For 100 years, the elections in Coral Gables have been in April. It is so written in the city’s charter, which is being celebrated this year for the City Beautiful’s centennial. But that history was erased this month.
The new city commission majority, formed in last month’s elections, voted last week to change the biannual election date from April to November on even years, to coincide with state and national elections. The change, which has been a priority of Mayor Vince Lago‘s for the last two years, is made by ordinance — the first reading was at a special commission meeting May 6.
The move also shortens all electeds’ terms by four months, and an argument could be made about disenfrachising voters, who are apparently not going to get an opportunity to weigh in on this.
At the first reading, the deputy city attorney said there would be a public vote, anyway, “for affirmation,” at a special election to be determined at a later date. There is a whereas clause in the ordinance that calls for a future vote on the matter:

“WHEREAS, should this Ordinance be adopted by the City Commission, the City also wishes to send a question to the electors of the City for affirmation of this change during a special election to be held at a later date as determined by the City Commission;”

So, why wasn’t the motion to take it to the voters in the first place?
Read related: Coral Gables electeds to be sworn in, will push for November elections
And what happens if the voters decide at some future election, not to affirm any change of election date to November?
Coral Gables City Attorney Cristina Suarez
Ladra has asked these questions multiple times of City Attorney Cristina Suarez, Assistant City Attorney Stephanie Throckmorton and city spokeswoman Martha Pantin. The week after the special commission meeting, Suarez responded via email to say that the city has the right to make the change.
“The City Commission is authorized, under state law, to change the date of the election by ordinance, without a vote of the electors. The timing and language of a ballot question regarding the election date would have to be determined by the City Commission,” Suarez wrote on May 14.
But that really didn’t answer the questions, did it? So, Ladra asked again. And Pantin came back with some crazy story about the question in the whereas clause being about future elections.
“The question being put to voters is about future changes to elections. They are not being asked about changing the election. They are being asked if in the future should a City Commission want to move the election date, would they have to put the question to the voters ,” Pantin wrote in an email Tuesday. “If they vote yes, future Commissions will need to send the question to the voters. If they vote no, future Commissions could change by ordinance.”
When was that discussed? Because it is not what it says in the whereas clause. It is “for affirmation of this change.” This change.
If this is true, it seems more like an attempt to make it impossible for a future commission to change elections back to April.
And, also, Suarez said at the May 20 commission meeting that the question about putting future changes to voters was on another agenda item, not this one.
But further attempts to get clarification from the city attorney or any city official were completely unsuccessful. “Elections are changed to November, and this applies to future changes,” Pantin wrote in her last email Thursday. “Regarding what if scenarios, I am not going to speculate as to what the city commission might do should that occur.”
Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez, who said it should go to voters, voted against it.
“The people who have reached out to me, and I have the emails, are the people asking me, do not change our elections, leave our election in April,” Castro said. “This is really not about saving 200K this is really about drowning the voices of the people. this is about only letting well-funded candidates run city government.
“That’s very dishonest.”
Read related: Post-election Vince Lago revenge tour in Coral Gables = political retaliation
Activist Maria Cruz, who had led a petition drive to recall Lago 2024, questioned why the mayor and his allies bothered to petition for the change via referendum last year — a petition that failed miserably when more than 70% of the signatures were deemed invalid (more on that later) — if they could just do it at a commission meeting. According to a status report from the Miami-Dade Elections Department, the Lago group submitted 4,983 petitions on changing the election from April to November. Of those, 1,461 were valid and 3,522 were not valid.
“Here we are, trying to do what the residents, what the taxpayers, did not choose do to,” Cruz said at the first reading. “It is what I, the emperor wants, not necessarily what the people want.”
Claudia Miro, who lost the commission race in Group 3 in the first round and then endorsed Commissioner Richard Lara, spoke several times during the meeting — always in support of Lago’s arguments — and said that this was probably going to be decided by Tallahassee, anyway. It didn’t happen this year, but it will eventually, she said.
“I don’t think this is an issue we should continue to discuss and fight over at the city level because it is being addressed at the state level,” Miro said. “There are good arguments to be made on both sides of this issue, but right now there is a movement in Tallahassee. This is an area where the state can come and tell us how they want things done.”
Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson said that this was a direction the district’s state representative also wanted to go in, aside from being one of her platform issues during this last campaign. “I think the voters have spoken by choosing the individuals that they have reelected and elected in Commissoner Lara into his seat, as this is a consistent issue among all three of us,” said Anderson, who has advocated for consensus among the members at the Florida League of Cities.
