Community activist Damian Pardo, a candidate in Miami’s District 2 commission race, has been endorsed by retired political journalist Michael Putney, who recently left WPLG where he was the longtime host of the most popular Sunday morning political show, This Week In South Florida.

“In all my years covering Miami politics, I never endorsed a candidate. Couldn’t do it. But now that I’m retired, I can,” Putney says to open the 30-second spot, on the candidate’s website and on YouTube.

Read Full Story

Meet and greet forum for candidates this Tuesday

Read Full Story

That clock that Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago wants to put somewhere downtown was manufactured by a company that held a fundraiser for his BFF Miami Mayor Francis Suarez‘s now-abandoned presidential campaign in June.

Lago brought up the Masion F.P. Journe clock again during a discussion in a commission meeting last month, where he sought direction on where to put it. Where the sun don’t shine was not an option. The mayor liked a corner on Miracle Mile and Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Commissioner Melissa Castro wondered out loud if it was in front of Crema, which apparently the mayor has some financial interest in (more on that later).

Read Full Story

We already missed one candidate forum in the Nov. 7 Miami elections. Who knew? But there are at least three more scheduled for voters to get to know the people running for office in Districts 1, 2 and 4.

One Grove, the group of Coconut Grove residents and stakeholders who organized during the city’s flawed redistricting process, will have a candidate forum Tuesday beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove. Former New Times Editor Chuck Strouse, now assistant director at the Lee Caplin School of Journalism at Florida International University, will moderate a panel that includes The Miami Herald’s Nancy Ancrum, former Miami Herald reporter Don Finefrock representing the Coconut Grove Spotlight and someone from the League of Women Voters.

Read Full Story

If you’re following the District 2 race in Miami, you’ve likely seen incumbent Commissioner Sabina Covo‘s ads on TV.

This week, Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres, who has a much smaller warchest and can’t afford a lot of network time, posted his first video web ad, a fast-paced 30-second spot that calls for new blood at City Hall and calls out the current state of dysfunction.

Read Full Story

Miami District 2 Commissioner Sabina Covo may have bit off more than she can chew. Many voters have expressed disappointment. It’s one reason why she faces no fewer than seven challengers in the Nov. 7 election, which feels more like a race for an open seat.

Covo has been in office since February, when she won a special election — with only 29% of the vote — among 12 candidates to fill the term left by Ken Russell when he resigned to run for Congress (and lost in the primary). During this time she shines more for what she hasn’t done than for what she has done.

Read Full Story