The Miami-Dade Commission election is sneaking up on us — it’s in August, not November, like the state and congressional races — and it’s going to be a pretty important one, with five of the six seats open, thanks to term limits.

Say goodbye to commissioners Jean Monestime, Sally Heyman, Rebeca Sosa, Javier Souto, and Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who is widely rumored to be running for mayor in Sweetwater next. Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, who got her incumbency through an appointment, is going to face her first election but is favored to win, so far.

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Pinecrest Councilwoman Anna Hochkammer — who once aspired to the Florida Senate — is considering a run for State House in District 115, according to a poll that voters got on their cellphones Friday evening.

The first questions of the short poll, after identifiers like race and ethnicity, were to gauge the favorability and unfavorability of several politicians — including both Republican candidates in the 115 race already, GOP campaign veterans and first time candidates Alina Garcia and Alexis Catalayud, who are relatively unknown.

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One week, State Rep. Vance Aloupis (R-115) — who broke with his Republican colleagues to vote against the hateful “Don’t Say Gay” bill — announces he’s decided not to run for re-election so he could spend more time with his family.

Days later, first time state candidate and longtime Republican political operative Alina García jumped into that race from the state Senate District 38 race, where she had raised almost $200,000 through the end of February, according to her most recent campaign report.

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The executive director fired from the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency last month was just the first casualty of Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla‘s wrath — and/or graft.

ADLP was made chairman of the Omni CRA in February and immediately started to retaliate against employees who may have cooperated with authorities in the investigation into ghost employee Jenny Nillo, his longtime lacky. Since former Executive Director Jason Walker was asked to leave the day after Diaz de la Portilla was named chair, every CRA employee has been chased off — except for one.

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Calling the non-binding referendum vote five months ago a mandate — as if 57% was a landslide — Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and city leaders have been working since January to ban alcohol sales after 2 a.m.

Fresh off the Spring Break curfew that was more about development than crowd or crime control — more about real estate than racism — the city commission on Wednesday will look at three different options.

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