“Burt not all cities are the same. This is a large city,” Anderson said. “We’re not a snowbird city anymore.”
Ladra didn’t know that the Gables was ever a “snowbird city,” per se. And why was it so hard then to get the required signatures to put the question on the ballot.

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In his recently-accelerated revenge tour, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is going after his perceived enemies. Like this was Cuba or Venezuela and he can just trample on everyone’s rights.
His baseless defamation lawsuit against Actualidad Radio — for a February, 2023, broadcast about a complaint to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust — is just a witch hunt to find and harass as many of his critics as he can.
Lago says he wants to know just who complained about his lack of truthfulness to the ethics commission, which then launched an investigation into his possible violation of the truth in government provision because he signed an affidavit swearing nobody in his immediate family had financial interests in the Little Gables annexation into the City Beautiful, which was a lie because his brother was, at the time, listed as the lobbyist for the largest property owner in the unincorporated Miami-Dade enclave, which is the trailer park.
The mayor  just conveniently left the word “siblings” out of the affidavit. That’s not a coincidence. So the investigation sorta bloomed into that: Whether or not there was really a conflict of interest in his desperate push to annex Little Gables.
The complaint was technically a “matter under initial review,” but that’s an investigation, just using other words. This is the crux of Lago’s defamation lawsuit against Actualidad, filed in late 2023, ten months after the broadcast. Lago and his attorneys say it wasn’t technically an investigation and want to know who leaked the investigation, which wasn’t  an investigation, to the radio host, Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera, who then talked about it on his morning radio show.
Lago’s attorneys filed a motion to compel Ethics Commission Investigator Karl Ross to divulge the names of the “three concerned citizens” that made the complaint about the fake affidavit. They already very obviously have their suspicions. In the March deposition taken of Ross, Lago’s attorney asks him if he knows three people, and only these three people: Miami-Dade Firefighters Local 1403 President William “Billy” McAllister, Coral Gables firefighters union president David Perez, y esta que está aquí. But they spelled my name wrong. Phonetically, I guess.
Read related: Judge dismisses Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago’s defamation lawsuit
McAllister was subpoenaed and is scheduled to give his deposition July 2. Ladra, who has also been subpoenaed, can’t wait to read that one.
This is just a fishing expedition. Take note of the long list of perceived enemies on the subpoena to McClatchy. Lago’s attorneys want the publisher of the Miami Herald to produce any documents and communications involving ethics commission proceedings from January 2016 to December 2024 (that’s eight years!) that were copied to:

Democratic political consultant Christian Ulvert
Former or current staff members of the Miami-Dade County Mayor’s office
Former or current officials of AFSCME Local for City and County Employees
Former or current chairpersons of a political party
Former and/or current members of the Miami-Dade Commission, City of Miami Commission, and/or former and/or staff and/or personnel of those members
Former and/or current state prosecutors
Members and/or representatives of the Miami-Dade Fire Union
Members and/or representatives of the Coral Gables Fire Union
William “Billy” McAllister IV
David Perez
Former Miami Herald Writer Sarah Blaskey
Miami Herald super writer Jay Weaver

Furthermore, for the last three years, they want all documents and communications, including text messages and emails sent to or received by the Miami Herald that “discuss, refer to, insinuate, report, and/or allege that Vince Lago was engaged in a bad act, abuse of power, and/or ethical impropriety.” They are listed:

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Out of nowhere, and more than a year after getting it, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Joseph Perkins last week recused himself from the defamation lawsuit brought by Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago against Actualidad Radio for a 2023 broadcast about an ethics investigation into his signing of an intentionally misleading affidavit, dramatically signed at a public commission meeting, denying his brothers documented business ties with the largest property owner in Little Gables.
Perkins didn’t give a reason for his sudden self recusal on May 19 in what looks like a form letter. “The undersigned Circuit Court Judge hereby recuses himself/herself from further consideration of this case,” it says. “This case shall be reassigned to another section of the Circuit Civil Division in accordance with established procedures.”
No reason. No details. Not even any certainty about how Perkins identifies. This is nearly 18 months after Perkins first got the case, which was filed in December of 2023.
Read related: Vince Lago revenge tour includes witch hunt for critics, confidential sources
There have already been depositions taken and rulings made. There have been case management hearings, motions on discovery. There are 132 dockets on file with the Miami-Dade Clerk’s office (enter “Lago, Vince,” and check the “I am not a robot” box).
