Coral Gables resident and activist George Volsky got home one day last week and found a surprise in his front yard: A political sign for the campaign of Jorge L. Fors, Jr., who is running for commission.
A note on the front door explained.
“Thank you for allowing my campaign to place a sign on your lawn and for your continued support,” it starts. And then: “If the sign was placed by mistake, please feel free to remove it. Best, Jorge Fors.”
If the sign was “placed by mistake?”
Seems more like a campaign strategy. Instead of a “quita y pon” committee removing signs and putting up his, Fors has a “mejor pedir perdon que pedir permiso” committee who would rather “as forgiveness than ask permission.”
Volsky said he left his house at noon Thursday and came back at 3 p.m.
“This has never happened in Coral Gables. I have lived here 56 years and it never happened to me,” said Volsky. “I feel disrespected. I don’t feel this is proper.”
Volsky is used to having people ask to put signs at his high-traffic Alhambra Circle home. The only one he has ever put up is one for the current Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, because he felt that the campaign had become ethnic.
Read related: Newby leads cash race in Coral Gables three-way contest for open seat
He hasn’t decided who he’ll support in this open commission race, a three way so far to fill Commissioner Frank Quesada‘s empty suit, er, seat: Fors is running against former City Commissioner Ralph Cabrera and former interim city manager Carmen Olazabal. But now it’s between the two other candidates. Fors is out. “I’m not going to support him,” Volksy said.
That’s exactly what he was afraid of, said Fors who called the episode an error, not a campaign tactic — which actually could work in some other communities where people might not care as much. He blamed an overzealous volunteer in North Gables who mixed up a thank you list — to send postcards to voters who opened their doors to canvassers — with a yard sign list.
“I know exactly who he [Volsky] is and I wouldn’t put a sign on his house without his permission,” Fors said. “I don’t have the courage to do that in Coral Gables. I would be afraid of losing a vote.”
And the note?
“Because I know some people who said they would put up a sign may have forgotten,” said Fors, who went back to Alhambra Circle and removed the other signs placed without permission as soon as he learned of the snafu.
All except one, because the homeowner decided to keep it.

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With all the recent speculation about Alex Penelas and/or Carlos Curbelo tossing a wrench into what we thought was a battle between heir apparent Esteban Bovo and Sir Xavier Suarez, the people’s knight, for the open mayoral seat in 2020, the first to throw his hat in the ring was none of the above.
Former Commissioner Juan Zapata — who last gave up the fight for his own re-election in 2016, citing a hostile work environment — filed paperwork on Monday showing he has opened a mayoral campaign account and will run for the top county job.
Read related: Chased out: Juan Zapata leaves hostile work environment
“#ItsTime to get county government truly working for its residents and transform an antiquated government structure that fails to address the present and future needs of our community,” Zapata said in a statement Ladra believes is the key message of his campaign, hence the hashtag, which was repeated in the press release emailed Monday evening.
“As a commissioner, Zapata tirelessly fought to maximize taxpayer resources, increase police presence, protect the unincorporated areas, strengthen the county’s infrastructure, institute innovative policies and advocate for viable transit solutions.
“#ItsTime to bring a true spirit of public service back to county hall and lay out a vision for the future of Miami-Dade County.
“Zapata will focus on keeping our residents safe, protecting our environment, improving mobility, and addressing the inequality and affordability issues that exist in our community. His broad public service experience, along with his reputation as a servant leader, positions him as the best choice for Mayor to bring about responsible prosperity and innovative solutions to Miami-Dade County. #ItsTime.”
His media contact is Bibiana “Bibi” Potestad, the Florida House candidate in district 119 that he supported last year (she lost the Republican primary to Juan Fernandez-Barquin, who is the new state rep now) and who once interned for Zapata when he was the first Colombian elected state rep (2002-2010).
If elected next year, Zapata would be Miami-Dade’s first Colombian-American mayor.
Read related: Juan Zapata’s last meeting items: ‘Smart growth,’ zoning, ATVs
But the field is expected to be fat. Bovo is going to run, and the recent acquisition of Brian Goldmeier by Penelas shows he intends to run for something. Some people have been floating Curbelo’s name, but the former Congressman has a great national TV gig that he could parlay back into national office, if he keeps his pants on long enough for Marco Rubio to retire.
