In the Coral Gables election today, voters are choosing between hitting the gas or putting the brakes on what many have called a recent drive to redevelop much of Coral Gables — going higher and wider and bigger.

And not just in the mayoral contest between Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick, the sole dissenting voice in every single one of the oversized projects recently approved in the City Beautiful, and former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, who was booted from office in 2001 because he wanted to build a mega City Hall annex building and close Biltmore Way and has been endorsed by the pro development forces.

Read relatred story: Coral Gables mayoral race takes a nasty, ethnic turn

Certainly overdevelopment — or, at the very least, zoning and land use variances that allow higher buildings with more density and less setbacks — has become the biggest issue of this campaign cycle, overshadowing all the rest, even public safety. Every race has been painted with this brush. The Riviera Neighborhood Association, which feels betrayed by the Paseo project approval despite their repeated objections, have gone so far as to recruit candidates in two commission seats.

Because it’s not enough to replace the mayor with someone less willing to bend the city code for developers. If Slesnick wins, but Mike Mena or Commissioner Pat Keon win their respective commission races, she will still be the lone dissenter on many of those votes. If former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers, who is running against Keon, and anyone else in the other group win but Valdes-Faui gets his seat back, the same thing will happen, because Valdes-Fauli will likelyl join Commissioners Vince Lago and Frank Quesada to create a three-vote majority that will basically allow them to redevelop anything they want.

That’s why it is important for voters to elect a clean sweep Tuesday.

Just like they did in 2001, when they elected a new mayor (coincidentally, Slesnick’s husband) and two new commissioners to stop the City Hall annex and reopen Biltmore Way, voters today must elect Jeannett Slesnick, Withers and either Merlin Ebbert or Randy Hoff to stop the railroading that they have seen from developers.

Read related story: Hoff, Mena stand out in 4-way Gables commission race

This is why the group Gables Neighbors United (which is pretty much the Riviera folks) have endorsed Slesnick, Withers and Ebbert. They’ve come up with a nifty little acronym to help people remember: SEW.

Ladra has made it clear that she supports Slesnick, for the aforementioned reasons and also because the negativity of the Valdes-Fauli campaign should not be rewarded. I’m also hoping that Withers wins, even though he has hardly campaigned, for the aformentioned reason — and maybe also because Keon is supremely arrogant and is only going to be worse if she wins this.

And we’d be happy with Ebbert but we prefer Randy Hoff for that commission seat because, in addition to the fact that Ladra still loves her first responders and that he’s earned it through years of service with the police department, he can give us a good handle on employee issues. It’s good to see an employee on the dais. Especially in Coral Gables, where city employees are part of the fabric. Still, there’s likely to be a runoff in this race. But the anti-development forces win on Tuesday if the runoff is between these two.

Either way, voters need to carefully consider each race, not just one, if theyt really want this election to make a difference at all.

With little more than a week to go before the Coral Gables election, voters are getting a mailbboxful of promises and endorsements and attacks. The mailers in Coral Gables are almost always something to talk about — and this year is no exception.

From the endorsement of a former governor to the image of a university that had to be pulled to the giant, trifold of Herald stories from the city’s ugly past that landed in mailboxes Saturday — the Gables has been deluged in postal politics for a couple of weeks now.

The most prolific mailing candidate in this election has to be Mike Mena, who is running for commission in Group 3. Nobody in that race has come close and, in fact, Ladra is not certain that Serafin Sousa, the non candidate, has sent any mailers at all. Marlin Ebbert and Randy Hoff will have each sent two or three by election day. Hers focus on her standing with the anti-development residents and says that she will listen to and speak for them. His focus on his service of almost 30 years as a police officer and include two separate endorsements from former Chief James Butler and former Assistant Chief Ana Baixauli, which should have been one piece with both of them combined. Hoff could have sent another message on the second piece.