This is weird.
Perkins was elected to the 11th Circuit Court in 2020. He mostly self funded his campaign with at least $100,000 in “loans” and another $93,000 or more in “in-kind” contributions, according to his campaign report filed with the Florida Division of Elections. He’s up for re-election next year and filed on April 25, almost a month before he recused himself from this Lago case.
Many political observers wonder if someone threatened to run a candidate against Perkins. A Hispanic candidate. This is not so shocking to anybody who knows anything about the history of judicial races in Miami-Dade. Las malas lenguas say old school political consultant Armando Gutierrez would threaten to run a candidate against you if you didn’t hire him to run your campaign.
This is the same thing: A threat against justice. In this case, it wouldn’t be about using political influence to affect an election. It would be about using political influence to affect a particular civil case.
Read related: Judge dismisses Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago’s defamation lawsuit
Perkins wasn’t necessarily a friendly judge to Lago. He already dismissed the case last August, finding that Lago’s claims were “legally insufficient.” Duh. A public figure cannot bring a defamation case against a journalist or radio station for discussion a very real and pertinent investigation about a statement made at a public meeting, no matter what the mayor wants to call it. The ruling was a response to Actualidad’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on the anti-SLAPP provision, which “prohibits lawsuits brought against individuals for exercising their right of free speech in connection with a public issue,” according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Lago’s attorneys baselessly claim that Actualidad’s 4-minute broadcast in February of 2023 was orchestrated by Coral Gables Commissioner Ariel Fernandez and former morning show host Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera to damage his reputation. Tellingly, neither of the two are named in the lawsuit. Because it’s simply an attempt to silence his critics, which include the presidents of the firefighters unions, the publisher of the Miami Herald and Ladra herself, all of whom have been subpoenaed to tell his attorneys who told us about the investigation.
Good luck with that.
There is no case because Lago is a public figure who answers to a constituency and, more importantly, there was, indeed, an investigation, or inquiry, or review into whether or not he knowingly misled the public when he dramatically signed an affidavit at a public meeting swearing that none of his immediate family had any personal or financial interests in Little Gables, which was being considered for annexation, by intentionally leaving “siblings” out of the definition of family. His brother, attorney Carlos Lago, was registered as a lobbyist at the time for the owner of the largest property in Little Gables, which is the trailer park.
The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust did get a complaint and did conduct an investigation, which they call a “matter under initial review,” but is handled the same way, according to the testimony of investigator Karl Ross, whose deposition was taken in March. The investigation basically ended after they found that Lago may have thought that he used the current definition, because it was changed at some point.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago may have conflict of interest in Little Gables
Whatever. If he used the definition of the time, then he took advantage of it because he never had to sign an affidavit in the first place. It was like he was protesting too much.
But when Perkins dismissed the case in August, he left room for Lago’s attorneys to amend the complaint, which they did. And so the lawsuit rages on. But the judge’s sudden exit may lead to some questions of concern. And maybe some opportunity for the Actualidad Radio attorneys.
The new judge who has been assigned the case is Circuit Court Judge Javier Enriquez, who once ran for State Rep. against Jose Javier Rodriguez, and lost, just like Alex Diaz de la Portilla did. He was appointed in 2023 by Gov. Ron DeSantis and sits on the family court bench in the domestic violence division. One can’t help but wonder if he’s been politically influenced.
At the very least, it’s going to take him some time to get up to speed on the case. As stated, there have been a lot of filings already. But there are subpoenas being served all the time now and the next deposition is scheduled for July. So Enriquez better bone up.
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Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo stood Ladra up Wednesday. Or, rather, set me up.
It was awfully suspicious that Carollo would agree to grant Political Cortadito an interview after the hostilities he’s expressed, the names he’s called me, even saying from the dais that Ladra was paid to attack him. For the record, I do it for free because it’s so easy and fun and important.
But if one is a serious political blogger, one cannot turn down an opportunity to interview Carollo face to face. There were so many questions to ask that I made a list. The easy, “friendly,” questions would come first, and get increasingly — er, pointe? Difficult? Hostile? — before he would toss me out. That’s how I envisioned it. Was Ladra nervous? Yes. But I was more excited.
And, apparently, naive.
