From town halls in Apopka county and Tampa Bay to caucus powwows in Tallahassee, it looks like David Jolly — a former Republican congressman who fled the party due to Donald Trump and has been a commentator on MSNBC for several years — was already campaigning earlier this month for the Florida governor’s seat in 2026.
Then he announced Thursday that he changed his voter registration from no party affiliation to Democrat, which is a necessary step in that direction.
Meanwhile, State Sen. Jason Pizzo, the now former Senate minority leader who has also toyed with a gubernatorial run, announced that he had changed his registration from Democrat to no party affiliation, saying the blue party “is dead.”
Is this setting Florida voters up for a gubernatorial race between Jolly and Pizzo and whoever is the Republican nominee?
Jolly still says he is only “seriously considering” a run for the state’s top job. “Exploring,” is another word he uses a lot.
“It’s clear to me there is a coalition of Floridians that want change,” he was quoted as saying last month in POLITICO. But some who know him say his mind is pretty made up. And now he has a political action committee, curiously called Florida 2026, so he can start to raise campaign dough to “engage in voter outreach and research work focused on key issues in the Sunshine State,” according to the website, which is found at Florida2026.com or DavidJolly.com. Either takes you to the same page.
Sure, there are already the inevitable comparisons to Charlie “Turncoat” Crist, another former congressman who ran for governor and lost in 2022 against Ron DeSantis. Sure, there are about 1.2 million more Republican voters in Florida than Dem voters. Sure, there isn’t a single Democrat elected statewide. Sure, Trump has won Florida three times. Sure, Florida hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since Lawton Chiles in 1994.
That’s more than 30 years.
Read related: Downtown Miami protest planned Saturday vs Donald Trump policies
But if there’s someone who can bridge that gap, who can reach out to the middle and get the desilucionado Trump voters, it might just be David Jolly. Everybody says, like a broken record, that the only way to beat a Republican candidate for governor is to get all the Dems, most of the NPAs and, say, 1 out of 10 Republicans. Who can do that better than a desilucionado Republican himself?
“I’ve considered myself a proud member of the Democratic Coalition for years now,” Jolly told Florida Politics in March. “The coalition I would need is essentially the same. You need Democrats, independents and kind of mainstream Republicans to build a coalition. If you do it as an NPA (no party affiliation candidate) or as a Democrat, you are still asking if you can change the state.”
That seems to have been foreshadowing.
Jolly, an attorney and former lobbyist, is a fifth generation Floridian who grew up, by the way, in South Florida. So he understands our rhythms and strengths and issues, despite now living in the St. Petersburg area, where he served as the U.S. representative for Florida’s 13th congressional district from 2014 to 2017 — as a Republican who won a Democrat-leaning district. He was unseated by Crist. After leaving office, Jolly became a outspoken and prominent critic of President Donald Trump and a political pundit on MSNBC, where he did things like deconstruct the GOP’s approach to the Trump indictment.
In September 2018, Jolly left the Republican Party and registered as an independent.
“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for years and I’ve known him to be a brilliant, ethical, good-faith individual who is truly concerned about the state and the country,” said Fernand Amandi, a well-known Democratic strategist who helped Barack Obama win Florida in 2008 and 2012. “He’s always had a congenial willingness to solve problems. He reminds me of the great Florida leaders of the past. People like Ruben Askew, Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles.
“When people hear Jolly speak, they are shocked at how personable and knowledgable he is,” Amandi told Political Cortadito. “When people are exposed to David Jolly, they see someone they like and who they trust is telling the truth. That is something rare in U.S politics and completely lost in Florida.”
Jolly has been described by many as an extremely talented communicator with an analytical mind who doesn’t speak in insider language. “He connects very quickly with the concerns of the people,” Amandi said. “Not only is he aware of the problem, he has a way to solve it.”
It certainly speaks to his appeal that all he has to do is suggest he’s seeking the Democratic nomination for governor and that scrambles the ambitions that Pizzo may have had, switching to NPA rather than face a potential primary with him. “If David Jolly had not announced his potential run as a Democratic nominee,” Amandi said, “I don’t think Jason Pizzo would have left the party last Thursday.”
The timing certainly seems sus.
But a potential Pizzo candidacy as an independent — and about 26% of Florida’s registered voters are NPAs — could actually help
whoever the Republican nominee ends up being, most likely Republican Congressman Byron Donalds of Naples, a financial analyst and onetime contender for VP for Donald Trump. Daniels has the POTUS endorsement. Casey DeSantis, the current governor’s wife, is still flirting with a potential run, but we know that spouses of electeds traditionally don’t win elections. And she has that Hope Florida scandal now blemishing that pipe dream.
