So, Donna Shalala wants to be a congresswoman all of a sudden. Why? Because she’s “angry” at Donald Trump?
Aren’t we all? Most of us are not just angry but enraged at the current administration’s fear mongering, lies and conflicts of interest — just for starters. But if being angry makes you qualified for public office, well, then Trump has a lot more going for him than we thought.
The former president at the University of Miami may be angry now, but where has she been? She sounds like an opportunist taking advantage of the Trump rage fueling the blue wave across the nation. She also said at her announcement that she was disturbed at the lack of action after the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High last month. That’s opportunism for ya.
So why are some already giving her the congressional win in District 27, where there is a slew of qualified and good candidates already? Because they don’t live here. Ladra does. And let me tell you, the people of CD 27 are not falling for that internal poll she paid someone on her campaign team for. Have you seen the comments on social media?
Related: And then there were 16 candidates in the CD27 race to replace Ileana
Shalala’s announcement that she was going to, after all, run for Congress after thinking about it for a month came complete with a poll from Bendixen Amandi that shows her as the front runner in a Democratic primary against six other candidates. I call BS! First, because it is a paid campaign poll and like all paid internal polls is suspect. And also because we haven’t seen poll details, particularly the questions that were asked. Ladra suspects it was a push poll where the caller “tested” positive messages on Shalala until they got their desired results. There is just no way that she has a 32-point lead ahead of Jose Javier Rodriguez, who just spent close to $5 million in an overlap district to take the senator’s seat against Republican Miguel Diaz de la Portilla. They overshot.
And also, and this might be the most important, because the voters here can tell an opportunist when we see one. Like her saying she is running because she is angry at Trump. She is actually saying that because her poll showed 78% of the Democrat voters have a unfavorable view of the president (only?).
But when Donna has had an opportunity to actually do something for her community, she failed time and again. Shalala is a smooth talker and has pretty paper credentials topped by a recent stint at the Clinton Foundation, but she also has a ton of baggage that Dems will find particularly heavy:

She was serving as Health and Human Services secretary under Bill Clinton in 1996 when Congress passed a law banning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence. Why is she hot on the gun issue now? Opportunism.
She parlayed that position into a gig on UnitedHealth’s board of trustees, where she ended up with tons of stock she sold in 2005 for more than $5 million. Now Shalala will have to convince Democrat voters that she will work for Medicare for all instead of the for-profit insurance industry that she used to work for and made so much money from. Opportunism. And hypocrisy.
For almost 10 years, she served as on the board of Lennar Homes, a major builder of crappy, cookie cutter homes credited with helping to create the housing and mortgage crisis in South Florida. Shalala only left after one of the company’s directors became a UM board member — only to join the board again two years after she left the school. Opportunism.
As president of the University of Miami, she twice fought efforts by the cleaning staff and food service staff to unionize and make a decent living wage, protesting what many called “poverty pay.” Shalala was called an “enemy of the working poor” by a campus chaplain. The labor dispute gained national attention when professors and department academics began a hunger strike to support the workers. Meanwhile, she lived in a mansion in Cocoplum and, later, a nice condo on Edgwater Drive in Coral Gables she bought for $1.4 million in 2014. Oh, she also has a little place on South Beach she bought for $275,000 in 2013. That’s just hypocrisy.
Then there’s that picture circulating of a giddy Donna taking a $50,000 check from booster Nevin Shapiro, who was later charged with securities fraud in a $900 million Ponzi scheme and showered UM players with gifts that led to an NCAA investigation.
As UM president, she also sold us out when she secretly sold environmentally sensitive and endangered Pine Rocklands property that the university owned in South Dade to be paved over for a Walmart-anchored shopping strip. Opportunism.

She’s already coming under fire for that on Facebook, as you can see from the meme below.
And Donna is coming into this race a little late because she had to figure out the “mechanisms of a campaign” first, which she said means she had to gauge support. Sounds like she had to get all her ducks in a row. Sounds like she would only run after all the financial commitments (promised contributions) were made, but not if they weren’t. Opportunism.
Seriously, maybe Shalala should run as a Republican.
Either way, though, we don’t need more opportunists (or hypocrites) in Washington. There are plenty already there.