Ladra should have known it was a ruse, but it wasn’t Carollo himself who invited Political Cortadito to his district office Wednesday. It was his communications director, Karen Caballero, who I thought was a respected journalist herself at one point. Ladra found out about the commissioner’s Monday press conference too late to attend. So, I called and texted Caballero to get the documents he had distributed to the press. She didn’t answer. I texted again on Tuesday, after someone spotted her sitting next to Carollo in the audience in commission chambers during Commissioner Miguel Gabela‘s emergency Bayfront Park Management Trust meeting.
A few hours later, she texted back.
“Good afternoon Ms. de Valle. I hope this message finds you well,” she wrote. “The commissioner mentioned that he will make time to meet with you at the district office. Please let me know if you are available to come by today or tomorrow. Thank you.”
Could this really be serious? Ladra thought to herself.
We arranged for a time and Caballero gave me the address. And Ladra nearly jumped out of her gaming chair (which is the best desk chair I’ve ever had; try it!)
Read related: Miami Commission clash: Miguel Gabela vs Joe Carollo war heats up
On Wednesday, an hour before the fake meeting, as I prepared to get into the car and make my way from Kendall to Little Havana , I called Caballero and spoke to her on the phone. To confirm the meeting was still going to happen. She said the meeting was still on, but she would not be there. The commissioner will be there? Yes, she said. I imagined with other staffers, not alone.
When I arrived at the district office, which used to be the Little Havana Neighborhood Enhancement Team branch, it was locked. Am I the only one who thinks it’s strange to have a public building locked on a weekday afternoon? I rang the bell and announced myself. I sure did have an appointment!
Then this guy comes from around the corner, asking who I was. He looked familiar and carried some papers in his hand. Immediately, I knew. I was duped. Carollo wasn’t going to meet with me. This was the purpose of the “meeting” all along.
The process server’s name is Jose Mejia and he was awfully nice. (You can watch our interaction on Political Cortadito’s new TikTok platform.) They all have been, really. He said they had been trying to serve me but couldn’t. That is weird since I’ve been served at my home, twice in recent months. We gave the last guy a cold can of Coke. So, I thought, finally, Carollo is serving me with some cease and desist or defamation motion.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo served with court summons in meeting
It happens. Corrupt politicians don’t like to be called out and try to silence their critics using the courts. It never sticks.
Anyway, guess what? It wasn’t Carollo’s subpoena. It was one from Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, calling me as a witness  in his lawsuit against Actualidad, in which he is trying to go after all his critics (more on that later). Basically, he wants all my communications with anyone regarding the story in Political Cortadito about his false affidavit on not having any family members involved in the Little Gables annexation interests.
But what’s really important here isn’t that Ladra got tricked into going to a meeting that was a ruse all along by an elected official and one of his public payroll staffers. While that is sorta rude, my readers will understand that I had no choice and are likely to find it funny. I did.
No, the important thing is that Carollo and a staffer, his press secretary, knowingly lured a journalist to a public building, which belongs to the taxpayers Ladra informs, in order to dramatically serve a subpoena — they could have come to my home — from a mayor in a neighboring city. How is that ethical?
What kind of deal did Carollo — who was at Lago’s election night victory party at Wolfe’s Wine Shoppe on Miracle Mile last month — make to be the lead in this con? What has Lago promised in return?
They do share an attorney. Mason Portnoy, who is former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff‘s litigation lapdog (Marc can’t litigate but he can get business, because he knows a lot of shady people; Mason can’t get business but he can litigate), represents Carollo in some matters and was at Tuesday’s Bayfront Trust meeting to try to stop it from happening (more on that later). Maybe Caballero showed him my texts and the scheme was born. Portnoy also represents Lago in the threatened lawsuit against Ladra that never materialized after I refused to take down to post or write a retraction.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and chief of staff threaten to sue Ladra
Ladra has called both Carollo and Caballero five or six times each since Wednesday. I’ve left specific messages asking them what happened. I texted Caballero specifically asking her about her role in the whole scam. There has been no answer. Silence.
First, they stood me up. Now they are ghosting me. Typical Miami relationship.
The post Joe Carollo and staff set Ladra up to serve Vince Lago’s newest subpoena appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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The political battle between Miami commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela — which began in earnest after Gabela took the chairmanship of the Bayfront Park Management Trust from Crazy Joe — erupted into a full blown war this week with several bombs launched. It culminated Thursday at a city commission meeting where Gabela’s wife accused Carollo of, basically, stalking them, and, after which, Chairwoman Christine King, like a frustrated parent with unruly kids, stopped the meeting abruptly.
Like a cease fire.
Nothing from the agenda — aside from the presentations and accolades — got done. Nothing.