Democrats have blasted Pizzo, a former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney first elected in 2018, for abandoning the party, saying, basically, “good riddance.” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said he was useless, anyway.
“Jason Pizzo is one of the most ineffective and unpopular Democratic leaders in recent memory, and his resignation is one of the best things to happen to the party in years,” Fried said in a statement Thursday. “His legacy as leader includes continually disparaging the party base, starting fights with other members, and chasing his own personal ambitions at the expense of Democratic values.”
Read related: A red wave rode over the U.S., Florida and Miami-Dade on Election Day
If the party is dead, as Pizzo claims, isn’t it also to blame?
Pizzo did not return calls and texts to his cellphone.
Jason Pizzo on the Senate floor.
Fried, too, believes that Jolly possibly entering the guv’s race as a Democrat was the last straw.
“Jason’s failure to build support within our party for a gubernatorial run has led to this final embarrassing temper tantrum,” Fried said. “I’d be lying if I said I’m sad to see him go, but I wish him the best of luck in the political wilderness he’s created for himself.
“The Florida Democratic Party is more united without him.”
Ouch.
Still, many Dems are concerned that if Pizzo runs, he could hurt any chances that Jolly — or whoever ends up being the Democratic nominee — may have to win.
“Jason Pizzo has a decision to make, and I hope and trust he makes the right one,” Amandi told Political Cortadito. “But if he decides to barrel forward anyway and run as an independent, he’s only going to guarantee that the Republican wins. And if he does that, he should probably change his name to Jason Spoiler.”
The post David Jolly, Jason Pizzo switch parties to possibly run for Florida guv in ’26 appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Three municipalities in Miami-Dade are possibly signing up to be inspected by the Florida State Department of Governmental Efficiency, the state’s own Elon Musk group —  let’s just call it Baby DOGE — to find and root out waste, inefficiency and fraud.
Last week, the city of Miami Commission voted to ask Baby DOGE “to come to the city of Miami and look for government waste and fraud.” And in Coral Gables, a commissioner wants the state’s DOGE to review the city’s budget “to make recommendations on elimination of government waste” before this year’s budget process begins. They’ll discuss it next month.
They join Hialeah, whose council last month approved a resolution supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ establishment of Baby DOGE and Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo invited the governor to come check out the city’s books. What does he care? He was already on his way out to go work in D.C. as a lobbyist, anyway.
DeSantis announced he had established the task force in February to, among other things, “look into local government expenditures by utilizing publicly available county and municipal spending records to expose bloat within local governance.” But, of course, he has asked municipalities to cooperate.
Gables Commissioner Ariel Fernandez has asked the city clerk to put a resolution on the agenda for the May 20 commission meeting to discuss a possible Baby DOGE review with his colleagues. “There may be things that we have not noticed,” he told Political Cortadito.
In Miami, it was Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s pocket item at Thursday’s meeting. Even though Miami’s Chief Financial Officer Larry Spring said that the city did not meet the threshold for DOGE intervention, Carollo said it would be a good idea anyway.
Commissioner Miguel Gabela asked if not meeting the threshold means the city is in good financial health. Um, Spring said, don’t get carried away.

“I’m not gonna use the words ‘good financial health,’” Spring said. “We affirmed what they asked us, which is… have we met any of the criteria [to trigger a review]. And the answer was no.”
Read related: Miami Commission moves forward with Allapattah CRA — sans Joe Carollo
Two speakers from the public were also in favor.
Brenda Betancourt, president of the Calle Ocho Inter-American Chamber of Commerce and a candidate for commission in District 3, dared the commissioners to do it.
“This would be a good way to make sure that every single dollar that is collected from the city of Miami residents are actually invested in the best interest of the residents.” Betancourt, a frequent speaker at public comment, said. “If the city, in the way it has been managed for years, doesn’t have any problems, I don’t see why they can’t have the department of efficiency that can actually prove to the city of Miami residents that we are spending our money correctly.”
And Downtown Neighbors Association President James Torres, who has been on a social media tear against the Downtown Development Authority, was also supportive — and it gave him another opportunity to hit the agency.
“This is an important issue that should be taken up. We do have government waste, especially with the Downtown Development Authority,” he said. “If this agency moves forward, it’s going to do what we’ve been asking for.”
