GOP big wigs line up to back Rosy Palomino for House 112

Republican Florida House candidate Rosy Palomino, who is running for a Democrat-held vacated seat that the GOP really wants to turn, has two Tallahassee big wigs helping her get there.

Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and State Rep. Jose Oliva, slated to be Florida Speaker of the House in 2018, top a host committee, still in formation for a Palomino fundraiser in Coral Gables Tuesday.

“No one is more surprised than me,” Palomino said Saturday. “Wow. Maybe they have nothing else to do.”

This type of self-deprecating, down-to-Earth talk is not a schtick. It’s just Rosy being Rosy. When Ladra spoke to the educator and community activist Saturday, she was stressing out about not having any non-perishables at home in case Hurricane Matthew comes this way.

“Not even a can of salchichas. What Cuban doesn’t have a can of salchichas? All I have is water because I’ve been canvassing,” said Palomino, who lost a bid for Miami city commission last year, so she’s actually been canvassing much of the district for years.

A district that Lopez-Cantera represented from 2004 to 2012. “He still lives in the district. He cares about who represents it,” said Palomino campaign manager Hector Roos.

Which may explain his presence. But Oliva? Or State Rep. Carlos Trujillo (Doral), who is also on the host committee? Well, other Republicans might care about what may very well be the only reversable House seat in the state this November. It is also the only one of 35 contested House races without an incumbent. It was vacated relatively late, in March, by Democrat State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is running for state Senate.

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Tuesday’s event at the Knights of Columbus will be Palomino’s first event since the primary, which she won with 61% over Michael Davey.

The other hosts so far are Coral Gables Mayor Jim Cason and — coming out of self-imposed early retirement — former Gables Commissioner William “Billy” Kerdyk, who was termed out of office in 2015 and opted out of a mayoral run. Is he plotting a comeback in 2017? Who knew he was Republican? Only a tiny sliver of the Gables, east of Le Jeune Road, is in the district, which also encompasses much of Miami and all of Key Biscayne.

Maybe the VIP GOP headliners will be able to inject Palomino’s campaign with some cash. Palomino, who ran unsuccessfully for a Miami city commission seat won last year by Commissioner Ken Russell, has spent all the $15,000 or so she raised as of Sept. 16, according to finance reports at the Florida Division of Elections.

Meanwhile, her opponent, Nicholas Duran — son-in-law of former Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman Mike Abrams, a former state rep (North Miami Beach/Aventura) and current lobbyist with Ballard Partners — has about $50,000 left in the $157K he raised. And that doesn’t count the $55,000 of in-kind donations for staff and research from the Florida Democratic Party — in a primary, no less.

The GOP did not get involved in the primary. But maybe Tuesday’s fundraiser is a sign that they will now.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Roos said.