And poor Loco Pollo Carollo — smiling and satisfied like the cat that ate the canary — had only just gotten there, after leaving his chair empty throughout the entire public comments period, during which Mariela Gabela said he and his staff were harassing her. Yes, that’s Mrs. Gabela, the commissioner’s wife.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo loses Bayfront Park Trust to Miguel Gabela
“He’s messing with my livelihood. He’s been messing with my livelihood since 2023,” Mariela Gabela said, coming to tears and pointing at the empty seat where Carollo should have been. “He has a person outside my house watching me night and day. He has the sergeant of arms over here taking photos of me and watching me day and night. I’m the wife of an elected official, and that guy over there is always watching me and his employees are always taking photos of me.
“This is not a communist country!”

This all actually started on Monday, when Carollo hastily called a press conference to make shit up about both Jose Regalado — the former assistant building director who is running for District 4 commissioner against his puppet candidate (more on that later) — and Gabela, who was made the chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust after Crazy Joe was accused of misspending the agency’s budget like a slush fund and was stripped of the title.
The press conference was really a pre-emption of Tuesday’s announced “emergency” meeting of the Bayfront Trust, which Carollo just knew was going to be all about his malfeasance, which it was.
Carollo, who has been known to have people followed and surveilled, distributed satellite photos of Gabela’s house with cars parked on the property and boats in the Miami River behind it. The accusations of code enforcement violations didn’t get much press traction, so he had his Chief of Staff William “Billy” Ortiz send an official complaint to the city manager, which Gabela mentioned on Thursday.
So, Carollo’s press conference was nothing more than trying to set the narrative before Gabela was able to blast his actions on the Trust. Because on Tuesday, two bombs dropped: Gabela had both Cristina Palomo, the former Bayfront Trust board member who resigned because of the Dogs and Cats giveaway, and former Bayfront Trust Executive Director Jose Suarez, who has accused Carollo of misspending hundreds of thousands of dollars — maybe millions — and is suing him and the city for pressuring him to resign.
The meeting was an indictment of Carollo, who was there and tried in vain to defend himself (more on that later). And there is now an ongoing forensic audit and investigation into the use of the Trust funds for Carollo’s personal gain, Gabela said.
Read related: Commissioner Miguel Gabela set to expose more Bayfront Park Trust issues
This alone, is enough of a story to set alarms on fire. There should already have been an investigation.
Then, at Thursday’s meeting, Gabela had a discussion item on the agenda to prohibit electeds from weaponizing any city department — akin to the resolution that Carollo passed that does not allow the city’s police department to investigate them. But when King announced that she would be leaving early, Gabela wanted to take it out of order. She said she would go in order.
“No, no, no. I need your vote. We need to do this because I’ve been targeted by the City of Miami code enforcement department through the city manager because of doing my job on the Bayfront Trust and Commissioner Carollo is harassing me,” Gabela said, while King, who has increasingly been seen as Carollo’s protector, kept interrupting him. She wouldn’t have it.

“He wants my house to be investigated when I have done noth… No, ma’am. No, ma’am. I know what’s going on here. I’ll tell you what. If we don’t do this, I’m leaving right now.”
King called a recess that ended up being permanent. Hopefully, things will get done at the next meeting. Because there is a lot to get done.
Gabela was unapologetic when he spoke to Ladra on Friday.
Read related: Joe Carollo wants to abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Management Trust
“We’ve had people following us since 2023,” Gabela said, referring to his campaign before he was even elected. Back then, however, we thought it was former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla who was behind it. He was running against Gabela after being suspended by the governor after his arrest on public corruption charges, including bribery and money laundering, that were later dropped. But Gabela says it’s part of the same cabal.
He also knows that Carollo is trying to derail the results of the Bayfront Trust investigation and change the narrative, which is not going to be good for him.
“This is his way to intimidate people. This is his way of coming after me,” Gabela told Ladra. “He is freaked out. He is scared. We hit a couple of bombs but haven’t hit the nuclear bomb yet.”
But we all know it’s there, don’t we? Where’s the fallout shelter?
The cease fire was also short-lived. There will be a Sunshine meeting in commission chambers on May 30 on “the weaponization of city government.” That’s going to be another indictment on Carollo.
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On the airwaves and in the mailboxes of Miami voters, Jose Regalado, a candidate in the June 3 special election to replace the late Commissioner Manolo Reyes in District 4, is striking back against the lies and attacks coming from Ralph Rosado, the other candidate, and his benefactor, Commissioner Joe Carollo — who may spend up to half a million dollars to get Rosado elected.