But a third woman said it could wreak havoc, like it’s done at the federal level.
“It concerns me. We need a certain number of employees and we need a certain number of procedures to function as a government,” she said. “This is again move fast and breakl things that’s what scares me. I have a computer science degree. I am a systems thinker. I understand hs concepts,” she said about Musk. “Again, I worry about applying software mentality to people.
“Consider the health of our functioning democracy.”
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
It almost seemed like Commission Chairwoman Christine King and Commissioner Damian Pardo were going to do just that.
“I don’t want there to come in and be a swift sweep of whole departments and people are out of work,” King said. “Efficiency? Yes. But just a broad stroke of… and whole departments are gone? I am not in support of that.
“I am always in support of looking at our processes. We should do that just regularly every so couple of years,” King added. “But I will not support a broad stroke of getting rid of whole departments.”
Pardo said he wanted to “remind everyone that we have an inspector general’s office that is kicking in and we do have audits, I believe in forensic audits. if we want to invite further oversight, great,” he said. “But like you, madame chair, if it’s something that’s fast and let’s break things, I will not support it.”
All Carollo had to say, though, was that it was just to identify efficiencies, and that an ultimate decision would come back to the city commission.
“This is an additional set of eyes,” Carollo said, “so the we can truly live on that word that is thrown around so often — transparency.”
At the end of the discussion, it passed unanimously.
Nobody wants to be seen as defending waste and fraud.

Read Full Story

In what seems like an obvious case of political retaliation, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo — who is still butt hurt over being stripped from the Bayfront Park Management Trust — tried in vain Thursday to stop the Allapattah Community Redevelopment Agency from moving forward.
He used to support Allapattah getting its own CRA, when he and Commissioner Miguel Gabela were pals for a short while, since both of them were mad at Commissoner Damian Pardo. But then Gabela dropped his lifetime pensions idea and Carollo — who is accused of abusing his post and mismanaging funds at the Bayfront Trust — was removed as chairman, which was then given to Gabela, who represents District 1, including Allapattah, and has been fighting to get his own CRA for more than a year.
Read related: Compromise may be reached at Miami commission on Omni/Allapattah CRAs
Carollo tried to make it seem Thursday like his motive for voting against the CRA was to keep the property tax dollars from leaving the general fund to go directly into that neighborhood. It’s also the “reason” why he had the item deferred from the last meeting earlier this month, to find out how much it was going to cost the city. He and Gabela got into it then, too, with Gabela asking how much the city had spent on attorneys for the multiple lawsuits stemming from Carollo’s abuse of power — since he was so “fiscally concerned” — and Carollo calling Gabela “Tony Soprano.”
He said Thursday that the funds for the CRA were the same dollars “we use every day for police, fire, garbage collection and every city service. How will we replace those funds back in. Because when you take money away, there’s only two ways to resolve it: You have to make cuts or you have to find new money.”
Staff tried to explain the CRA projects would be funded by any tax revenue greater than the amount collected on the base year. They can receive 50% of this tax increase or 95%, and Miami Chief Financial Officer Larry Spring recommended the Allapattah CRA be funded with 50%. That means $281.4 million would be diverted to the CRA over 30 years. It would have been $534.5 million at the higher percentage, he said.
But it’s like shouting into a vast void.
Carollo also said that it would take more than five years for enough money to accumulate to make a difference. And if “we’ll assume and make believe he gets re-elected,” then Gabela “won’t even be around when the real money comes in to make an impact.”
He doesn’t know how CRAs work, apparently. Maybe he thinks it’s like the Bayfront Trust, a personal slush fund for the chair.
“This is not money that is being taken from the general fund. It doesn’t exist yet,” explained Pardo, adding that CRAs work with the city and sometimes pay the city’s debts, like the Omni CRA — the extension of which was held hostage while Gabela fought for his Allapattah one — is doing with the port tunnel.
“It is not us against them,” Pardo said.
Read related: Fight over Omni CRA causes new rifts, alliances on Miami City Commission
Either way, Gabela didn’t care. “I don’t need your vote. Call the question.” He must have said “call the question” five or six times. It wasn’t as good as the meeting April 10, where the two yelled at each other and Gabela banged on the dais and demanded to know what Carollo had cost the city in legal fees.
“I want the figure. I want it one my desk,” Gabela told City Attorney George Wysong. “I expect, please, an answer to the question I’ve been asking for a year now. How much has Joe Carollo cost the city in legal fees?”
