In what amounts to a political pissing match, the two top contenders in the GOP primary for the Senate seat in District 40 are trying to out-Republican each other.

Former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, whose latest mail piece has the word Republican in it six times, has had hit former Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla with mail pieces and now a TV commercial that basically cast him as a closet liberal and fake conservative. Last week, some residents in Westchester got mailers from Dean DLP that said Diaz had only become a Republican to run for office (he was an NPA until 2007 and ran in 2008).

The piece had a picture of a young Alex with President Ronald Reagan from some 20 de Mayo event in downtown Miami in 1982 or 1983 that he should have, but apparently didn’t, shave for. You know, to drive the point home that Diaz de la Portilla is the real man, er, I mean real Republican here. “From top to bottom,” the mailer says. Couldn’t he say from birth?!?  Alex never toyed around with anything else! Not even in college when he was supposed to have a heart.

In the 8 1/2 X 11 mailer, Dean DLP goes on to berate our local Republicans for not walking in lock step with Trump on everything, saying that he has “the courage to defend our Republican values.

“Alex Diaz de la Portilla started his Republican activism at the early age of 18 as a volunteer for our beloved President Ronald Reagan. Since then, Alex Diaz de la Portilla has supported our Republican presidents without hesitation and with firmness. For this dedication to our Republican values, he was named Republican Senate Majority Leader,” it says, then turns into a super right wing abuelo scolding his grandchildren.

“Alex Diaz de la Portilla is left indignant by the lack of unity among Republicans and the lack of loyalty to our president. He commits to a fight against the liberal press, the leftists Democrats and the Republicans who swim in both waters,” it says.

Ooooooh. How many Republicans swim in both waters? He didn’t name names. That includes Pepi’s. “My opponent only changed to our Republican Party so he could run for office,” it says on the front side. “Mi opponente.”

In fact, DLP never mentions his opponnt. Pepi Diaz, on the other hand, mentions the name Alex Diaz de la Portilla four times and the name Diaz de la Portilla (sans the Alex) one more in a single comparison mailer paid for by his politial action committee, Rebuild Florida.

Like Alex needs the name recognition.

Pepi Diaz also doesn’t mention the word Republican once in that piece. Not in his intro bio piece either, the big one with the picture of the family on the front. Ditto for the “Jobs, jobs, jobs” mailer, where he called himself a “true conservative” — but the addition of the word “Republican” before President Donald Trump would have cost him nothing.

Quien es mas macho? Reagan or Trump?

Now, Republican flag waving is really not that new in a contested primary. It’s just more fun to watch it evolve so quickly in a short election cycle like this one, where people have precious little time to pick their party representative for the general. And so the question becomes more relevant. Quien es mas Republicano?

It sure sounds like “quien es mas macho,” don’t it? Reminded Ladra of the lyrics from that old Laurie Anderson song, Smoke Rings. “Que es mas macho? Pineapple or knife? Lightbulb or schoolbus?”

Quien es mas Republicano? Alex or Pepi? Reagan or Trump?

Alex used the word 13 times in his Reagan mail piece. That may be a record. And a sign.

Faced with a future opening on the town council, Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid didn’t look at past councilmembers or candidates. He looked to the audience in commission chambers.

Cid intends to name Marilyn Ruano to fill the seat that will be left open after the July 25th meeting, the last for Councilman Tony Lama, who took a job with Amazon and is moving to Seattle to pursue a dream and try to make the world a better place for all of us. 

Ruano is an accountant with a family business in Miami Lakes and a former PTA board member and current homeowners association president. She has also been a regular attendee of council meetings for the past 10 years. Which means she has stamina.

“That was very important to me,” Cid told Ladra late Friday, about her attendance to the town meetings, when he placed the item on the agenda for the next meeting Tuesday. “And it would be good to have an accountant on the council.”

Ya think?

