Councilman blasted for Charlie Kirk post on Facebook
The Palmetto Bay lynch mob came out in full force Monday night, and Councilman Steve Cody barely made it out of Village Hall with his seat still intact.
But maybe not for long.
While the mayor, the rest of the council and dozens of residents pleaded with Cody to step down because of a social media post on the Charlie Kirk murder last week, he is doubling down. His face during the public roasting was one of contempt or even boredom. Of course, any reaction would have been vilified. He refused to leave his seat, though. And the council, instead, voted to ask Gov. Ron DeSantis to investigate and remove Cody.
And if that doesn’t work, several residents said he should be recalled.
A standing room only crowd of residents demanded Cody’s resignation after he posted something on social media about Charlie Kirk’s murder that was a bit insensitive — even if it did ring with truth and drip with irony: “Charlie Kirk is a fitting sacrifice to our Lords: Smith & Wesson. Hallowed be their names,” he posted hours after the shocking assassination was caught live at a university campus in Utah. Then he quoted Kirk from something the firebrand said in 2023: “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
And while Cody later deleted the post and apologized, the mea culpa didn’t go very far with Palmetto Bay residents who packed the chambers Monday night as if they were pitchforks and the tiki torches from their back yards.
“He shouldn’t be here at all,” one resident shouted.
“You are unwell,” another man said at the podium, directly to Cody, even though the mayor had told the audience to direct themselves to the council. He also threatened to open a Turning Point USA desk — that’s the organization that Kirk founded — in Cody’s “back yard.”
“You have a choice. Resign and disappear quietly or stay and watch your name and reputation crumble,” the man said.
Over and over again, people took turns at the mic and told Cody to “do the right thing” and step down. Parents said he set a bad example for their kids. People who bragged that they were friends of Kirk’s — and isn’t everybody now? — said his apology was worthless. One man said that Cody brought shame on the name of the village because it’s all that comes up now on Google.
Read related: Palmetto Bay councilman is asked to resign after ‘vile’ Charlie Kirk post
The first to speak was former Councilman David Singer, who lost elections to Cody twice and has been a frequent critic and target. In an ironic twist, Singer lost his job after Cody railed against Singer’s social media post comparing the village’s duck eradication program to the Holocaust. It’s interesting to note that nobody at the meeting seemed to remember Singer’s post, which one could argue is just as insensitive and “vile” as Cody’s. And, also, just as protected speech.
“Where was the mayor and council in the last five years,” Singer asked, laying the blame on everyone there for providing the political climate for Cody to attack opponents and poke fun of residents. “He was their guy, doing their dirty work.”
Madeline Roman also said that the council had been hypocritical, ignoring the disrespect toward residents for six years and then chastising speakers when they call a council member out. “Using your voice now, when it’s finally being recognized outside our municipality, is a voice of convenience and completely self-serving.
“You regularly said you will do what the constituents ask. Well, today, we are asking that you hear us.”
And Cody’s political foes, namely Vice Mayor Mark Merwitzer and Councilwoman Marsha Matson — with the dramatic flair of an American flag planted in her lap — have obviously seized the opportunity to bash Cody, who has a smart mouth that gets him in trouble now and then.
“It’s not about the First Amendment, it’s about accountability,” said Matson, who has asked the mayor to sit her way from Cody’s side for two years. She asked again on Monday.
“Councilman Steve Cody has abused his position. His hateful and malicious comments are not the voice of a private citizen they are the words of an elected official who represents every single one of us in Palmetto Bay,” said Matson, who defended herself in 2023 from an ethics complaint filed by Cody, but said it cost the city $27,000 in legal fees. The Village has also spent upwards of $40K defending Merwitzer from a lawsuit Cody filed to remove him from his seat because he was not sworn in properly.
Even Mayor Karyn Cunningham, a longtime ally of the second-term councilman — who said she didn’t know of Kirk before his assassination — asked Cody to step down. She said the post condoned the killing — although it did not — and introduced the item asking for his resignation and censuring him for the post.
Read related: Palmetto Bay Village Council elections could get interesting this November
Cody didn’t respond to the criticism, and sat pretty much stone-faced, often with his arms crossed or his head resting on his fist. But Cody later told a TV reporter that he posted the Charlie Kirk item on his personal Facebook page, expressing his personal thoughts as an individual, not on an official page where he was talking policy “as a member of this body.”
He may not be a member of that body much longer. The council voted 4-1 Monday to ask Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to give him the boot. Cody, of course, was the lone “no.”