In his own voice, Regalado has a 60-second spot running on Spanish-language radio that tells voters how desperate Carollo is to have Rosado sit next to him. Most political radio ads are 30 seconds. But Jose Francisco Regalado has a lot to say.
“This election should be about the real problems that affect the quality of life in our city. But it has been converted in a campaign of lies and attacks against me and my family,” Regalado says. “Joe Carollo is spending millions on radio, TV and mail to impose his candidate, Ralph Rosado. If he wins, Carollo will control the commission of Miami.
“Manolo Reyes did not allow that and neither will I,” Regalado goes on. “I am not afraid of Carollo or his lies. Rosado is afraid and has accepted being his puppet.
Read related: Manolo Reyes’ widow comes out strong for Jose Regalado in D4 special election
“Carollo is the king of conflict and chusmeria,” he says, using a a word that google translates to gossip but really loosely means trashy or having no class. “He doesn’t want you to come out and vote,” Regalado adds, because negative ads like this are really a form of voter suppression when they are so frequent.
“I was born here and have grown up here. I’ve worked all my life for this community. My commitment is to continue the legacy of Manolo Reyes, and use your money to fix the streets and add more police. Not to pay for attorneys that defend Carollo.”
Ouch. That, no doubt, refers to the millions of dollars that the city has spent in taxpayer funds defending Carollo from multiple lawsuits, including a federal First Amendment suit brought against him by two Little Havana businessmen
Regalado’s campaign also sent a mailer last week with a long introduction on his history in the city, which includes his role in the creation of the Miami Forever Bond Initiative to invest $400 million to address the city’s most pressing needs — sea-level rise and flood prevention, roadways, parks and cultural facilities, public safety and affordable housing — and delivering aid and resources to residents and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the purpose was also to set the record straight and let people know that Carollo is behind the attacks on him.
“I was honored when Commissioner Reyes’ family asked me to consider running to continue his residents-first legacy. But this race has taken a disappointing turn,” Regalado writes. “Instead of focusing on the issues, like flooding, housing and public safety, it has become a proxy battle driven by Commissioner Joe Carollo.”
“He is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking me on television, on the radio, and in your mailbox, because he knows he cannot control me,” Regalado says. “We have seen this before. In his own district, Commissioner Carollo used city departments to target businesses he opposed, leaving Miami with millions in legal costs, a damaged reputation and a culture of fear among employees.
“I have no personal quarrel with my opponent,” he adds, referring to Rosado. “But many residents are asking the same question. Why is a commissioner from another district so involved in this race? And why would any candidate allow himself to be used by someone whose actions have cost Miami so much?”
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
Let Ladra attempt to answer that. First, Carollo is so heavily involved, using his political action committee to send daily mailers and directing Rosado’s TV commercial, because he needs that third pocket vote to get a majority. That way he can move his agenda along, destroy the city agencies he wants to nix to retaliate against his new enemies, Commissioners Miguel Gabela and Damian Pardo, and stop any attempts at reform that they may be working on.
And second, Rosado is a two-time loser — he ran for state rep before losing his first commission race against Reyes in 2017 — who doesn’t think he can win without Carollo’s considerable, but waning, influence. It’s a shame. He may not be such a terrible guy, even though he apparently was a terrible city manager (more on that later). He has some education and experience as an urban planner. But this association with Carollo, who is a thug, is something he’ll never shake off.
On the back side of the mailer to voters, Regalado’s campaign prints images of emails he got from Ralph Rosado and his chiefs of staff seeking his help with policy matters or legislation when Jose Regalado was assistant building director and Rosado was city manager at North Bay Village

“I’m reaching out on Ralph’s behalf to inquire if the city of Miami’s private provider program guidelines have been updated with the changes made in new statutes passed by the state,” wrote Leonardo Cosio in 2023. “Kindly send us whatever you may have so we can reference it as we develop our own policies.”
As recently as last year, Rosado sought Regalado’s assistance with things like the tree ordinance, the demolition bond ordinance and unsafe structures. If Regalado was so unqualified, as Carollo has said on his radio show and in his PAC ads, then why did Rosado seek his advice?
Rosado, who has been caught in a few lies by Ladra — he has not lived all his life in District 4, like he has said — does not return calls and texts from Ladra. Carollo also chose not to return calls and texts.
The post In Miami D4 race, Jose Regalado strikes back at Ralph Rosado’s lies on air, mail appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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