The answer was still elusive last week. But the CRA motion, which was establishing the business plan and setting boundaries, passed 3-1. It still need to get approval from the county before a CRA can be officially established.
Gabela, who always seems to be looking down when he talks, was also able to pass a resolution so the the city attorney is informed any time legal fees for outside counsel reach $500,000 in any new case where they are retained to represent an elected official. It was totally about Carollo, who has cost the city close to $10 million in legal fees for different cases. “You know the gentleman over there has a truck record, a very bad track record,” Gabela said.
He had originally wanted it to be a $150,000 threshold but changed it to $500K to get the needed vote from Chairwoman Christine King. “Something is better than nothing,” Gabela said.
“As a practitioner, I know cases don’t wrap up in a few months. Cases sometimes take years,” King said, adding that the rule would now apply to future commissioners as well. “I am not going to legislate based on personalities because this doesn’t only affect us.”
But the measure only calls for the city commission to be informed, much as it is informed when another city department is going spend more than $25,000 on something.
“I think we’re talking about transparency and having a threshold where it’s disclosed,” Pardo said.
The post Miami Commission moves forward with Allapattah CRA — sans Joe Carollo appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Just one day after taking the oath of office and saying that he was ready to extend his hand to his colleagues and work together “not as factions divided by yesterday’s campaign, but as neighbors united in tomorrow’s purpose,” re-elected Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago lashed out at Commissioner Melissa Castro at the Carnaval de Barranquilla event in downtown Coral Gables.
He called her a “venomous snake” in front of several dignitaries and city staffers, refused to take a photograph with her and told others present that she was “bad news,” Castro told Political Cortadito late Saturday.
Read related: Coral Gables electeds sworn in; pledge unity, stability after bitter divisions
“He said he was going to ruin my life, that he was going to make sure I’m not elected in two years, that he’s going to get me out,” a shaken Castro said, shortly after she posted this video on her Instagram story.
“I am walking out of the Carnaval de Barranquilla festivities, where they called me to say a few words because I am the first Colombian commissioner in the last 100 years, and I am in disbelief right now at the disrespect and humiliation that Vince Lago has done to me in front of my child, right next to my child.” Castro says breathlessly, as she walks away from the event at Ponce Circle Park.
Her son, wearing a team shirt from La Seleccion Colombia, goes on the camera and testifies that Lago called Castro a snake.
“Actually, a venomous snake,” the 8-year-old corrects himself. “He wouldn’t take a picture with you and he pushed you aside,” he told his mother.
Nice, Vinnie. Looks like you’re learning how to treat women from your friend, former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
“It is not possible that he would treat a woman who has done nothing to him, and since Day One, he has attacked me,” Castro said in her Instagram post, visibly shaken and fighting off tears.
Castro told Ladra that the Colombian consular officials were shocked and didn’t know what to do. They asked her to please go on stage separately from him, to appease the mayor.
Lago did not return calls and texts to his phone. As usual. But sources who were there confirmed what happened, and one told Ladra the mayor has never before been to the event, now in it’s fourth year. So, it looks like he wanted to stir things up. The organizers will be lucky if he doesn’t take away the city’s sponsorship because organizers invited Castro to speak.
This is not the first time that Lago takes digs at Castro and Ladra has wondered if he maybe has a secret crush on her.
Read related: In Coral Gables, Melissa Castro calls out Vince Lago for his rudeness, disrespect
In 2023, five months after she was elected, she called him out for his disrespectful actions, which include not referring to them at events and cutting them out of photos he posts on social media. Saturday’s actions are much worse. It seems things are escalating.
One might think that winning his election and getting his slate elected, which gives Lago back the majority on the commission, would soften him up some. Turns out he’s just as much a sore winner as he is a sore loser. What’s Lago still so angry about?
And what can Castro do? People just re-elected this bully with 55% approval. The police chief is on his side. The city manager is on his side, having sent an email to residents five days before the election to say how great the city was doing.
She was so hopeful at the swearing-in ceremony, too.
“These past two years have been rocky, but I’m pretty sure that moving forward we will find civility, peace, harmony,” Castro said Friday, one day before she was “disrespected and humiliated” at Ponce Circle Park.
“If it was up to me, this would be a beautiful, united commission. I’m looking forward to great days again.”
Yeah, Ladra is pretty sure that she doesn’t feel that way now.
In an email late Saturday to Police Chief Ed Hudak, Castro said “his behavior was not only abusive but also a blatant attempt intimidate me into quitting. Despite my telling him that my child was present, he persisted.”