The matter now goes to our “Culture Warrior-in-Chief,” who could see it as gift-wrapped hunk of red meat for his base. Booting a Democrat over a tasteless post about his boy Charlie Kirk? Delicious. Plus it comes with a side dish of shifting the headlines away from, you know, property insurance, teacher shortages, the HOPE Florida scandal everyone conveniently forgot and that little presidential flameout nobody talks about anymore.
But DeSantis would have to find a legitimate reason, and a Facebook post ain’t it, according to state law. Florida Statute 112.51 allows the guv to suspend any appointed or elected official after an arrest for felony or misdemeanor or for “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, habitual drunkenness, incompetence, or permanent inability to perform official duties.”
The fate of Palmetto Bay’s most infamous keyboard warrior might better rest in the hands of the voters, who could recall him with the signatures of just 10% of the registered voters. They have a good start with everyone at Village Hall Monday and their plus ones.
But since Cody was re-elected last November, and state law requires a waiting period of a year before a recall can be begun, they have to wait until December, a year from his swearing in, to start collecting signatures. Any collected so far must be tossed out.
Read related: Palmetto Bay budget hearing Monday could focus on “The Woods” property
Ladra wants to express, again, that she does not necessarily like what Cody posted. He probably thought it was clever. But, also, he wasn’t wrong. He didn’t condone the killing or celebrate political violence. What he did was point out the irony in the way that Kirk was killed, given what the conservative agitator and podcaster had said about acceptable gun deaths. It is relevant.
But, most importantly, it doesn’t matter one bit what I think of Kirk or his words or the shocking murder caught live on video and streamed publicly for everyone to watch. Whatever happened to the famous quote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?” Attributed to Voltaire, it was actually written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her 1906 book The Friends of Voltaire to summarize his views on free speech and religious tolerance. The quote highlights the importance of free expression, even for views one finds objectionable, underscoring the value of open debate in society.
“But there are people who believe you only have the freedom to express what they want you to express,” Cody told Political Cortadito after the meeting. He welcomes any investigation because he says he has done nothing to warrant suspension. In fact, he mused that Merwitzer and Matson could be suspended for dereliction of duty after they walked out of the meeting Monday when it wasn’t adjourned. Merwitzer says he can’t sit on the dais with Cody and has pledged to walk out of every meeting until the councilman is gone — one way or another. There is a meeting and the final budget hearing on Wednesday. If Merwitzer doesn’t vote simply because he doesn’t like Cody, isn’t that a dereliction of duty?
It seems that Kirk himself might roll over in his grave if he would have seen the spectacle on Monday. And Ladra is not going to be afraid to write that because some pearl-clutching people might think it’s insensitive. If Kirk really did stand for freedom of speech — and some might argue that all that was just the gimmick of a really good conman — he would defend Cody’s right to post whatever he wants.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if the outraged people of Palmetto Bay feel better after Monday. Now, you’re not just known for a Facebook post by a goofy jerk that would have been forgotten in a week.
Now, you’re known for trying to censor and silence people who don’t agree with the masses.
The post Palmetto Bay residents cry for Steve Cody’s resignation, removal or recall appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Joe Martinez is going to prison. Well… maybe.
The former Miami-Dade commissioner and retired cop was sentenced Monday to 34 months for taking money in exchange for crafting legislation that would have helped a West Kendall supermarket owner. But Judge Miguel de la O wanted to give him less time — saying his hands were tied by sentencing guidelines — and let Joe stay out pending appeal. Which, let’s be real, could drag on for years.
In other words, he’s not packing his boxers just yet.
Still, it was a stunning fall for the once powerful commission chairman and 17-year police veteran who also fancied himself sheriff material — well, after he tried to unseat former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez in a county race and then ran a quick failed bid for Congress. Now, instead of running for higher office, Martinez is running out of excuses.
Read related: Ex Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez cries, prays — maybe walks
Jurors convicted him last November of unlawful compensation and conspiracy after prosecutors tied three $5,000 checks in late 2016 and early 2017 to legislation Martinez had staff draft that would have legalized refrigerated containers behind Extra Supermarket on SW 8th Street. The commissioner pulled the item before it hit an agenda — but not before the checks cleared.
Martinez called it back pay for old consulting work.
Prosecutors called that BS. The payments were bribes, they argued. A jury agreed.
De la O said he would have given Martinez one year, max, if he had showed an ounce of remorse. But without an admission of wrongdoing, the judge couldn’t justify dipping below the three-year minimum. “Sir, I’m sorry it’s come to this,” the judge told Martinez, with his wife and daughters sitting in the second row. “My hands are tied.”