Who else? Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava might actually think she has the chops already, even though she has hardly been the force she promised to be on the commission. But Commissioner Rebeca Sosa has long thought she deserves to be the county’s first female mayor.
Then there’s the recent flurry of urgent activity in tweets and posts and email blasts from Commissioner Joe Martinez‘s office. There’s going to be a detour over here. There’s going to be road construction over there. Cold weather is coming, bundle up, and Happy Holocaust Remembrance Day. But that could just as likely be for a run at the sheriff’s seat created by voters last November.
Ladra also knows for a fact that former Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera is talking to people about it. And a lot of Democrats still want to see former Congressman Joe Garcia there.
Ladra is likely forgetting someone. Whoever it is, other candidates are likely to make much out of a Master’s Degree program at Harvard that he first paid for with county funds before he paid it himself. Zap — an outspoken critic of Mayor Carlos Gimenez already had a target drawn on his back — had originally signed up for a shorter program that the county had previously paid for with other commissioners in the past.
Read related: Juan Zapata to mayor: ‘Where’s the money?’ and ‘Cut taxes’
He decided to get more out of it, but before he could reimburse the county for the difference, someone (read: a Gimenez lackey) had tipped of a reporter and the story had been cast as if Zap had intended to make taxpayers pay for his professional development all along. And it came right at re-election, which is what likely caused him to withdraw.
But that may be all they have. Because Zapata’s wide field of supporters say he has always represented the best interest of the people against the developers, the special interests and the politicians that serve them. Ladra knows him as a bold speaker who isn’t afraid to ask the difficult questions and calls the budget process the shell game that it is. He would likely be a reformer at the county.
Maybe #ItsTime for someone like that to run for mayor after all.

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The District 1 race for the city of Miami commission is getting more interesting every day.
Only hours after Ladra wrote that former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who helped Commissioner Joe Carollo in his comeback, had filed to run for the seat vacated by the termed-out Commissioner Willy Gort, a onetime aide and chief of staff to Commissioner Ken Russell filed to run.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a few months,” said Eleazar Melendez, who most recently worked on the campaigns for gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine and former Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson — both of whom lost.
Melendez filed paperwork Jan. 18 indicating he opened a bank account to start fundraising.
The most interesting thing about this is not that it pits a known Democrat Party operative against a veteran GOP political gun. It’s not that Melendez would be the first Puerto Rican elected in Miami since Maurice Ferre. No. What’s most interesting about it is that Melendez and Diaz de la Portilla are neighbors.
Next door neighbors, to be exact.
Read related: Bank forecloses on ADLP, who ‘moves’ to run for Willy Gort seat
Melendez, 33, lives in the same building, on the same floor in unit 1802, the unit next door to where Alex DLP, 54, says he lives in unit 1801 at the Terrazas on SW South River Drive. “I’ve never seen him,” Melendez said. He has seen baby brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla, twice — once in the lobby and once on their shared 18th floor hallway.
He move in in March, which would be about six months before ADLP registered to vote at the address.
“Living in the district, you see the condition of the infrastructure and the services provided versus Ken Russell’s area, which is wealthier. It’s night and day,” Melendez said. “I want the people here to understand these are basic things that we deserve.”
The Miami Freedom Park measure to turn the Mel Reese golf course into a mega retail complex with a soccer stadium passed in District 1 by two thirds, and Melendez said he has to support the people’s will.
“But we need to make sure it’s a good deal, that it’s not a giveaway,” he said, adding that he would like to see some kind of technology incubator incorporated.
Read related: Miami Commission should kick no-bid soccer shopping center out of Melreese
He is optimistic about his chances given the election last year of Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, an underdog who beat two big Cuban American veteran politicians, including ADLP in an overlap district.
“That idea in Miami that you have to vote for a Cuban politico so he can understand your issues, that has been changing,” Melendez said. “Ten months ago, there was a special election here, including areas in this district, and none of the Cuban-Americans running won. They lost against a liberal democrat.”
The other candidates in this race, so far, include Miguel Gabela, right, who came within 10 points of beating Gort last time and has loaned himself $100,000, Horacio Aguirre, who appears to have some of the establishment support, Michael Hepburn, who came in last in the Democratic primary for the 27th Congressional district with 6% of the August vote, and attorney Yanny Hidalgo.