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We are going to need a  couple of clown cars this summer for the debates in both primaries for Congressional District 27.
Add Spanish language journalist Maria Elena Salazar (Republican) and Donna Shalala (Democrat) to the other 15 candidates from both parties that have made known their intentions to run for the seat vacated by the retirement of U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who has understandably grown tired of having to defend her party.
Both women announced their candidacy in recent days, adding to an already interesting mix that includes another journalist, two state legislators, two city commissioners from two different cities, a former city commissioner, a county commissioner, an alien abduction survivor, a Latin Grammy winner and a former federal judge.
Here, let’s list them alphabetically so nobody gets offended. Everybody’s website is also linked (only one couldn’t be found):

Former Miami Commissioner Marvin Dunn
Former federal Judge Mary Barzee Flores 
Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez 
Award-winning journalist and community activist Matt Haggman
Non profit VP and UM academic advisor Michael Hepburn
Mark Anthony Person (couldn’t find anything on him)
State Rep. David Richardson
State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez
Miami Commissioner Ken Russell

The Republican half of the ballot is almost as long and — save for the one candidate who was abducted by aliens and the daughter of a Cuban American musical idol — not as exciting and, so far, pretty much a done deal:

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Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández may be on the verge of another backroom deal — unless the Miami-Dade School Board stops him.
Last year, Hernández sent a letter to School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho with an idea: Let’s rezone the vacant 12 acres of land adjacent to Hialeah Middle School — a vacant field that was used for football and soccer programs for decades — so it can be redeveloped into more absentee voting centers, er, we mean public housing.
But neighbors are opposed, collecting at least 600 signatures so far against any rezoning.
“I’ve lived across the street from that field my whole life,” said Michael Horgan, 47. “That field was always a football and soccer field for groups and for all of us to use.”
Then, suddenly, about three years ago, a chain link fence and no trespassing signs appeared from one day to the next. Now we know why. Ladra bets it took that long for Hernández and his hoodlum pals to get all their ducks in a row and figure out who gets what.  Even if it goes out to bid, like he said on Channel 23, the eventual winning bid will have “custom made” qualifications and other advantages that come with palanca. 
Las malas lenguas say its gonna go to the people who are building his new house in Coral Gables (yes, I am looking into that, too). But Ladra’s money is on former Mayor Julio Robaina, Hernández’s hero, and his real estate partners.
Hernández — an admitted loanshark suspected of insider deals with the reverse osmosis water plant and the privatization of solid waste collection –is a longtime friend and protege of Robaina’s. He wants this soooo bad, he said the city will waive $12,800 in application fees — how nice of him — to process the land use and zoning changes. It will still cost the school board (read: taxpayers) about $30,000 for assessments and what not. This is all spelled out in the unsolicited letter Hernández sent to Superintendent Carvalho sometime last year.
“I am reaching out to you to bring to your consideration an innovative approach to one of MDCPS sites within the city of Hiaeah,” Hernandez starts out. “I envision a residential development on the twelve acres owned by MDCPS on the northern portion of the site of the Hialeah Middle Community School, which will benefit the community, parents and students.”
He goes on to say new housing would attract young families and keep the schools filled with students.
“My vision at this site that is currently underutilized is a residential development with diverse unit types ranging from low to high density, designed to be compatible with the existing low density residential neighborhood to the west and scaling up as it extends east on Le Jeune Road,” and one can’t help but think that those are someone else’s words.
“To market the land at its highest and best use, the land would have to be re-platted, the land use changed to the maximum allowed density and rezoned consistently. The city of Hialeah is willing to take by initiating the land use changes and rezoning and facilitating the re-platting process,” the mayor wrote. “I look forward to working proactively together and in directing my staff to work with MDCPS staff, to ensure the successful implementation of this idea and make it a reality in the very near future.”
This letter was part of the October school board agenda at which the board recommended Carvalho “further explore a possible collaboration between the Board and the City of Hialeah, collectively the Parties, through which a Board-owned asset could be moneytized for the Parties’ mutual benefit and bring back an item to the Board at the appropriate time.”
How about never?
Board Member Lubby Navarro told Ladra she voted in favor because the property is not utilized and selling it would provide a source of revenue. But the secretive way this was started has tainted the process and the school board should put on the brakes, at least for now until a full study can be done on multiple options and best use of that land.
When Horgan learned what was going on, he and a group of neighbors went to the city council meeting Feb. 13 to ask questions and make their opposition to the housing development known. “Right before we spoke, the mayor left the chambers,” he said. “When I spoke not a single council member had a clue about what I was speaking about. They all wanted to see the mayor’s letter.”
Hmmm. Could it be the mayor was acting alone, without the authorization or even knowledge of the city council?
Interestingly, the undated letter is not on city letterhead — repeat, it is not on city letterhead — but rather letterhead that looks like it came directly from Carlos Hernández’s deep state office, his shadow office at City Hall. Instead of the city seal, it has a wheel with the mayor’s name on it and the words mayor and alcalde, which is mayor in Spanish.
Further proof that Hernández is doing this on his own behalf, as a businessman not as a city ambassador. Or, even less, as a public servant.
 