Read related story: Miami Lakes: Tony Lama takes Amazon job — in Seattle

The town charter gives Cid 30 days from the day of Lama’s resignation, which will likely be July 26, to make a nomination the council must then approve. He can’t name her on Tuesday, because Lama has yet to resign. But he wanted to report his intent to name Ruano and set a special meeting date to consider the resignation effective date so that he can make the nomination.

Mayor Manny Cid

“Expressing my intention to nominate in advance allows the public the opportunity to meet the nominee in a transparent fashion,” Cid wrote in his memo to the vice mayor and council members. “Mrs. Ruano understands firsthand the importance of being an independent voice working for all Miami Lakers. Mrs. Ruano possesses incredible strength and the heart of a public servant.”

Also, fyi, if a nomination isn’t confirmed within 90 days, they have to have a special election. Which they could force if they want someone else. But it would cost the city “an arm and a leg,” Cid said. A pretty penny for their size town. Lama’s term ends in 202, but if confirmed, Ruano would serve until the next regularly scheduled election which is the countywide election in August 2018.

Cid’s item memo has Ruano’s bio attached, which shows she has been president of the Royal Palm Estates HOA since 2013 and was active long before that in her sons school and the Miami-Dade School Board committees. She also serves as vice chair of the Miami Lakes Education Advisory Board. Cid appointed her to it in 2014.

The mayor said he had been approached by a few residents and that some people had openly advocated for someone else. “But the good thing about Miami Lakes is we have deep talent pool,” Cid said. “There are dozens of people who are more than qualified. I just felt that the fact that she had been to every meeting for the last 10 years and that she was president of her HOA was something that was important to me.”

We left a message with Ruano and emailed her and hope to get more information later. But according to a well-informed sources, including a fellow gadfly, she is a good addition to the council with no agenda other than whatever is best for the town and residents of Miami Lakes. 

“Securing funding for tutoring, classes and much needed educational programs at our local area schools, and promoting and encouraging a love of reading at an early age has made this a very fulfilling experience,” says her bio, which seems specifically tailor written for the council’s consideration of her nomination. “With over a decade of community service, including regular attendance at Town Council meetings, I have voiced my concerns on matters affecting the future of Miami Lakes. I look forward to serving my community for many years. The past 10 years have been very rewarding and I know, in my heart, that the best is yet to come.”

Ruano has her predecessor’s blessing.

“I gave him my thumbs up,” said Tony Lama. And no, it’s not a Sunshine Law violation for them to have discussed it because Lama will be gone and will not vote on his replacement. 

“She’s been an active member of our community for quite some time. She is vocal but fair. Even with individuals she was not in line with, she’s always been very respectful,” Lama said. “And I agreed 100 percent that it would be nice to have a woman on the council.”

That’s one thing she’s got going for her. The other thing is that she was an early critic of former Mayor Michael Pizzi — which means she’s smart.

Sure, sure, there are six candidates in the Florida Senate District 40 seat vacated by Frank Artiles, who resigned abruptly in April after he was caugh making racist and sexist comments to and about colleagues. But really, most if not all of the attention is going to be on the four familiar faces in two mano a mano matches.

Ladra loves that a fellow NPA is running in the general, which may be the start of a trend (more on that later), and we really dig the nickname he got from his rugby mates. Who wouldn’t want to be represented by a Senator He-Man? And we will find out more about him in due time. Let’s concentrate on the primaries for now because this is a crazy short election cycle and there’s ony five days before absentee ballots drop.

Perennial candidate Annette Taddeo, who is leading the polls and may finally win an election — even if its just a primary — and Ana Rivas Logan, a former Miami-Dade School Board member and state rep who has been elected in parts of the district before an is arguably a better candidate for the general, are competing head to head for the Democrat Party nomination. Thanks to the self-propelled dishonorable discharge from the race by State Rep. Daisy Baez — who apparently doesn’t even live in the district she represents now. Steve Smith, whose name was already a liability before he was disqualified (or withdrew) because he was a Republican six months ago, never had a chance.