She seems to ask Hudak for police protection and makes a chilling statement: “Let me know how to document this please, and if anything happens to me after this email… let it be known that he is to blame.
“I am a woman and a harmless public servant who deserves respect and a safe environment. This tarnishes the image of Coral Gables and creates a hostile environment for public officials,” Castro wrote. “There were numerous witnesses to this outburst and his behavior demonstrates a pater of bullying and vindictiveness. The mayor’s vindictive actions, including his threats to ruin my life and remove me from my position over the next two years, are unacceptable.”
She said that Economic Development Director Belkis Perez and International Business Development Coordinator Leticia Perez witnessed the confrontation, “though they might be too intimidated to speak up given the mayor’s known vindictive nature.
“What’s most alarming is that the mayor felt emboldened to humiliate and disrespect me in front of numerous people, including my child. Crossing that line shows he has no scruples and is unhinged. I fear for my safety and what he might do next,” Castro wrote, requesting “immediate measures to ensure my safety at future public events and that the mayor be held accountable for his actions. This kind of behavior cannot continue.”
Unfortunately, Ladra is afraid that this type of behavior is just getting started.
The post Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago lashes out at Commissioner Melissa Castro appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Mayor Vince Lago couldn’t help but get some digs in
The house was packed, standing-room only at the investiture ceremony for Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara — Lago’s handpicked candidates to get back the majority vote — who won in this month’s biannual city election.
“It’s a great day in the city of Coral Gables,” Lago started, practically giddy. “Today, we bid farewell to the 2023-2025 city commission and welcome the 2025-2027 commissioners on board.”
The room erupted in applause when City Clerk Billy Urquia read the results of the election. He also said that the April 8 election was one of the highest in turnout and the runoff Tuesday was the highest ever in turnout in the city’s election history.
“That level of civic engagement does not happen by accident,” he said, thanking staff and the police department for helping to inform the public about the election and early voting. “I believe the turnout we saw was a direct result of their actions.”
Read related: Coral Gables electeds to be sworn in, will push for November elections
Before the electeds were sworn in, Father Richard Vigoa of St. Augustine, Lago’s own pastor, made the invocation, in which he repeatedly said the city needs to be a home for “the spirit of unity and collaboration.” In other words: reign in the toxicity.
“As a religious leader here in this community and someone who loves the community deeply I stand not only in prayer but in solidarity with Coral Gables to raise our voices in hope that respect, that decorum, integrity will define this dais,” Vigoa said. “This is the city beautiful. one of the most sought after places in the whole world to live and we are blessed to live in this city.
“That beauty is not only found in our Mediterranean architecture or our Banyan-lined streets. It’s found in the way we treat each other, in the tone of our civic dialogue and the character of those who are called to lead.”
Wonder if Father Vigoa knows about the anonymous trolls who post hate-filled comments and images on social media to defend his friend Vince. Someone should show him the save screens and tell him that Lago knows about then and tolerates or participates in it.
Among the well-wishers were a bunch of other electeds and former electeds, including Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Commissioners Raquel Regalado, Kionne McGhee and Roberto Gonzalez, former Coral Gables mayors Jim Cason, Don Slesnick, Dorothy Thomson and Raul Valdes-Fauli, former Gables commissioners Jorge Fors and Frank Quesada. Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Alina Garcia and Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez were also there for a short spell.
They should also get pictures of the anonymous trolls’ posts.
Also there: Former City Manager Peter Iglesias, who the mayor had been telling everyone during the campaign the he would bring back.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago: All the wrong people in all the wrong places
But the event was also notable for others who weren’t there. No Manny Chamizo, a BFF who got a year’s probation for stalking a former client and sending horrible hateful texts messages? No Chelsea Granell, the mayor’s chief of staff of one, who wasn’t even thanked when Lago thanked a whole laundry list of people?
Maybe they went to the reception afterwards at Boucher.
At least former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, arrested in 2023 on charges of bribery and money laundering in Lago pay-for-play park giveaway, came to congratulate his friend. ADLP, who is also reportedly running for Miami mayor, was also there on both victory nights.
Lago was straight forward Friday and extremely transparent about how happy he was with the swearing-in of Lara, which he called “a moment I’ve been waiting for for two years.
“Two long years, I’ve been waiting for this moment,” he said again, for effect. It made his message of unity later sound hollow and fake.
