s runoff.

Read Full Story

On the one side, you have a liar and an empty suit and a one-term commissioner abandoning his seat.
On the other, you have two sitting commissioners, a former 16-year public servant who served as both commissioner and the mayor, the police, the firefighters and, for good measure, SAVE.
“Ralph Cabrera and I have many things in common: We both were elected to the city commission, have a proven record of service to our residents and support the renovation of historic Coral Gables High School,” Thomson says in a Cabrera email.
Read related: Coral Gables voters return Raul Valdes-Fauli, send two to runoff
“But most of all, we both have a strong love for our City Beautiful. I know that, as he has in the past, Ralph will work to preserve the values of our community. That’s why I endorse him for Coral Gables Commission.”
In the same email, Lago is quoted as to why he supports Cabrera.
“I am familiar with Commissioner Cabrera’s past service to our community and know he is someone who clearly understands the character and charm of our city. He has a deep understanding and passion for making Coral Gables the best in Miami-Dade County,” Lago says.
“I also know him to have a proven track record of fostering new ideas and achieving many important quality of life initiatives,” Lago continues. “I am confident he will work with our commission to ensure transparency and inclusiveness of our government’s activities, decisions and vision.”
Read related: Florida Bar investigates candidate Jorge Fors  for homestead fraud
Jorge Fors has former interim city manager Carmen Olazabal, who came in third with 2,196 votes in the April 12 election — and who, as usual, said nothing of importance or substance — and former Mayor Jim Cason, who did nothing but cut ribbons in the six years he sat in office.
“Jorge Fors is committed to protecting our quality of life and will bring to the community a fresh perspective that will keep Coral Gables moving forward,” Cason says in an email that will likely arrive as a mailer in mailboxes this week with absentee ballots.
He might still have some pull with the older Cuban voters, particularly in North Gables, where Fors is also campaigning as the anti-annexation candidate, going completely against the city and the police chief recommendation to bring Little Gables into the fold.
The tax cheat also has Commissioner Frank Quesada, who, las malas lenguas, say handpicked him before he knew about his homestead exemption fraud, so that his campaign manager would stay in business.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal homestead exemption
Quesada told Ladra that it did not matter to him that Fors had claimed an illegal homestead exemption for eight or nine years on a Little Havana condo he did not live in.
“I’ve known Jorge a long time and we’ve had cases together, he’s a great guy,” Quesada texted me last month before the first round. “When he discovered the homestead issue, he resolved it.”
Except he “resolved it” in January, after he had filed to run for office and after Ladra started sniffing around. In fact, las malas lenguas say that Quesada was told Ladra was sniffing around by someone and alerted Fors to it.
Fors might say it was an unintentional mistake, but it is a mistake then Fors made eight or nine individual times, as property owners have to claim their homestead exemption by March 1 every year.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia would endorse Fors. Or Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle, whose office is looking into mystery mailers attacking Cabrera that were not sent by the political action committee on the disclaimer.

Read Full Story