Ralph Rosado and Joe Carollo beat Jose Regalado in Miami D4 special election

Evil triumphed over good on Tuesday in the rushed, special election for Miami commission in District 4, to replace the late Commissioner Manolo Reyes., who must be rolling in his grave.
Ralph “Rafael” Rosado, an urban planning consultant and compulsive liar whose campaign was run and funded by Commissioner Joe Carollo, beat Jose Francisco Regalado, who left a really good job at the city’s building department at the request of Reyes’ family to follow his own family’s footsteps into public office.
Which means that Carollo will now get his third vote for the majority and will wield that baton with the same penchant for level-headed justice and service to others that he always has shown. Okay, stop laughing. Because it is not funny that it will be the exact opposite — political retaliation and personal benefit all the way.
Read related: Miami District 4 race is a referendum on Joe Carollo and his abuse of power
The election wasn’t even close, really. Rosado got 55% of the vote to Regalado’s 45%. With less than 11.5% of the 46,500 eligible voters in District 4, Rosado (or, better said, Carollo) won across the board — absentee or vote-by-mail ballots, early voting and Election Day votes, though by a larger margin with the ABs.
The negative tone of a relentless campaign against Regalado and his family waged by Carollo in mailers, TV ads and on the radio — could have turned people off and suppressed turnout, which was also dampened by the rain on Election Day.

Carollo likely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from his Miami First political action committee to get Rosado elected. We won’t know how much until July, because PACs only have to report quarterly not every month. But some longtime political observers have said it could be up to or more than $1 million.
Regalado raised and spent more transparent money from his campaign, with almost $191,000 compared to $79,500 raised by Rosado, reported through May 29, according to the latest campaign finance reports.
Rosado reported raising absolutely nothing in one recent report. Because he didn’t have to raise money. Carollo was pouring money from his PAC into Rosado’s campaign, mostly attacking Regalado and his family, which includes his father, former Miami Mayor and Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomas Regalado, sister Raquel Regalado a Miami-Dade Commission and former Miami-Dade School Board member, and brother Tomas N. “Tommy” Regalado, a journalist who ran for the commission seat in District 3 in 2017 and lost.
They weren’t just bashed on the dynasty thing, que ya cae mal. They were called communists and drug dealers and professional campaigners, which is funny because that’s exactly what Carollo is. Crazy Joe, who has a history as a wife beater, also got personal on his daily morning radio show, attacking Raquel Regalado’s son, who despite having autism is a data processor and works, like a lot of autistic individuals, and Tomas Regalado’s supposed romantic dalliances. It was very ugly.
This 43-day election cycle made way for one of the nastiest Miami campaigns Ladra has seen. And that’s saying a lot.
Read related: Miami’s District 4 candidate Ralph Rosado is backed, helped by Joe Carollo
Rosado tried to distance himself from Carollo and has told everyone that he is going to prove he is independent, even though it appears he owes his victory to Crazy Joe, who was at the newly-elected commissioner’s watch party at El Atlacatl, a Salvadoran restaurant on Calle Ocho.
So was former City Attorney Victoria “Tricky Vicky” Mendez, Rosado’s BFF, who was fired last year after several controversies — including her family’s involvement in basically stealing homes from elderly residents and flipping them for huge profits.
So was Beba Sardiñas Mann, the president of the Crazy Joe Pollo Carollo Fan Club, who said she had an unbiased “forum” for candidates (it was really an ambush), and who will now be able to get her illegal street closures in Silver Bluff, the ones that were forcibly removed by the county after a court fight in 2023 (more on that later).
Also there: Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who was the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami, Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, Brickell Homeowners Association President Ernesto Cuesta, Downtown Neighbors Association President James Torres, who has been accused of aligning with Carollo against Pardo, who was also there along with Commission Chairwoman Christine King.
Commissioner Miguel Gabela, who actively helped Regalado during the campaign, was also there. But he didn’t look as happy as Pardo did.
While there were promises of being congenial and working with all the commissioners, Carollo already lashed out at Gabela on Univision 23 Miami, and Ladra feels Mike will be on the losing side of the vote for the near future.
Rosado will have his first chance to show his supposed independence next week at the June 12 commission meeting, which promises to be a doozy after the last commission meeting ended abruptly in chaos when Carollo and Gabela went after each other verbally. But not with the lifetime term limits ballot question which is on the agenda. That’s a ruse (more on that later).
There are other things to watch where he is going to be Carollo’s puppet pocket swing vote, like the street closures at 22 locations in Silver Bluff, which is also on this Tuesday’s agenda.
Other items on the agenda include the sale and development of condos and a waterfront park on Watson Island, a no-bid concession agreement for Miami Marine Stadium and a presentation by the Miami Downtown Development Authority, which has come under fire recently for some of the six figure checks they give to billion dollar brands and which some residents want to abolish, trying to justify its existence.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
The term limits, which is proposed by Commissioner Damian Pardo, would prohibit anyone who has served the maximum terms as commissioner or mayor to run for that seat again in the future. Right now, an elected can skip a term or two and run again, like former Commissioner Frank Carollo, Crazy Joe’s bro, is doing this year in District 3.
If voters pass the lifetime limits, which seems easy enough, it could stop Carollo from running for mayor, as he has threatened to do this year, because he already served the maximum terms. There’s also a controversial proposal coming to move the election to even years, extending current terms by a year, which is also on the agenda, just not this agenda for next week (more on that later). This is being proposed under the guise of avoiding a legal challenge if either of the Carollos are elected this year at the same time the charter amendment on lifetime term limits are approved.
Carollo and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who also supported Rosado, have both come out against the lifetime term limits. Suarez would also be barred from running for mayor or for commissioner, since he served the maximum terms in both posts.
Rosado has publicly said that he generally likes the idea of the lifetime term limits. But he has also waffled on it and said he wants to hear the debate from his colleagues — as if they haven’t talked about it enough. More likely, he will support the watered down version that King has floated about forcing electeds to wait out two terms instead of just one before running again.
Because he knows that his buddies Carollo and Suarez — another unlikely pair of strange political bedfellows — are already raising money to fight it and push a no vote (more on that next).
It is more important as ever to be all over the Miami city commission like black on beans. Like green on grass. Like bees on sweet. Like government money on a bad idea. Help Ladra stay on top of the commission’s moves and antics with a donation today to Political Cortadito. Thank you for your support!

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