Same 8 commissioners who approved the application could override
Less than two weeks before Election Day, South Miami City Attorney Thomas Pepe issued an opinion last week that the city’s $250 limit on campaign contributions was null and void. It has been since July, 2021.
That’s when the state legislature passed a bill that not only pre-empted municipalities from restricting contributions to less than the state limit of $1,000 per person or entity, but also retroactively scrapped any limits already set. The South Miami $250 contribution limit was passed in 1991.
Miami Lakes has a $20 million general obligation bond referendum on the ballot to renovate and improve Optimist Park, which has a port-a-pottie and enough chronic flooding to cancel multiple baseball games.
Vice Mayor Jeffrey Rodriguez, who has been out at early voting every day to push a yes vote, gets the prize for the best campaign ad this cycle. And it’s not really an ad. It’s a graphic he posted on the Facebook I Love Miami Lakes page. But it’s a good one.
The fourth time was the charm for the developers of the South Dade Logistics and Technology District, a 380-acre industrial and office park proposed on what used to be farmland — just over the Miami-Dade Urban Development Boundary.
They got the necessary 8-4 supermajority, instead of the 9 votes they would have needed if the vacant seat left by the removal of Joe Martinez was filled. But lobbyist Jeffrey Bercow et al can thank two commissioners in particular: Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz — who fought tooth and nail for them from the beginning — and Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who changed her vote from no to yes in exchange for (read: under cover of) getting some environmentally endangered lands in return.
The heated race for an open Florida State senate seat in District 38 has gone from warm to nuclear as both candidates take turns stinging each other and pointing fingers at each other like mosquitas muertas.
For weeks, they campaigned on their own merits. Republican Alexis Calatayud, campaign manager and onetime legislative aide to former State Rep. Vance Aloupis, stressed her experience with the Florida Department of Education for the last two years, including during the pandemic. Democrat Janelle Perez, who once interned for Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, stressed her experience as a mom, cancer survivor and business owner (her family owns Doctors HealthCare Plans) with an intense interest in healthcare access.
The first and only gubernatorial debate between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Congressman Charlie Crist seemed to have the incumbent on the ropes.
DeSantis sometimes looked like a dear in the headlights as he gritted his teeth and smirked at some of the Crist zingers.