Background: In 2023, Lago supported two commission candidates who lost to Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez. Within months, and likely due to his bitter and aggressive attitude toward them, then-Commissioner and swing vote Commissioner Kirk Menendez — who later challenged Lago in the mayor race and lost in the first round — went from being a swing vote to voting consistently with Castro and Fernandez. That’s when Lago lost the majority — and his cool.
U.S. District Court Judge Federico Moreno administered the oath to Lara, who had not voted in a Coral Gables election since 1999, Moreno, a neighbor of Lara’s, said he was a great trial lawyer. “He persevered always with that perennial simile that he has all the time, win or lose,” Moreno said. Lara nervously stumbled through his oath, but did smile almost the whole time.
“This moment is not about one individual. It’s about a community ready for a new chapter,” Lara said later, after he took a seat o the dais. “I chose to run because I believe the city needed a course correction. We needed to find a way back to something deeper than policies and plans, back to fellowship, unity and respect.”
He sounded a little self-righteous.
“I know how special this place is. But somewhere along the way, we lost that shared spirit. Today, in the midst of our centennial year, we have a rare, powerful opportunity to turn the page and recommit ourselves to building community. My priority as your commissioner is simple — to lead and to listen. We are elected not to impose our will, but to carry out yours, to reflect your concerns, your hopes, your vision for the city. I’m here to represent every voice and to help restore the public’s trust in how decisions are made and why they matter.
Read related: Vince Lago scores with Richard Lara’s Coral Gables commission runoff win
“This is a new day in Coral Gables. let’s be clear. We’re going to move forward, not as factions, but as neighbors,” Lara said. “Let us celebrate what makes this city beautiful, let us never forget what makes it truly great. It is our shared belief in community.”
Let us also hold him to those words. It would really be great if Lara turned out to be an independent voice and not just another Lago puppet, like Anderson.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Barbara Areces swore Rhonda Anderson in, saying it was well deserved. “This victory is not just a reflection of votes, its a resounding affirmation of your unwavering dedication, your integrity and your deep, sincere interest in doing what is best for Coral Gables,” Aceres told Anderson.
Anderson said she was moved by the overwhelming,ing support. She won every precinct.
“It was a reaffirmation of shared values and common vision for the future of Coral Gables. Thank you for placing your trust in me once again,” she said, adding that she would start her second term with “gratitude and resolve” and the same energy for protecting green space, tree canopy and “our unique sense of scale
“Coral Gables is a city defined by its beauty, its history and its people. We are stewards of a legacy that demands that we balance progress with preservation, growth with greenery, and change with care.”
Ladra loves the alliteration.
“This election was not about promises. It was about priorities. And the message I heard loud and clear is that you want a city and government that listens and acts with transparency and that leads with integrity,” Anderson said, adding that she, too, wants to “work together” with the commission to take steps toward that. “Steps that include restoring public trust, respecting our residents’ voices and ensuring fiscal responsibility. Leadership is not just about making decisions, its about protecting our values.”
Maybe it’s just me, but that sounded like a dig.
But nobody grandstands better than L’Ego, who was also sworn in by Judge Moreno and then got up from his seat for a big bear hug with Lara before he sat down again. Is Lara the new Mike Mena?
First, he just had to read a letter he got from Sen. Ashley Moody, the former state attorney general, calling him a great leader and then he thanked his family, supporters and city employees, even the fire and police departments, whose unions supported Menendez. He also congratulated Anderson and Commissioner Lara, which he said, “has a very nice ring to it.”
Then he started going into a whiny tirade about how difficult this election was.
“This campaign was unlike any other I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Lago, who is entering his third term as mayor and was a commissioner for two terms before that. “It was marked not just by challenges of communicating our message to all our residents across this great city, but by an unprecedented level of discord, personal attacks, falsehoods and intimidation orchestrated by my opponents and those [unintelligable] forces with whom they found common sense, or cause.”
Say, what? ¡Que descarado!
The negative personal attacks, falsehoods and intimidation came in texts were sent by his political action committee. The whisper campaigns and vulgar social media posts were orchestrated by his supporters. This is the kind of gaslighting that Lyin’ Lago is very good at. We’re going to see a lot more of it now that he has a majority vote on the commission.
“Yet, through this trying time,” he said again, as if it were another pandemic or something, “the spirit of our great city remained unbroken. the good people of Coral Gables, drawing upon that timeless wisdom that has guided Americans through every trial, distinguished truth from falsehood, and chose the path of progress over the political feud. In their wisdom they stood strong, saw through the noise and voted for a track record and vision rooted in civility, transparency and service. This victory, therefore, is not just mine. It belongs to each and every resident who believes in a respectful, fact-based discourse and a government that puts residents first, not just in words, but in actions.”