Tied, but not that tight. He gave Martinez an appeal bond and a status hearing in the second half of 2026, which basically means Martinez could spend the next year, maybe two, living free in District 11 while his lawyers — Ben Kuehne, Kendall Coffey and Neil Taylor — try to unwind the conviction.
And of course, Martinez is still saying he did nothing wrong. “I couldn’t bring myself to say I did something that I didn’t do,” he says over and over again.
But Ladra can think of 15,000 reasons why a jury thought otherwise.
Read related: Joe Martinez claims public corruption charge is really a political hatchet job
Martinez showed that he did, in fact, work for Jorge Negrin, the owner of the Extra near 127th Avenue, as a consultant in 2013, after he lost the 2012 county mayor’s race. Court records include two checks from 2013 and 2014 totaling $50,000 for lobbying. That might be its own little side problem: County electeds aren’t supposed to lobby the county for at least two years after leaving office.
However, the case centered on the three $5,000 checks Martinez got years later in 2016. The first, right before he was sworn in, and two others right after. Prosecutors said those were pay-to-play installments on a proposed county ordinance that would increase the limit of storage bins that could be stationed in the parking lot behind the grocery store. They said the commissioner’s aide met with Negrin and zoning officials in early 2017. The proposed legislation was put on a Sept. 7 agenda — but Martinez had it pulled at the last minute.
How do we know that’s not because he didn’t get another check?
The state attorney’s office said that simply proposing the legislation that would benefit Negrin after taking his money was enough to arrest and charge Martinez with public corruption charges of unlawful compensation and conspiracy.
Character letters poured in vouching for him — from fellow cops, from Gimenez, his one time opponent, and from former Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, on the other hand, wasn’t having it. She said the sentencing Monday “completes a process started when a local jury of six members of our community found him guilty of using his political position to provide himself a financial benefit.
“It is always a community disappointment when an elected official chooses to work for his own personal interests over the interests of those who elected him,” Fernandez Rundle wrote in a statement. It’s ironic, because she is a big community disappointment for choosing the easy peasy cases and letting other people go, like former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, whose bribery and money laundering charges she shrugged off to Broward.
Read related: State attorney: Joe Martinez broke our trust for $15,000, help with bank loan
For 18 years, Joe Martinez strutted around County Hall like he owned the place. The retired cop with the barrel chest and the booming voice relished his role as the commission’s enforcer, the self-styled “bull” on the dais who could intimidate staffers, bulldoze colleagues and still pause long enough to flash that trademark grin.
Known for pounding the lectern so hard you thought he might break it, Commissioner Cranky had a cologne made with his own brand: The Commissioner. Martinez thrived on being the tough guy, the law-and-order commissioner and some considered him a shoe-in for the sheriff’s race.
But the bull has finally been gored. Instead of cracking down on bad guys, Martinez is the one fingerprinted like a common criminal. Instead of writing ordinances, he’s writing appeal briefs. The swagger that carried him for decades in politics and policing is now reduced to courtroom pleas and claims of innocence.
And that sheriff’s badge he always wanted? It may never be pinned to his chest — but he might still get issued a number. An inmate number. Again, maybe.
Monday’s reluctant sentence comes almost more than five year Martinez’s arrest in September of 2022. Martinez said his daughter was 15, a contestant on The Voice, when this started and is 22 now. He said he’d had two heart attacks.
“It takes a huge amount of stress when you’re innocent,” Martinez told reporters outside the courtroom. Because when you’re guilty, you cut a deal and you’re great. You can deal with it.
“But when you’re innocent it takes a toll on the family, on your friends, on everybody,” he said, flanked by his family and friends. Martinez also said he had no choice but to fight the charges.
“It’s either follow the suggestions and say I did something I didn’t do, or go to prison. and everybody who knows me… I couldn’t live with myself if I did that, man,” Martinez said. “I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror. I couldn’t look at my children, my friends and supporters, and stand there and say, ‘Yes I am guilty of this,’ when I didn’t do it.”
So now Joe waits. If the appeal fails, he could be spending his 70th birthday in state prison. If it succeeds, he’ll walk away vindicated — and probably blame everybody but himself.
Either way, his political career? Dead. Buried. Cremated.
And we don’t need sentencing guidelines to declare that.
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Looks like the airport vote is boarding two different flights in the Miami mayor’s race.