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The new Mike Hernández at County Hall will be, drum roll please, former El Nuevo Herald Editor and Vice President Myriam Márquez, who left the paper last summer. She will start in April and her salary will be the same $175,000.
Ladra hopes Myriam remembers her fondly from our days together on the City Desk and that this means I will get better access to the mayor and county documents. So far, it looks good. This is what she tweeted me after we broke the news Thursday afternoon:
“It’s not a rumor. It’s official that I will serve as communications director starting in April. Look forward to chatting with you Elaine once I start. Saludos.”
Nobody looks forward to it more than Ladra.
Everyone knows that Hernández stopped talking to me and responding to my emails, even public records requests, two years ago when I worked against his boss with the only viable candidate there was. He forwards everything to one of his lackies. He just cut me off cold and started badmouthing me (you didn’t think it’d get back to me, Mike?). But he never told me why.
Hernández has always had one foot out the door, though. As a progressive Democrat in a Republican world, he was often at odds with Gimenez policy and admitted to me once that he had to hold his nose for some of the things he was defending or promoting. But he was good at his job. Maybe too good.
Hernández did a lot to improve the county’s social media outreach, hosting the first Facebook townhalls with the mayor. He also worked diligently to improve the whole communications network and the community outreach department, which was plagued (and still might be) with nepotism and cronyism.
But his proudest moment is, no doubt, that little piece of theater of the absurd he orchestrated about Gimenez pretending to toy with becoming a Democrat. It was brilliant media distraction.
Anyone who knows Mike knows that he wanted real bad to be on the Hillary Clinton team and even hinted several times that he was going to get a post there. He didn’t. But now he’s joining other uber Democrats — Congressman Joe Garcia, Juan Penalosa and Ashley Walker — at the Mercury Partners government affairs PR agency. He may, someday in the future, need Political Cortadito to push a progressive candidate or a referendum or something.
Ladra holds no grudges, Mike. This phone is open to you always. Despite the last two years of rudeness and lack of professionalism.
Marquez was an assistant city editor on the English side (putting together the old “Local” section before it was absorbed into the A) before she went to lead El Nuevo in 2013. She helped the Spanish language paper grow its digital operation and increased local digital traffic by 28 percent and video views by more than 100 percent. During more than a decade at the Herald, she has won awards from the Florida Society of News Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.
On Thursday, a few minutes after Ladra broke the news on twitter about her joining the county, Márquez made the official announcement herself. “I am thrilled to be joining the leadership team of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and to work with the professional communications staff of the 25 agencies that serve county residents. I start April 2.”
Minutes later, Gimenez tweeted “I’m happy to announce I have appointed @MyriamMarquez as Communications Director and Senior Advisor” and linked the county press release.
“Myriam is an expert with nearly 30 years of experience in innovative and strategic communications. Her demonstrated history in her field will be an asset to the county’s communications team,” Gimenez said (or Mike said for Gimenez).
“I am honored to become a part of Mayor Gimenez’s administration,” Márquez added, “especially during this most exciting time when people are connecting in new ways to build community through social media and civic engagement.”
That’s true. But then she already went into spin mode.
“I share the Mayor’s vision of improving our residents’ quality of life in cost-efficient ways that protect their pocketbooks, and I am excited about all the innovations underway,” Márquez said in the press release. “I look forward to public service. Helping our residents with accurate information to find the services they need will be Job One.”
Maybe she doesn’t really know what she’s in for.