Meanwhile, Mena has sent so many mailers that voters are coming to expect a new one when they get home from work. They were getting one every day the week that absentee ballots dropped. But are they memorable? Nah. They’re pretty much cookie cutter. Take his picture out and plug in another young, ambitious lawyer from Miami or Miami Lakes or Miami Beach or wherever and you have the same thing. He uses phrases like “common sense” and “commitment to security.” Yawn.

Read related story: Hoff, Mena stand out in 4-way Gables commission race

That was the same reaction Ladra had with former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers‘ endorsement from former FIU President Modesto “Mitch” Maidique, who coincidentally had picked up an election package and who, Ladra suspects, has an itch to run for office (this endorsement could be a tit for tat). I’m sure it was intended to connect with the hundreds or thousands of FIU students and alumni in the City Beautiful, but it was eh for the rest of us who didn’t go there and there are just as many of non FIU students in the city. Withers, a proud graduate of the University of Florida, would have been better served to use the University of Miami logo.

Then FIU and former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera complained and Withers had to take the image of the smiling Maidique in front of an FIU buillding — letters blazing in neon at the top — off his social media.

“The Withers campaign and you should be aware that neither the campaign nor you are authorized to use the FIU logo or imagery without the express approval and licensing of FIU,” wrote FIU General Counsel Carlos Castillo in a cease and desist letter last week.

Cabrera, who actually did go to FIU (Withers didn’t) and actually led the alumni association at one point, filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. After all, Withers is a Gator! A bull Gator at that, who actually had a skybox in Gainseville at one time and has flown up to see the games.

Read related story: ‘Chip’ Withers vs. Pat Keon because of the Paseo project

“He should have known better. To mislead and say you have done it before without repercussions is completely wrong,” ,” Cabrera told me after Withers was quoted in the Miami Herald saying he had done it before. “I can’t recall him using a university logo before,” added Cabrera, who worked on three of Withers’ past campaigns.

The complaint says Withers intentionally misled voters into thinking that he got the FIU endorsement vis-a-vis Maidique because it implied that he was still the voice of the university.

“The mail piece sent by Withers specifically attempts to confuse voters into believing that Modesto ‘Mitch’ Maidique is still part of FIU and endorses Withers in his oficial capacity. While the piece states that Maidique is the ‘former’ President of FIU, it lists him as a current professor and thus provides the endorsement as part of Maidique’s oficial capacity, an illegal act,” wrote attorney JC Planas in the complaint, because a state university cannot endorse anybody.

“Perhaps the most blatant violation in the piece is the use of the FIU logo in the picture. Had the campaign simply used a picture of Dr. Maidique actually taken in front of that building, it still would likely have been a technical violation. However, super imposing his picture on a larger than ordinary picture of the building with the logo, was a deliberate attempt by Withers to deceive voters into thinking the endorsement was something other than that of an ordinary public citizen with no current leadership role at the University.”

Yeah, maybe. But what Ralph and JC really did was make a blah mailer and make it newsworthy and infinitely more interesting. Now, Ladra wants one for her collection.

Not as much, however, as I want that mailer with commissioner Jeannett Slesnick in a hot rod. In it, she is nicknamed “Speedy Slesnick” for her lack of support for a 5 MPH reduction that does nothing if there are no police officers to enforce it. “Stupid,” is what most voters reacted when they got it. The piece is so bad, it’s good. I want to frame it and hang it on a wall.

Read related story: Coral Gables mayoral race takes nasty, ethnic turn

Ladra also wants the mailer sent by Raul Valdes-Fauli‘s political action committee over the weekend (more on that later), which could be the largest political mailer any voter anywhere has ever gotten. It’s practically a postal billboard. But I only want it because it features me prominently — in several Herald articles from when I covered Coral Gables for the daily newspaper in 2008 and 2009… which means it’s an attack of former Mayor Don Slesnick, who beat Valdes Fauli in 2001. Talk about sour grapes! But guess what? Don Slesnick, who inherited a lot of those problems as well as a recession, is not running now. And, frankly, Jeannett Slesnick — who should, and Ladra suspects will, be judged on her own merits — will make a better mayor than her husband did.