On Friday, former Miami City Manager Emilio González rolled out the endorsement of AFSCME Local 1542, the county workers union that represents the rank-and-file who keep Miami International Airport running — the mechanics, baggage handlers, maintenance crews, and the rest of the behind-the-scenes army. They praised González for lifting morale back when he ran MIA, giving workers “a renewed sense of purpose.”
“Emilio led with fairness and professionalism, setting an example as a dedicated leader who never lost sight of the people—union members — whose hard work powers MIA’s success,” said union President Antonio Eiroa. “Emilio Gonzalez is a leader of
honesty, accountability, vision, and character. We know he will bring those same values to City Hall as Miami’s next mayor where [he] will prioritize the needs of workers and public.”
Read related: In Miami mayoral bid, Emilio Gonzalez goes for the law and order vote
Said Gonzalez: “Treating workers with fairness and professionalism is the least we can offer on behalf of Miami residents who rely on good contracts and negotiations to deliver services fairly and effectively. I will ensure that the permitting and bidding process is done legally, fairly, and open to public scrutiny because I believe in government accountability which has been lacking in our city for too long.”
Whoa there, says Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who has long considered herself the working people’s representative.
Higgins announced Monday that 32BJ SEIU — one of the biggest unions in Florida with more than 195,000 members, including airport cleaners, security guards, and janitors — is backing her campaign. They call her a “true champion for working families,” reminding everyone that she fought to expand living wage protections, stood with strikers on the picket line, and even testified before Congress about poor working conditions at MIA. That was before the recent poor conditions.
Read related: Ken Russell qualifies for November Miami mayoral race; ADLP dips one toe
“She has always stood with working people,” said Helene O’Brien, Florida District Director of 32BJ SEIU. “From expanding living wage protections to fighting for affordable housing and safer communities, to supporting commercial office janitors in their fight to raise standards, Eileen has proven herself as a true champion for working families.
“Miami needs a leader who puts residents first — and Eileen Higgins has the track record to deliver,” O’Brien said.
Said Higgins: “Workers keep our city running — they deserve fair pay, safe workplaces, and a government that has their back. As mayor, I’ll keep fighting to make Miami more affordable, opportunity-rich, and fair for everyone who calls this city home.”
So which one is the “workers’ choice” now? Depends on which terminal you’re standing in.
Higgins has the service workers in purple shirts, the janitors and security officers who greet travelers and scrub the terminals. González has the county employees in green, the ones who fix the broken belts and make sure the lights stay on. Both groups claim the high ground on integrity, accountability, and fighting for working people.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
Ladra’s take? The split shows how fractured Miami politics is — even at the airport. Instead of one big union army delivering a united front, the workers are divvied up like everything else in this town: by loyalties, leadership, and which candidate makes them feel heard.
It also sets up a nice little battle of contrasts between the two candidates that a recent poll have heading into a runoff: Higgins the progressive policy wonk with labor cred versus González the ex–airport CEO and retired Army colonel with managerial cred. The question is whether voters care who has more endorsements at Concourse D or if they’re more worried about corruption and skyrocketing rents at home.
Either way, both candidates just planted their campaign flags on MIA’s tarmac. And if the workers themselves are divided, it’s because that’s how Miami feels.
There are 12 other candidates who have expressed an interest in running, including former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla and termed-out Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who hasn’t filed any paperwork but keeps hinting that he might run. Only former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and Laura Anderson, a candidate affiliated with the socialist workers party, have qualified so far. The deadline to qualify for the Nov. 4 race is Sept. 20. That’s Saturday.

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It looks like former Miami City Manager Emilio González has found his campaign sweet spot: the law-and-order vote. Six former police chiefs — count ’em, six — have lined up to bless the retired Army colonel’s run for Miami mayor.
This not the endorsement from the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, who have not yet made a determination. …
So, perhaps this announcement Monday about the blue backing is an effort to pre-empt that endorsement. Not that it matters. Two years ago, the Miami FOP endorsed former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla just weeks after he was arrested on public corruption charges. Commissioner Miguel Gabela won.
Read related: Emilio Gonzalez Miami mayoral PAC raises almost $700K in three months
Former Miami top cops Jorge Colina, Manuel Orosa and Rodolfo Llanes were joined by ex-Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Pérez, El Portal’s former chief, David Magnusson, and David Rivero, who ran the University of Miami police force after years in MPD,  to back Gonzalez. Together, they put their names on a press release Monday calling the former manager the only candidate with the “vision, integrity and courage” to lead Miami out of its mess.
That’s the polite way of saying they don’t trust anyone else in the race. For Oroza, Gonzalez is “the only candidate.”