Wow. There he goes again. That’s a direct dig at the “residents first” motto used by Fernandez.
“While others continue to play politics, we have never stopped working for the people of Coral Gables,” Lago said. “And I won’t stop. This victory is not only a mandate — let me repeat that, a mandate — to continue the progress we’ve made, it is also a clear referendum on the last two years of disfunction, poor decisions and misplaced priorities by the commission majority.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago has a terrible track record with public safety
“The residents of Coral Gables have spoken with one clear voice. They want a return to transparency, stability and leadership the puts people before politics. With that in mind, I’m committed to working with my colleagues, old and new, to restore trust, focus on solutions and move our city forward.
“I look forward to our very next meting, where we will gather to begin this important work, not as factions divided by yesterday’s campaign, but as neighbors united in tomorrow’s purpose. So we go forward today as a community not divided by political gamesmanship but united by a shared commitment to progress.
“I extend my hand to all my colleagues on the commission and invite them, to join me in truly and faithfully putting residents first,” Lago said. Then he snubbed Fernandez and wouldn’t shake his hand. That’s how he extends his hand?
But first he told the audience about the special meeting he called on May 6 to move elections to November, put a referendum on the ballot for an inspector general and repeal the “unethical 101% salary increases and car allowances,” which was met by wild applause and whooping. “I call upon each of my colleagues to join in this necessary act of good governance, for unanimity will send a clear message through City Hall that this body serves not itself, but the noble citizens who have entrusted us with their hopes and hard earned dollars.
“The time has come to rededicate ourselves to the position that government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.”
Ouch. How’s that for extending his hand to his colleagues.
Fernandez congratulated the mayor and welcomed Lara, who he said he met at Le Parc Cafe and always found to have a smile and a positive attitude. “I think that what residents saw as you campaigned. You and your wife knocked on thousands of doors.
“I welcome your sentiments of trying to find common ground and unity toward working toward what the residents have asked for,” said Fernandez, who lasts week offered an “olive branch” by immediately moving to put the mayor’s big issues — raises, moving the election, selecting the city manager —  on the next ballot. But the mayor wants to beat him to it with the special meeting.
Commissioner Fernandez also downplayed the friction between them. “There’s been a lot of talk about division and things that we disagree on, but the fact is, almost 92% of the time we have voted unanimously as a body, and that will continue moving forward,” he said.
“I look forward to working with all of you on the issues we agree on and working through the ones we disagree on and finding common ground, consensus that will benefit the residents of our great city.”
In a fairly mushy farewell speech, Menendez thanked his family, supporters and the employees of the city.
“To the residents of Coral Gables, you inspire me to be a better person every day; you always have. And for that and so much more, I’m forever grateful.” Menendez said. “I have been blessed to live 62 years, my entire life, in this great City. It’s the city that supported my mother and me when my father passed away back in 1973. It’s the city that gave me the opportunity to be Coach Kirk to thousands of kids for more than 3 decades. It’s the city that embraced my wife Maria Teresa and me as we raised our children Lydia and Kirky in our City Beautiful. And it’s the city that welcomed me as Commissioner Menendez in 2021.
“I mention these things to highlight the essence of what it means to be a part of this amazing community. The heart and soul of our community goes beyond the architecture, it goes beyond the decisions made on this dais and it goes beyond the political cycles that come and go like ocean waves rolling upon our shores. The heart and soul of Coral Gables are the people who give of themselves to make the lives of others better.
Read related: Vince Lago, Rhonda Anderson handily coast to re-election in Coral Gables
“It’s the volunteers at places like thenMerrick House that do their best to make others feel welcomed. It’s the men and women of organizations like the Rotary Club and the Garden Club that find the time to give back to enrich our community. It’s the teachers and coaches who help establish a foundation of goodness and hope in the lives of our children. It’s the brave men and women who sacrifice their lives everyday to make sure our families are safe, always.”
Menendez mentioned the death of Pope Francis last week. “He often went against the grain to make sure that everyone was welcomed and everyone was served. He led with humility and he specifically sought out those voices that desperately cried out for support and compassion.
“As the city moves forward into its next 100 years, let’s promise each other that we will always be a city of compassion, a city for all of the people and a city that will never turn its back on the lives and voices of its residents no matter how quiet their whispers or how humble their hearts.”
He ended his speech with a call for the community to unite.