On the Republican side, former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, the alleged GOP favorite, a legislator lobbyist and a real mama’s boy, will be up against a new and improved former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, dean of the 305 political bad boys. These two are already stealing the show. Even though Lorenzo Palomares (what happened to Starbuck?) has remained relatively relevant as Trump’s Hispanic Miami spokesman and a Spanish-language TV commentator on national politics after he lost in a congressional primary that overlaps with the district, it’s going to be hard to keep up with these two, who will have all the money and all the attention.

Because these short election cycles are ruled by one thing and one thing only: name recognition. Did we mention that absentee ballots drop next week? Candidates have precious little time to get an actual message out. As school ends. And summer begins. Naturally, the familiar faces will have a bigger advantage then ever in this race.

On the red side: Name ID vs campaign cash, old vs new

Of course, name recognition can be bought. And that is surely what Diaz is going to try to do. He’s got $825,653 squirreled away in his Rebuild Florida political action committee. That includes $84,000 collected over 10 days in May and that includes $25,000 from the insurance industry and $5,000 from AirBnB, which is facing statewide and local regulations. That was even before he raised another $278,400 in his first month as a candidate. So Pepi Diaz — who’s gotten a little help with some press conferences about condo reform — has a million bucks to build his name ID and has already started with mailers introducing him as a family man and proven legislator. Meanwhile, DLP reported loaning himself $50,000 — which I guess is easy for a guy who doesn’t pay his mortgage (see Herald story about foreclosure on his home). But did he really?  Or did he just say he loaned himself something — candidates don’t actually have to provide bank deposit slips — because he only raised $22,000 from donors? So, he may actually have less than a tenth of what his opponent has. Unless he has a PAC we don’t know about.

Diaz certainly has at least two PACs. He told Ladra he won’t use his PAC to hit DLP, but on Thursday our mailbox got this comparison piece — paid for by his own Rebuild Florida — with side by side photos that shows Alex like an angry, grainy, sepia-toned mafia kingpin and Pepi like some fresh, pink-faced Harvard kid with an American flag. The piece states that DLP raised business taxes by 300% and reduced state funds to local governments. Earlier this month, Pepi Diaz or buddies — maybe Artiles, who has been promoting him like crazy on Facebook — hit DLP with some PAC called Making a Better Tomorrow, which called Alex a career politician and closet liberal raising taxes and killing jobs. But Diaz did admit that he farmed certain stuff out to David “Disgustin’” Custin. And Ladra guesses that Custin has been busy lately with this summer bonus.

That’s three mail pieces in this house from Pepi Diaz vs. none from DLP.

Read related story: Senate 40 GOP race gets ugly fast with attack on Alex DLP

Pepi can also count on the PACs of State Rep. Jose Oliva and his fellow flying monkeys, who are secretly supporting him. Very secretly, of course. Because they don’t want to piss Dean DLP off — por si las moscas and he wins. They are not taking him for granted. As well they shouldn’t. Voters in this district have been represented by the DLPs for decades — Alex as a State Rep., big brother Miguel Diaz de la Portilla as a county commissioner and baby bro Renier Diaz de la Portilla as a Miami-Dade School Board member. They are used to seeing that name and checking it off on the ballot starting with Miguel’s commission win in 1993.

That’s probably why Alex did so well in both of the polls we know about where he has a comfy double digit lead on Diaz, who told Ladra he did not poll before qualifying but would poll soon. Of course, he’s got to work on his name id first so he can pump those numbers up for donors. But trust me, both he and the GOP establishment are looking at those numbers. Diaz de la Portilla got 51 percent positive name recognition compared to Diaz’s 26 percent. And in a two-way race, DLP beats Pepi 43-15. Ladra has been told by three Republican sources that DLP leads quite comfortably with double digits in a GOP poll as well. But they don’t seem to want to talk about it too much. It’s all very hush hush.

It’s also probably the real reason why DLP skipped the debate Monday hosted by the Women’s Republican Club Federated. He told the organizers he had a conflicting prior engagement but Ladra thinks that he had nothing to gain and everything to lose from going to a debate when he is so up in the polls. Why bother?