The quotes read like copy-and-paste campaign fodder. All of them used the word integrity.
“It is not a matter of who we want, it is a matter who we need,” Colina said. “Only Emilio has the vision, integrity and courage to lead Miami forward.”
Pérez warns that the “city is in crisis.” Magnusson says that he “demands no less” than the same level of honesty, humility and integrity he demanded from his officers.
Nobody mentioned the corruption scandals that have plagued City Hall for years — including the years Gonzalez was there — or how many electeds in the 305 often end up in court — or handcuffs. But that was implied.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
Either way, González is clearly leaning into the badge. He’s got the endorsements from the guys who used to run the force, even if none of them could fix Miami’s policing or political problems when they were in charge. And it’s not lost on Ladra that these are all former chiefs. The current brass is staying out of it — at least for now.
This is a good look for El Colonel, who’s trying to sell himself as the “integrity” candidate in a field full of insiders, wannabes, and yes-men. Whether voters buy it is another story. Miamians love cops in theory, but they love deals and padrinos more.
And let’s be real: in a city where every other week someone is led out in handcuffs, promising “honesty and integrity” almost sounds like a punchline.

Help Ladra cover every inch and corner of the Miami mayoral election this year with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Thank you for supporting independent, grassroots government watchdog journalism.

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Was the county’s $402M budget gap just a drill?
Remember that $402 million budget hole Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said we were staring down back in July? The one that justified chopping arts funding, pulling the plug on charity grants, hiking transit fees and even grounding the county’s rescue helicopters?
Well, guess what. Most of it, somehow, went poof.
On Friday, a week and a day after a 12-hour budget hearing, Levine Cava rolled out a shiny new set of “short-term fixes” and surprise surpluses that let her walk back most of the doomsday cuts. Suddenly, MetroConnect is saved (though now it’ll cost $3.75 a ride, with fewer zones and capped trips), charities get their funding restored, the arts don’t get slashed, and the fire union gets its helicopters back in the countywide budget.
Funny how all that money turned up just days before the final vote, which is Thursday.
Read related: Madness marathon: Observations from the first Miami-Dade budget hearing
Levine Cava, of course, claimed a win. “Through hard work and hard choices, my administration presented a balanced budget that closed a significant gap without cutting core services or raising tax rates,” she wrote in her Sept. 12 memo. “After unprecedented community engagement and negotiations with our Board of County Commissioners, we identified additional savings and recovered unspent funds returned by the constitutional offices.”
Translation: the boogeyman is gone, thanks to some accounting acrobatics and departments freezing vacant jobs longer.
About $4.1 million is saved through attrition — or not filling jobs — at 14 departments (more on that later) and another $467,000 cut from marketing and $1.4 million cut from management consulting.
These savings will help put the $28 million air rescue cost back into the general fund. But that was not Levine Cava’s idea. Fire union president William “Billy” McAllister said at the first budget hearing that the move would go against what voters wanted when they passed the fire rescue taxing district in 1980. Not everybody pays into the Fire District tax because several cities have their own fire departments, including Miami, Coral Gables and Hialeah. They don’t pay into the fire district, but would get air rescue services nonetheless. Meaning that homeowners in Westchester would pay the bill when a Gables High football player is airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
“It’s illegal,” McAllister said. And the union willing to take the county to court for it.
La Alcaldesa and her new BFF, Commissioner Raquel Regaldo, worked hard into the 11th hour to negotiate what they thought was a compromise deal to smooth this out: Half the $28 million helicopter tab would go back to the countywide budget this year, another $7 million mid year and the final $7 million at the end of the fiscal year. So, a payment plan.
Read related: Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wants Fire District to pay for air rescue helicopters
The union flat out rejected it. No half measures, gracias. They wanted all of it shifted off the Fire District and back onto the general fund — rápido.
Commissioner Eileen Higgins, at the last minute, told the mayor to come back to them with a new budget that funded the air rescue from the general fund. The majority agreed with herBut that means less money for equipment and staff — things that can bring down the response time from nine minutes, according to to the union leadership.
Nonprofits got a reprieve, too. Jewish Community Services, Farm Share, and dozens of others that provide services — from hot meals and teen jobs to eviction defense — were bracing for slashed grants until charity leaders and activists lined up at the first public hearing Sept. 4 to shame the mayor for targeting them. Levine Cava’s latest memo restores their funding at full 2025 levels.