Still, this piece is worthy of applause. It highlights the bad headlines in yellow and makes the stories look like they’re on microfiche with a back background and reverse type on the dates they were published. It’s brilliant campaigning, if somewhat disingenuous. I remember those stories. In fact, I remember Mayor Slesnick complained to the Herald editors about me and asked to have me reassigned. He said I had a “hidden agenda” (don’t they always when they don’t like what I write?). But I wasn’t reassigned because there was no agenda. And when I confronted Slesnick about his complaint, I delivered a print out of all the positive stories about the city, which far outnumbered the bad ones.

Of course, voters are not going to get a mailer on those. Because, like I said, Don isn’t running to get his seat back, unlike some people. And Jeannett Slesnick is running on her own record, not anyone else’s.

Valdes-Fauli must be a bit nervous because he has been the one mostly on the attack. Sure, there have been a few mailers about his endorsements, which include Gov. Jeb Bush, whose low energy cost him the presidential nomination last year, and current empty suit and Mayor Jim Cason and commissioners Vince Lago and Frank Quesada. The message is: If you want things to stay pretty much the same and the development to continue, vote for Raul. Again, Ladra gets the feeling that whoever is running Cason would run Valdes-Fauli, too.

Meanwhile, Slesnick’s mailers have stuck to the endorsements and the issues and the reasons why she is the best candidate for the job, not why Valdes-Fauli ain’t. Voters will get a bi-fold this week with several Gables residents and leaders — including former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham (a Democrat) and former State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla (a Republican).  The mailer ran as an ad in Sunday’s Herald’s Neighbors section. Ladra likes that one if only because it has so many people in it.

She also sent a 20-page magazine about the development — her signature issue and the one thing that can help push her over the top. It details her vote on the different projects and shows that she is not against all development, only what she calls “unacceptable development that strays quite a bit from our master code.”

Perhaps she felt the need to set the record straight. Valdes-Fauli — whose had several attack mailers that intend to mislead the voters — had already sent one out that said she actually voted for the Paseo project. That’s just a lie. A lie nobody believes.

The record clearly shows she voted against it, the sole commissioner in a 4-1 vote. She did vote subsequently on votes benefit the city and to lessen the impact to residents. That’s her job. She’s not going to vote against things that are going to make an already approved project better.

Four candidates have filed to fill the seat left empty by Coral Gables Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick‘s mayoral bid. And while they couldn’t be more different, they all sound pretty much the same.

We have a soft-spoken schoolteacher/grandma activist, the retired cop and union leader, the land use attorney who works with the construction industry and an angry civil engineer who can best be described as the City Beautiful’s own version of President Donald Trump when he was a candidate.

All of them talk about curbing development and easing traffic and filling police vacancies as the top priorities. There are a few differences in their approaches, but they pretty much espouse the same positions. So, we are left with figuring out who might be the best candidate based on who they are and the baggage they bring.

So, who are they? What baggage? Let’s take them in the aforementioned order, which happens to be alphabetical, shall we?

This is Marlin Ebbert‘s second attempt at a commission seat. The retired teacher ran two years ago against Commissioner Vince Lago and Ross Hancock. But she is a veritable staple in Gables civic life, having served on too many committees and boards to name here and being involved in preservation efforts.

Ebbert is a really nice lady. She is the candidate that was recruited and is endorsed by the Riviera Neighborhood Association (aka Gables Neighbors United). But that might be all she has going for her. She is passionate about the Paseo project’s approval and says the city turned a deaf ear to residents’ concerns, which it really did. But from the two candidate forums in which she has participated, she seems a little lost in the headlights on everything else.

“I have a good head on my shoulders. I’ve made wise decisions all my life. I really feel that I’ve amost been in training for this job, to stand up and run for a commission seat.”