His focus has been on direct and personal voter contact. Ladra doesn’t know if we’ve ever seen him work so hard. He’s walking almost every day. I don’t think Alex has walked in more than 15 years. We have proof from all the photos he’s posting of voters offering him cafecitos and batidos de mamey. Because he’s also on social media — al fin. Or at least he’s got someone doing it for him. He even hit me up on Instagram. Instagram! And he is posting photos of himself with voters regularly. This, while Pepi “Selfie King” Diaz has not posted very many.

“I find it awkward to ask,” Diaz told Ladra, adding that he once asked a young voter who was more social media saavy, and the voter declined. He has taken more selfies with his canvassing team.

Of course, Diaz de la Portilla may be working so hard because he knows he has to win this one. If he doesn’t, this would be his second loss since leaving office in 2010, after he was beat by Jose Javier Rodriguez in a state House race in 2014. But it would be the fifth loss for the brand. Renier lost his 2012 state rep race and a 2014 judicial race against a party girl nobody and Miguel lost his senate re-election last year (against Rodriguez, who has become the family nemesis). They can’t afford another defeat. Is he feeling the pressure?

Alex DLP used Facebook to thank the Morejon family for the cafecito during canvassing

Quite the opposite, he told Ladra. “I’m the most relaxed I’ve ever been. The reception has been incredible,” he said. “It’s a blessing when you go house to house in neighborhoods you haven’t been to in 15 years and they recognize you.”

He knocked on the door of a 105-year-old voter who lives with her 81-year-old daughter in Westchester. Both women remembered voting for him in 1994 when he ran against incumbent Carlos Manrique for state House and beat him with a three to one margin. They made him tostones.

“I have no pressure whatsoever. People here know me and they know the difference between someone who is part of their community, someone who has the people’s back, and someone who is a Tallahasee creation,” Diaz de la Portilla said.

The walking may also be a wide pre-emptive strike because Diaz de la Portilla knows more nasty mail is coming. Once voters see mail pieces on DLP’s ethics complaint and his nasty divorce — which shouldn’t be campaign material but always raises her ugly head — the tostones and mamey shakes may disappear. Or they may not. These are the same people that elected Alex despite some driver’s license issues brought up by Manrique in ’94.

But Pepi Diaz can also get hit with mailers that depict him as Artiles’ BFF and roommate, who never condemned what he said and must have known something about the Hooters girl and the Playboy bunny on the former senator’s campaign payroll. Here they are in a selfie from the Trump inaugural. Diaz is also a lobbyist whose clients include Bell Helicopters and Miami Beckham United, which could be seeking state taxpayer subsidies for its planned Overtown soccer stadium.

Again, the difference is that DLP has much less to spend on getting this information out. Which brings us back to why he is walking so much. It’s free.

Diaz said that he would soon be polling and even Ladra is confident that his numbers will be better (they won’t go down) than the existing polls show. I mean, they have to be. The Republican in this house has gotten three mailers and his signs are everywhere. But it’s a high climb. Will the numbers be better enough?

Because his assertion that DLP’s support is wide and not deep is wrong. I know DLP fans. It’s like a cult. And Alex has the charisma of a cult leader while Pepi Diaz has the charisma of a mailman.

So it doesn’t matter how much blood money Pepi collects and how many signs he puts up, Alex still has the advantage.

On the blue side, one-time allies become rivals

Ladra does not expect the Democrat primary to be as ugly (or as interesting). Not just because the two candidates are ladies and not because they just aren’t as good at the negative stuff and not because there’s just really not much of it. Sure, Rivas Logan can be hit on the turncoat thing, cast as a onetime Republican with awards from conservative groups. But Taddeo can’t really do that while she boasts the endorsement and support of former Gov. Charlie “King Turncoat” Crist, who she ran in 2016 with as LG and who is among the multiple hosts at a fundraiser earlier this month. And yes, Taddeo can still be painted as a carpet bagger, especially since she is renting in the district.