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It looks like the fix was in after all.
Political observers in Miami Beach have been saying for weeks that Joy Malakoff had the inside track to be appointed interim commissioner, replacing former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who was forced to resign mid-term to run for Congress. On Wednesday, Malakoff got it.
At first, it looked like there was going to be a standoff. Commissioners Michael Gongora, Mark Samuelian and Micky Steinberg chose former Commissioner Saul Gross from a final pool of 10 (from an original pool of 37). Mayor Dan Gelber and his two pocket commissioners, John Elizabeth Aleman and Ricky Arriola, voted, as predicted, for Malakoff.
Mayor Dan Gelber
Gelber went to take a second vote, but first he wanted to motivate his colleagues on the other side to switch, so he started talking about the expense of an election in April, which could be more than $600,000 with a runoff.
“So for those six meetings that person serves, it would cost $100,000 a meeting,” he said. Okay, now, “reconsider your choice.”
The message was clear.
After a second vote got the same result, Gelber suggested they could draw a name from a hat. But others did not want to relinquish their responsibility and after a short recess in which one can’t help but wonder if the Sunshine Law was violated, the came back and Steinberg — who was the weak link all along — was the first to cave. After that, they wanted to make it unanimous.
The truth is Malakoff should have been disqualified because of the sneaky way she tried, right after she left office for health reasons, to get a $50,000 city contract to promote passage of the G.O. Bond with voter outreach. What does she bring to the table anyway? Experience? Knowledge? That there’s no learning curve? If that’s the case, there were several other candidates that fit the bill without the baggage,  including Gross.
But then again, this wasn’t about replacing Rosen Gonzalez with the best possible interim commissioner until the November election, or even with someone who does not have this cloud of doubt over her head. This wasn’t about choosing someone to represent the will of the voters,  because then the commission would have just let Rosen Gonzalez serve out her term, as the voters intended. No. This was about representing a different will. This was about replacing her with someone that will vote the mayor’s way the next 10 months, plenty of months to do damage and spend a bunch of money.
Among the things that may come up is spending of the G.O. Bond that the Beach voters overwhelmingly approved last year even without Malakoff — or anybody else because the job did not exist — selling it. Now she gets her hands on those funds through the temporary commission gig.
A flyer, or “hit piece” on Malakoff that appeared at City Hall and tables at Puerto Sagua — where the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting welcomed candidates for the vacancy Tuesday — urged commissioners to keep her away from those funds. “With Malakoff, corruption wins and the people lose,” it says.
There is no disclaimer as legally required on the piece, so nobody knows who paid for it. But a Miami Herald reporter posted a video of political consultant Randy Hilliard dropping some of them off at City Hall. Hilliard did not return a call or text message from Ladra. But most recently he worked on the 2015 campaign of David Wieder against then Mayor Philip Levine, and lost. Weider was one of the candidates who spoke Wednesday for the job.
But what is most important here is the fact that the way the commission split on this issue is the way it splits on most issues, and naming Malakoff interim is a way to get the Gelber faction a fourth vote on everything else. She will never vote against him. And he knows that.
That’s why Gelber is the biggest disappointment in this whole fiasco. The former prosecutor and state rep ran on a campaign of integrity and ethics. He had the opportunity to show that by taking the leadership step and changing his vote to Gross, who he said was his friend and entirely capable. An ethics stickler would try to avoid even the perception of wrongdoing.
But I guess that fourth vote is just too valuable.
We should watch every vote very closely for the next 10 months, since the mayor basically has carte blanche to do as he pleases now.

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Hey! Alex Diaz de la Portilla! You just lost two elections, one for Senate and one for county commission, and the Little Havana house you were born in was foreclosed on last week by the bank, which is putting it up for sale because you owe them $638,000. What are you going to do next?
Why, run for city commission, of course!
Four days after Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch Mortgage foreclosed Thursday on his house at 1519 SW 19th Street, Diaz de la Portilla — a political consultant who helped Miami Commissioner Crazy Joe Carollo get elected in 2017 — filed paperwork on Monday to run for the seat that will be vacated by Willy Gort this November.
