Miami Beach commission candidate is daughter of cop-turned-serial-killer

If you think the race for Miami Beach mayor between incumbent hallway monitor Steve Meiner and quirky comeback kid Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez is the craziest thing on the city’s ballot this year (more on that later), think again.
The race to replace Rosen-Gonzalez in the Group 1 seat features a clusterbunch of seven candidates. But only one of them has a family history that makes all the others look downright boring. And, also, electable.
Republican lawyer Monique Pardo Pope — who introduced herself to voters as coming from a working-class Cuban family that believed in “sacrifice, service, and standing up for what’s right” — forgot to mention one tiny detail: Her father was a Hitler-loving serial killer sentenced to death by lethal injection.
Oooops.
Only in the 305, ¿verdad?
Manuel Pardo was a Sweetwater cop-turned-vigilante who fatally shot nine people in three months back in 1986. He idolized Hitler, kept Nazi trinkets in his Hialeah apartment, tattooed his Doberman with a swastika, and told the court the only thing he regretted was that he didn’t kill 99 people instead of nine drug dealers for money and cocaine. Some say Pardo may have been the inspiration for the series Dexter, about a Florida medical examiner who becomes a vigilante serial killer.
Pardo was executed in 2012 after Gov. Rick Scott signed his death warrant.
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Documentary filmmaker Billy Corben was the one who connected the dots last month in a video that went viral faster than you can say #BecauseMiami. The Miami New Times followed with a report that has far too much detail on Manuel Pardo’s crimes — and his special relationship to his daughter — for Ladra to recount here. Read it.
Pardo Pope, 44, says she prays every day for the families of her father’s victims, and called herself another “victim” of his crimes in a letter to New Times. But her Instagram tells another story. That’s where she calls her papi her “hero,” her “guiding light,” her “eternal best friend” — and quotes his last words, which include a farewell to her. She even posted a photo of herself earlier this year cheesing next to now Sen. Scott, the guv who green-lit her dad’s execution.
Awkward. And creepy.
To be fair, Pardo Pope was only 4 when her father went on his killing spree. She says her earliest memories are of him as the Marine, the cop, the protector. That’s the dad she remembers. But voters might be surprised to learn that she chose to highlight her Pardo surname on the ballot — the very name that’s synonymous with one of Florida’s most notorious murderers.
In a social media post in response to the Corben video, Pardo Pope says she never hid the truth and that “political activists sensationalized my childhood trauma for clicks, ratings, and personal gain.” She’s now calling the sudden spotlight “bullying” and “smears.”
One thing is certain: You gotta admire the kind of self-confidence it takes for the daughter of a Neo-Nazi serial killer to run for office — in Miami Beach, of all places.
Meanwhile, the other six candidates — Daniel Ciraldo, Brian Ehrlich, Ava Frankel, Matthew Gultanoff, Omar Jimenez and Monica Matteo-Salinas — are probably wondering how they’re supposed to get any attention in a race where one contender’s campaign slogan might as well be: Daughter of Dexter.
The Miami Beach general election is Nov. 4, with a Dec. 9 runoff if nobody cracks 50%.

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