But that’s not going to happen. Because the real reason this won’t get as ugly (or as interesting) as the GOP primary is that these two eran amiguitas the other day. Like five minutes ago. Nobody would believe a sudden death match.

“I plan on just making it a race about the issues and ideas,” Rivas Logan said. “I don’t have any animosity toward her. She can do her thing and I will do mine. She is not my enemy.”

Not that she isn’t a little peeved. Rivas Logan said she had already told Taddeo she was going to run for the seat in 2018. When Artiles was under fire to resign, she again said she would run — only maybe sooner. “She never mentioned to me that she was insterested in this seat,” Rivas Logan said, adding that she found out when she read it in the paper.

Taddeo may seem stronger. A Democratic poll shows she leads by 33 to 14 but that was with Baez in the race taking 10. She might only be leading 33 to 24, which closes the gap. And there is still 43 percent undecided.

She is decidedly raising more money, however. Taddeo has already collected, $45,559. More than a third of that came on June 8, the same day a big group of the county’s most prominent Dems hosted her at the Biltmore. The list includes Crist, who as well as former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, Miami-Dade Commissioners Jean Monestime and Daniella Levine-Cava, Miami Beach Commissioners Joy Malakoff and Micky Steinberg, South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard, Pinecrest Councilman James McDonald, former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner. Then there are people like Joe Arriola and attorney Benedict Kuehne, who represents former Miami Lakes mayor Michael Pizzi, so we know his judgement is not the best ever, and Chris Korge, whose son ran for that seat last year and lost — to Rivas Logan, half asleep and with two cents on his dollar.

Rivas Logan is not the best fundraiser. She has only raised $10,425 — not a quarter of her opponent’s total. But she apparently can stretch a dollar further. Remember, she beat Andrew Korge in the threeway primary last year for the same seat — with $12,000 against close to a million. And that was without campaigning. Rivas Logan, who has represented small parts of the area first as a school board member and then as a state rep — even though, yes, she was Republican. But that can be a selling point in the general — suspended campaigning because she did not want to get dragged into a dirty fight against Andrew Korge, who was already on the attack (she has spectacularly thin skin for an elected). And she still beat him (Dwight Bullard beat her, however, and went on to lose the general to Artiles).

Taddeo also spent close to a million dollars against Joe Garcia in the 2016 congressional primary. And he beat her .

So Rivas Logan is pretty relaxed even though she has less cash. Neither of them have spent much. I see no signs for either in the district and the Dem in this household has not gotten one mailer.

“I don’t like asking people for money and that’s not my strength. My strength is my connection with voters in my district. I ran against a guy who had a million dollars. And I defeated him with $15,000,” Rivas Logan said. And even though it was a telephone conversation, Ladra could hear the smile on her face when she said she had no hard feelings against the Democrats supporting Taddeo.

“I hope that they support me in the general.”

The woman recruited by the Miami-Dade Democratic Party to run in the special election for House District 116 was a Republican only hours before she registered to vote as a Democrat — the same day she qualified to run for state representative.

Gabriela Mayaudon, who is also listed on documents as Maria Gabriela Mayaudon, proudly declared herself “anti-Chavista y anti-Madurista hasta la muerte” and “Republicana” on her twitter profile a day or two before she qualified on the deadline day for the seat to replace State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, a Republican who resigned to run for a vacated Senate seat.

In a telephone interview with Ladra, Mayaudon said she didn’t remember declaring herself Republican, nor did she admit changing it at the last minute to Democrat before completely changing it to the current candidate profile. But she also didn’t deny it.

Read related story: Venezuelan leader may join House 116 race for Democrats

“I don’t feel Republican. I feel centrist. It’s difficult to explain right now, but I am proud to be representing the Democratic Party and all the people who feel alientated by each party,” Mayaudon said, sounding very much like an NPA. “No, I’m a Democrat. And I will defend the party and I am running to represent all the people who feel disenfranchised.