Read related: After loss in Senate, Miami-Dade races, Alex DLP may try Miami
The final judgement on foreclosure is against both him and his ex-wife Claudia Davant, who is also on the hook for the mortgage they apparently got when they were married. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Beatrice Butchko gave them until May 13 to pay the debt or the house will be sold at auction to the highest bidder for cash toward that debt.
Which means Claudia could still be on the hook for the balance.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if ADLP’s poor and mistreated parents and his often neglected dogs Elvis and Priscilla are going to go live in Coral Gables with his big brother, former Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, whose campaign for re-election Alex lost in 2016. They’d be much less comfortable in Alex DLP’s new home (on paper), a 967-square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit on the 18th floor of the Terrazas Riverpark Village Condo, 1861 NW S River Dr. Especially since his brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla, a former School Board member and state rep, is also registered to vote at the riverfront flat; although it’s hard to believe these two could live together.
ADLP’s voter’s registration changed on Sept. 15, which gives him the necessary year he needs before qualifying, which ends this Sept. 21. Ladra reported it in October, predicting that he would run for this very seat.
But he sure is a hypocrite. Because after Carollo’s victory, Diaz de la Portilla went on a crazy rant on the Nextdoor social site, calling Alfie Leon an “interloper” because he had only lived in Little Havana for a year before he almost beat Carollo for Miami City Commission. I guess it’s okay for him to be an interloper himself.
Read related: ADLP hit by attacks in all negative Senate 40 GOP primary campaign
This will be ADLP’s fourth attempt to return to public office, not his third, as most media outlets are reporting. They mention the run for commission last year, where he came in third, and the run for Senate in Westchester/East Kendall, where he lost the primary to State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz (who then lost to Democrat Annette Taddeo) despite the help from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and family (that’s CJ Gimenez to his right during early voting in the pic). That race was brutal with negative attacks against him, including one that disclosed his relationship with CJ’s wife, Tania Cruz, and how they cozied up in a Boston hotel room, chain smoking in a non-smoking room late one night and getting belligerent with police after they were called to throw them out.
But the mainstream media forgot his first loss, the run for state rep 112 in his real neighborhood in 2012, which he lost against an up and coming politician named Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is now a state senator. That was gut wrenching and he has struggled to recover from it since.
The Dean, as Ladra likes to call him because he loves to teach — perhaps he should do that and stop running for office — joins four other candidates who have already opened campaign accounts for the District 1 race: Horacio S. Aguirre, chairman of the Miami River Commission; Michael Hepburn, a former University of Miami academic adviser who ran in the Democratic primary for Florida’s 27th Congressional District; Miguel Angel Gabela, a businessman who has twice lost to Gort in past elections but came close once; and attorney Yanny Hidalgo.
Gabela, who is the clear front runner of the bunch and will likely end up in a runoff if ADLP pulls off anything at all, thinks he has Carollo’s support. He told Ladra Thursday that the commissioner told him so as recently as two weeks ago. “I consider him to be a friend,” Gabela said, adding that ADLP “is lying to people con el lio de Carollo.”
Read related: Willy Gort challenger Mike Gabela runs on one issue: Crime
But remember, this is a man who is known for stabbing folks in the back. Carollo did it with Maurice Ferre, at a press conference where he was supposed to endorse him for mayor  and instead turned against him, and he did it again last year, telling former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro that he would support his wife in the county race and then helping ADLP.
Besides, there is still Paella Gate. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has not finished their investigation of Carollo using public money and his taxpayer paid staff to hold Paella parties for ADLP at senior public housing locations during that special election. Carollo can’t turn on ADLP yet, while he could still provide state’s evidence.
Either way, Gabela — who has been campaigning since June and has already run in the same district twice — is confident that his neighbors will realize that Diaz de la Portilla is a narcissistic “career politician” carpetbagger.
“He’s running because he doesn’t have a job,” said Gabela, who has lived in the district for 30 years. “If there’s a dog catcher election, he’ll run for it because he doesn’t care about the people.”
True: Less than a year ago, ADLP was knocking on doors in Westchester and telling voters there that he would represent them in Tallahassee. He abandoned them for the voters of county commission District 5.
“Y a estas alturas he’s interested in this district? You really have to be an ignoramus to believe it,” Gabela said.
Yeah. But, unfortunately, a lot of ignoramuses apparently vote.

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