Miami seems to be a forgiving town, politically speaking.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Xaver Suarez is a respected leader and viable contender for the county mayor’s post in 2020 despite having been removed from his Miami mayoral seat in 2007 due to widespread absentee ballot fraud in the 2006 city election.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz continues to sit there on the dais and sites the law and champions law enforcement even though he clearly beat a legitimate DUI rap in Key West last year. He was acquitted, but we’ve seen the video.

Former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez was re-elected three times after he was indicted and convicted on eight counts of extortion and racketeering (he appealed and was acquitted in 1996). He’s so past that history that he recently hosted none other than presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in his home.

And Ladra’s favorite former Congressman, David “Nine Lives” Rivera was re-elected after that incident where he allegedly ran a mail truck off the road to keep his opponents’ negative mailers from hitting voters’ mailboxes and, despite an alleged investigation that has gone on longer than most federal mafia racketeering cases, is still running for office as recently as last year. And probably next year.

Read related story: Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz arrested on DUI charges in Key West

Now add political consultant Al Lorenzo to the political comebacks of the 305.

Lorenzo was the fall guy for the absentee ballot fraud scandal that engulfed the 2012 elections. Deisy Cabrera, the Hialeah boletera caught carrying ballots to and from Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s Hialeah campaign office, had worked for Lorenzo in previous campaigns. Lorenzo (photographed right) claimed she wasn’t working for him in 2012, but he was fired from the mayoral campaign because the limelight exposed that he had hired an ex felon, Jerry Ramos, to work for him (read: he was fired for AB shenanigans but Gimenez didn’t want to admit that).

His other client, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle — who never saw an absentee ballot fraud case she couldn’t summarily dismiss or otherwise turn her head to — didn’t fire Lorenzo, but told him to take Ramos off her campaign that year. She was facing a real challenge that year and couldn’t afford to lose the ABs.

Well, Lorenzo has been quietly working under the radar. Mostly on judicial campaigns, where there is very little media attention. Several sources close to Gimenez told Ladra that Lorenzo was involved in the re-election campaign last year (maybe getting paid via the $6,000 a month to former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo?) But last year, las malas lenguas say he was also involved in the campaign of founding first and now newly (again) elected Doral Mayor J.C. Bermudez. He is not on the Bermudez campaign reports either, but the idea is that he is Diez’s partner.

Read related story: Sasha Tirador may be losing her touch with absentee ballots

And 2017 promises to be good, too, because it looks like Lorenzo willl work on the campaign for Miami Commission candidate Ralph Rosado (who is filed for 2019 but will move to this year once Commissioner Francis Suarez resigns to run for mayor).

At least that is what one must assume from this photograph (left) posted on Facebook Wednesday by political consultant Fernando Diez, who helped elect Miami Commissioner Ken Russell as well as Bermudez. Russell was also in the photograph. Maybe Al helped the yoyo man, too (Russell’s father invented the yo-yo). Lorenzo is seated third on the left, next to Rosado’s wife (in pink).

“Happy to have spent my birthday with my wife Mariana Parra and good friends Ken Russell, Ralph Rosado,” post Diez, who is sitting next to Russell on the right side of the table at Casa Juancho Restaurant.

Ladra loves Rosado’s comment:  “The gang! We were very happy to have spent the evening with you as well. Happy birthday, Fernando!”

The gang indeed. Should we call them the Absentee Ballot Raiders?

And does this mean that former Miami-Dade Commissioner Pedro Reboredo, who resigned in 2001 after he was caught paying ghost employees for work that wasn’t being done, could run for office again. Of course it does!

If good things truly come to those who wait, then Ralph Rosado may just be in luck.

Rosado announced recently that he was running for the Miami city commission seat now occupied by Commissioner Francis Suarez, who has not announced yet but is expected to run for mayor since he is termed out and can’t put it off again (more on that later). 

Rosado was going to run in 2013 but withdrew after Suarez abandoned the mayoral race in the face of a few campaign setbacks (most notably, two of his staffers were charged with absentee ballot fraud).

Read related story: Beleaguered Francis Suarez drops out of Miami mayoral race

“I have some exciting news to share — I am re-starting my campaign for City of Miami Commissioner for District 4,” Rosado told supporters in an evite to his kick-off at Ball and Chain last week.

District 4 encompasses the neighborhoods of Shenandoah, Silver Bluff, Coral Gate, Golden Pines, West Little Havana, Flagami and Flagler Gardens. Did you know there was a neighborhood called Flagler Gardens? Neither did Ladra.

“As someone that was born and raised in the City, that learned in its schools and that played in its parks, I look forward to addressing the challenges ahead,” he said in his invitation.

The event was a hit, with a large turnout of supporters that included El Portal Mayor Claudia Cubillos, Bay Harbor Islands Mayor Jordan Leonard — and campaign groupies Mercy Sabina, Juan D’Arce and Barbie Rodriguez-Gimenez, daughter-in-law of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

Rosado hasn’t filed any official paperwork, at least that you can see online on the city’s website. But neither has anyone else in that seat. Ladra expects there to be some competition, however. Four people had filed intention to run before Suarez abandoned the mayor’s race in 2013.