And the arts? La Alcaldesa first proposed a $13 million hit to cultural programs, restored most of it last month, and on Friday threw the last $1.3 million back in. Crisis averted. Curtain call.
Read related: Facing $400M budget shortfall, Miami-Dade cuts senior meals, lifeguards, more
So who’s still paying the price? Riders. A 50-cent transit fare hike stays in the budget — the first since 2013 — along with higher shuttle costs for seniors and the disabled. But, hey, MetroMover is still free for the beautiful people.
Commissioners take the final vote this Thursday. Expect more speeches about “shared sacrifice.” Especially since the revised budget takes a whole $500,000 out of the commission’s budget. Because, you know, they can’t afford more than that if they want to keep giving gifts, er, grants to the people and organizations who drive votes on election years.
But Ladra can’t help but ask: if the hole wasn’t really $402 million deep, then what was all this drama about? A scare tactic? A political stress test? Or just the oldest trick in the book: cry crisis, then ride in as the hero when you “save” everyone from it.

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Congressional candidate Richard Lamondin must be feeling pretty good this week. His campaign’s first community town hall was drew a nice crowd Tuesday night at St. James Baptist Church in Coconut Grove. That already puts him ahead of Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, who hasn’t faced her constituents without a teleprompter or studio lighting in, well, ever.
The Miami-born entrepreneur and first-time candidate, a Democrat running to replace Republican Salazar, actually sat in front of real, live people — no Fox filter, no pre-recorded video, no carefully cropped backdrop of Little Havana cafecitos. Just him, a microphone, and a group of voters who have been waiting five years for their congresswoman to stop hiding behind a camera.
Read related: Democrat candidate Richard Lamondin steps up for absent Maria Elvira Salazar
Lamondin took questions from an audience of about 50 people on everything from housing costs to health care to small business survival, answering directly from the pews where voters packed in. It was the kind of event people in District 27 haven’t seen from their actual congresswoman in her five years of duck-and-cover representation.
“I would not be here if we had proper leadership,” Lamondin told the group. “We are a time right now where we have a congresswoman, Maria Elvira Salazar, who is viewed as elitist, because she is. She does not come into the community.
“She is viewed as out of touch, because she is. She only speaks to us through a camera,” Lamondin continued. “And when I knock on doors she is viewed as scared, because she is. She is scared of looking us in the eye and explaining to us, why some of us do not have healthcare… why, during hurricane season, she is supporting cuts to FEMA and to the flood mitigation that will lower our property insurance.
“She is afraid to look us in the eye and explain, especially to our seniors, why there are cuts to food assistance, housing assistance, the type of lifelines that this community needs… to pay the tax cuts for billionaires who don’t need the money.”
He also mentioned the cruel immigration policies that Salazar has supported with her silence — the ripping apart of families, sending teenagers into ill-prepared detention centers. “This is not the country I want my son to grow up in,” Lamondin said.
Read related: Maria Elvira Salazar’s ‘Dignity Act’ is about zero dignity and all a big act
The candidate told the crowd what they wanted to hear: that he’ll show up, that he’ll listen, and that he won’t disappear when the community needs him. But the biggest applause line wasn’t his. It came when someone pointed out the empty chair that would have been Salazar’s if she ever bothered to come.
In fact, dozens of attendees filled out question cards addressed to their absent congresswoman. Lamondin says he will personally take them to Salazar’s Miami office himself. Ladra can already see the campaign video.
Of course, this isn’t just about the Q&A. It’s about optics. And the optics were clear: Lamondin looked like the candidate who actually wants the job, while Salazar looked like she couldn’t be bothered. He looked like someone running toward the community, while Salazar continues to run away from it. And the optics of a packed Grove church versus a green screen studio are not good for a so-called “voice of the district.”
That could be a problem for the incumbent, especially since the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already put her on their target list. While Salazar enjoys incumbency in a GOP stronghold district that has about 30,000 more Republican voters than Democrats, her constant taking credit for things she didn’t do and the lack of spine on the immigration policy issue in a community full of immigrants, has made her increasingly unpopular within her own base.
Salazar beat former Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia Baez-Geller last year by more than 20 points. But she won’t have Donald Trump’s coattails in 2026.
The Grove church crowd wasn’t just polite applause, either. They were fired up, laughing at the empty chair where Salazar would have sat if she had the guts. And if Lamondin can keep filling rooms like this, María Elvira may have to start doing more than reading carefully-crafted scripts in her journalist voice and recording dramatic kitchen-table monologues for Twitter.
Because the one thing voters in Miami hate more than corruption is being ignored.

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