A good head on your shoulders is nice, but I think that you also need a good grasp of administration, economics and policy. Also, Lago and Commissioner Frank Quesada will eat her alive at the meetings and the administration will likely be able to manipulate her more easily.

Sgt. Randy Hoff is a retired  officer who has worked at the city police department for almost 30 years, the majority of that time on the marine patrol, before retiring recently in order to run for office in the city where he has lived for 20 years. He has been vocal on public safety, as vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 until his term ran out in December. That has led some of his opponents to float the idea that he would be soft on labor. But Ladra thinks that what they are forgetting is that he is no longer labor. He is now just a homeowning taxpayer — and retired on a fixed income, at that — so he’s going to watch that bottom line same as anybody else.

But what it could mean is that we’ll finally have a former employee on the dais to help the commission navigate issues with staff. He’s going to bring that perspective. Ladra suspects that will be an advantage to the city at contract negotiating time. And Coral Gables employees are such an integral part of the city’s fabric, it’s about time one is elected.

Mike Mena is an attorney partner at Akerman. He admits to working with the construction industry and said at the last forum that he “negotiates deals.” Does that mean he’s a lobbyist? He’s not registered, but he touts experience in working with developers and construction companies to get desired results so what do you call that? You call it being too close for comfort.

He actually said “it could have been a Home Depot” about the Paseo project on U.S. 1, which is what developers always say when they want to upzone a property. So he sounds like he would take the developer’s side.

A handsome dad with hipster facial hair and more money than any other candidate, Mena has been in Gables mailboxes more than anybody else. But he seems a little like a carbon copy of Lago and Quesada, only shorter. And he seems a little too ambitious. I mean, he has never served on any city board or committee and has come out of the blue, after moving to the city some years ago, to run for a commission seat? Why not mayor? Ladra bets that, like Lago, Mena he has higher office ambitions and would use this seat as a stepping stone.

I have five little words for him: Pay your dues, young man.

Serafin Sousa is a civil engineer with a construction company who got pissed off at the city’s building department — it takes too long to get a permit and it’s too hard to get an inspection — and decided to run for office. He apparently has all the answers. He does actually make sense when he said that the Miracle Mile project should have been done in stages, finishing one block before starting another. “That way you don’t have all the merchants going through one year, or a year and a half, of suffering,” he said.

But his anger comes through too strong. He has a Trumplike air of the no bullshit businessman going against the establishment and he says everything with a sense of “duh!” like the rest of us are stupid. Eso no cae bien. He does not seem like a serious candidate, however, and Ladra suspects he will come in a distant fourth place.

This race is the gentlest of the three and all the candidates, pictured here at the debate last week at Coral Gables Congregational Church, are cordial and respectful to one another. Maybe that’s a result of being in a four-way race rather than a one-on-one.

But that may change soon because there’s going to be a runoff here. It will be the first time in Coral Gables, where the highest scoring candidate used to win before voters approved a charter amendment last year. And while Ladra may like Hoff and Ebbert the most, I predict a runoff between Hoff and Mena. Hoff is a strong candidate who has campaigned hard, knocking on doors six days a week. He has the support of city employees and their families and he should have gotten the nod from the Riviera preservationists because Mena is going to get into the runoff simply because he is the only Hispanic and the retired cop has a better chance of beating him in the runoff than the retired teacher has.

Word about town is that Mena was recruited by Lago and Quesada because they don’t want Hoff or Ebbert to thwart their drive to redevelop every part of Coral Gables. With Mena, the three of them would have a majority to approve whatever they wanted.

Let this be my official endorsement of Hoff. Ladra feels a little bad, because Mena was the only candidate who purchased advertising on Political Cortadito. I wish I could support him back, but I can’t. Not yet. Let him serve on a city committee or board — may I suggest Hoff appoint him to one — and come back in four years when Lago runs for mayor (or county commissioner or state rep).