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While our electeds in Tallahassee mess up a perfectly starter gun control bill with their crazy school militia program and GOP House members repeatedly oppose amendments to close the gun show loophole, Democrat candidates in this year’s state elections are taking it straight to the source — urging the Miami-Dade Youth Fair and Expo to cancel two upcoming gun shows in May and July.
And the city commission in South Miami on Tuesday night unanimously passed a measure, sponsored by Commissioner Josh Liebman, demanding local governments prohibit gun shows on public property, which the fairgrounds is on.
Mayor Philip Stoddard told Ladra after the vote that the city would send the resolution to the Miami-Dade Fairgrounds “since the county contract with them ceded control of the events.”
Related: Lawmakers vote to leave assault rifles on the street and arm teachers instead
In a Feb. 23 letter to the board members and executives of the Miami-Dade Youth and Exposition — the hosts of a gun show the very weekend after the Parkland tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High —  five Democrat state House candidates and a state senate candidate pressed board members to cancel two upcoming gun shows in coming months.
“The tragic events of February 14th resulting in the death of 17 students and teachers in neighboring Broward County have shaken our community. Here in Miami-Dade, a gun show took place at the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition grounds (the “Fairgrounds”) the following weekend.
Gun shows are well-known as places where people can buy a weapon of any caliber from private sellers, who are neither federally licensed, nor do they run background checks on buyers. The sale of such weapons without required screening is notoriously referred to as ‘gun show loophole’.
According to a 2017 study, 22 percent of gun owners obtained their weapons without submitting to a background check. That equates to millions of guns sold to individuals who could have a violent past or be mentally ill. Many of these purchases likely occurred at gun shows, easily accessible marketplaces for people who don’t want to be subject to a background check to find non-licensed gun dealers.
The Fairgrounds are presently scheduled to host two other gun shows in May and July. The undersigned write to you to request that your organization follow of communities like Broward County by agreeing to cancel future gun shows in light of the recent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
While there are many issues of contention when it comes to gun reform, there is a growing consensus about requiring comprehensive background checks to keep weapons out of the hands of citizens that suffer from mental health issues or are known to be violent. Your organization is dedicated to enriching our community by promoting education – hosting gun shows is directly inapposite of this mission.
The cancellation of the scheduled shows and a future prohibition on such events at the Fairgrounds is but a small gesture, compared to the disgrace and insult to the victims of shootings and their families if they were allowed continue. If we know that just one individual can use such shows to bypass a background check in order to arm their ill intent against our children, we cannot in good conscience continue to host these gun shows at the Fairgrounds.
We call on you, the board members and executives of the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition, Inc., to do what is right by cancelling the scheduled gun shows and prohibiting all future gun shows on the Fairgrounds.”
The letter was signed “Respectfully,” by Javier Fernández, who is running in House District 114 in Coral Gables, Jason Pizzo, who is running for Senate in District 38, Cedric McMinn, running in House District 109 in Miami and Opa-Locka, Kubs Lalchandani, running in House District 113 in Miami Beach and Little Havana, Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, running in House District 115 in Pinecrest and Dotie Joseph, running in House District 108 in Miami and Miami Shores.
But only Fernández and Solomon are likely to face Republicans. The others are running in traditionally blue districts against Democrat incumbents or, in the case of Lalchandani, in an open seat vacated by a Democrat and against another Democrat, former Miami Beach Commissioner Deede Weithorn (more on that later).
Fernández is the first up with a special election May 1. And, yeah, this issue is going to hurt Andrew Vargas, who won the Republican primary last month. Vargas is law partners and the political protege of State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, who ushered this school militia program quite quickly in the appropriations committee. This photograph, while a corporate pic, likely is a good characterization about their feelings with the progress that this crazy guns in schools law has made.
Related: GOP voters in House 114 slam dunk Jose Pazos and pick Andrew Vargas
Ladra was undecided on this race because, let’s face it, the Dems didn’t make the best choice, again. A lobbyist against an insurance industry attorney who is also Trujillo’s proxy? After they’ve slammed Republican lobbyists in previous campaigns? Ugh. But we need Democrats in Tallahassee next year to undo the damage and pass reasonable bans on weapons that were built and are meant for war. So, yeah, Javi, a little begrudgingly, Ladra is yours. At least in May. We’ll see in November. I still like Ross Hancock, who didn’t want to spent his energy on a special election where the Dems had already picked another guy.
But Fernández is right on this issue and right on time. On Tuesday, he went to South Miami City Hall to support Liebman’s item.
“It’s an issue that’s been missing from the state efforts to address gun reform,” Fernández told Ladra afterwards.
“There seems to be a consensus that everybody needs background screening,” he said, adding that 31 gun shows in the next 60 days were happening on state and county fairgrounds in Florida. “I just find it inconsistent with the directed mission of these organizations, which is to advance educational development.”
Fernández was a policy advisor to former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz who stopped the practice of hosting gun shows at the Coconut Grove Convention Center when he became involved in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization in 2009 — which, by the way, does not list Miami as a member today on its website (ahem, Mayor Francis Suarez).
Let’s hope Fernández is as good a lobbyist as everybody thinks he is when he speaks before the Fairgrounds board about this on Monday. That board includes Miami-Dade School Board Member Maria Teresa “Maritere” Rojas, who is also up for re-election, so let’s watch what she does and says very closely.
It does seem somewhat incongruous that the location for our annual and beloved Youth Fair, which is already being advertised this year, would also be the home of traveling firearm festivals. And while Ladra has not supported Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s efforts to usurp the Youth Fair lease for Florida International University’s expansion, it is taxpayer owned property.
Related: By putting guns in schools, Republicans send a clear message: Elect Democrats
The Youth Fair board would be wise to do the right thing if it wants the community’s support against Gimenez’s overtures, which can be resumed at any moment.
Gun shows across Florida are held on public land — at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Fort Myers or the Lee County Civic Center, for example. Future leases with these organizations that use public lands should state specifically that these properties cannot be used for gun shows.
At least not until we close the gun show loophole.
But, as we saw in Tallahassee on Tuesday, neither of those things are likely to happen until more Democrat candidates are elected.

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