And he got just a smattering of applause.
So much for “unity.”
The post Coral Gables electeds sworn in; pledge unity, stability after bitter divisions appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson took an hourlong tour Thursday of the Krome Detention Facility, where there have been reports of severe overcrowding, leading to unsanitary and dangerous conditions. But she certain she did not get to see the real thing.
“I am positive that they took people out today, so I wouldn’t see them,” Wilson said in an impromptu press conference outside the West Miami-Dade facility, which she said had been cleaned up for her visit. “It was like somebody went in there yesterday and put on a whole new coat of fresh paint. You could even smell the paint.
“That’s what they do.”
The other thing that caught her attention was a large tent. Not really a tent in the traditional sense. Wilson said it was a plexiglass structure that had been built in 14 days to house up to an additional 400 detainees. So, she knows the facility is more crowded than they let on, as indicated by video taken on cellphones inside and provided to NBC6. Otherwise, why build the outdoor housing?
“This is not my first rodeo,” Wilson said. “They take them on a field trip so you don’t see who is actually in there. But they did admit that they are actually building a tent city.
“Trust me, everybody is not home. Somebody was taken out of this prison today — in buses.”
Read related: Congresswoman Frederica Wilson will tour troubled Krome Detention Center
This is the first time Wilson has gone back to Krome — which has gotten some national attention because of the mass detentions and deportations under Donald Trump — in 43 years, when it was used to house female Haitian refugees. “This is an immigrant rich community. I represent Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, Bahamians, Jamaicans. Everybody is in this facility,” she said.
This time, Wilson went to Krome after getting calls from concerned constituents, including a woman whose husband was detained after going to a scheduled immigration hearing about two weeks ago. Married to a U.S. citizen with a child here, the man was taken away and moved three times. Thursday, Wilson said, his family reported he was in a prison in Texas. Another immigrant, a university student from the Congo, has been “moved from detention center to detention center.”
She says the transfers are intentionally designed. “I think that she they find out you have a strong attorney and people interested in you, they consider it a threat. So they move you and they keep moving you until nobody can keep up with it,” Wilson said.
She also said the detainees are not at all the criminals they are being cast as and implied that there are mentally disabled detainees in the general population.
“I wanted to see all these criminals, with their faces tattooed and with gold teeth. I wanted to see who were these dangerous people that they had picked up off the street and put in a detention center. I didn’t see that,” she said. “I saw hard-working men. Some more literate than others. I even saw some who are mentally disturbed and have mental issues. I saw some who have physical issues, who are sick.
“I saw some who weren’t quite sure what was going on,” she said. “In fact, most of the people who are there are not criminals. They’re calling being undocumented a crime.” Wilson said she had access to detainees who spoke freely and most were just family men who worked and paid taxes.
She also wanted to find out if they were building a tent city. “I asked if they were going to build a tent city, to house the overflow. And the answer is yes.” The government has already built a two-story structure of plexiglass or other material “with big pipes of air conditioning coming in” and a TV room.
Read related: Cuban American congress members stay silent on TPS, immigrant detention
Wilson said that since the Riley Act was passed in January, “people are going to be picked up on the street every day and sent here.”
The Laken Riley Act is named for a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was killed while she was jogging at the University of Georgia by a 26-year-old Venezuelan man who had entered the country illegally. It requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal immigrants admitting to, charged with, or convicted of theft-related crimes, assaulting a police officer, or a crime that results in death or serious bodily injury like drunk driving.
“I asked them, ‘Are you prepared to build or construct… more tents for people?’ And they said yes,” the congresswoman told a gathering of press outside the facility, which sits on and is named for Krome Avenue on the old edge of the Everglades.
“It’s going to get worse. Every time it gets overcrowded, they will build a new tent. Because it only takes 14 days. I was stunned.”
So is Ladra. If it’s that easy, why aren’t there temporary housing stations for the homeless? Oye, Ron Book? Are you paying attention?
Wilson said that she was concerned because there are no more ombudsmen to oversee the civil rights of immigrants in detention. “They were fired. Fired! So I’m going to serve a the overseer,” she said. “I’m going to come back as often as I can.” She is also going to encourage other members of Congress to visit. When she went to the immigration detention facility in Homestead years ago, when they were housing unaccompanied children, she took 10 members of Congress.
“I’m going to have to figure out a day I can come and not tell them I’m coming. And I have a right to be there.”
The post Frederica Wilson: ICE is building a tent city at Krome to house more detainees appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story