“And when the time comes — and it will because, I am saying it here first, I will win — I will be able to represent all,” she said.

It doesn’t disqualify her. While a Democrat was forced to withdraw from the Senate District 40 race because he had switched from the Republican Party within the last year and lied about it, there is no rule precluding a newly-registered voter from running, according to Sarah Revell, a spokeswoman with the Florida Division of Elections. Mayaudon simply self-identified as a Republican, she never registered as one. In fact, she never registered at all before June 6, when she registered and filed to run as a Democrat. The Miami-Dade Democratic Party gave her $1,800 for her qualifying fee.

But while she was coy with Ladra, Mayaudon came clean with the Democrats who recruited her — which includes the new political director, who was a Republican himself a year ago (more on that later).

“She was very up front about the fact that when she first got here, she affiliated with the Republian Party,” said Juan Cuba, chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. “But after this election, she could see that her values are not aligned with the values of the Republican Party.”

Cuba says that the party was recruiting for different races because they do not want to see any Republican run unchallenged. Mayaudon, a Venezuelan congresswoman who came to this country seeking political asylum and who became an activist in Doral’s Venezuelan community seemed like a good candidate he said. Her diversity definitely helped.

Read related story: Few hopefuls line up to replace Jose Felix Diaz in 116

“Democrats need to do more work in the Venezuelan community,” Cuba said. “We risk losing an entire generation. And they are affiliating with the Republican Party because they are the only party speaking to their issue.”

But maybe they should have groomed her and waited to run in the district where she actually lives and where she is known, which is House district 105, and supported the Democrat candidate that was already qualified in the 116 race, perennial candidate Ross Hancock. Ross doesn’t live in the district either but he lives as close to it as Mayaudon does and was already looking for a new place. He also has run before so he knows how to walk and, as a full fledged naturalist and a former NPA, he pulls from both the environmental voter base and the independents in the general. Sure, he is a perennial candidate, but not the same as an Annette Taddeo — who is running for her fourth different elected office — because he has only run for one office, a House seat. He hasn’t jumped into other races to serve in just any elected office. He has honed in on the Florida House, where he can best promote an environmental agenda.

He also speaks Spanish a little better than Mayaudon speaks English, which could be an issue. She answered in slow, broken and labored English when pressed but otherwise answered questions posed in English in her native Spanish. Ladra loves Hispanic candidates as much as any buena perra sata, and I have often said that there are some districts where you need a z or a vowel at the end of your name to compete. This 116 seat could be one of those. But both the Republican candidates are so bad that this could have been Hancock’s best chance ever to make it to Tallahassee. Ladra wishes he hadn’t withdrawn, if only to force a debate on the issues with a woman who tweeted, only a month ago, that she lives in the U.S.A. but her heart is still in Venezuela.

Cuba said that neither he nor anyone at the party encouraged Hancock to withdraw, but Hancock told Ladra he made it very clear that he would not run against another Democrat in the primary. Hancock did not want to spend any resources at all until the general, where he felt he would also get a majority of independents to support him against whoever the Republicans chose (either the establishment choice or the Havana poster boy). Cuba said that it was simply a misunderstanding: They thought Ross, who has run three times already, didn’t really want to run and was only doing it because no other Democrat would. So they got one.

Cuba also said that they looked for someone “with a story to tell.”

But it seems the “story” she’s telling is that she’s a Democrat.

And the Democrats — who threw away the chance to win a competitive House seat that Hillary took in November with a genuine candidate by registering a last minute Latina that checks some boxes — might be selling a story, too.

After having denied any connection to a mysterious political action committee that raised $200,000  Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco, who is running for mayor, admitted last week that he knew the chairman of People for Better Leaders.

Then, just a few days after two Miami Herald reporters forced the admission and made several connections between Grieco and the PAC, the chairman said he was closing the Better Leaders PAC and returning the funds to the donors. 

But there is already another PAC operating that can do some of Grieco’s dirty work in his race for mayor of Miami Beach against former Sen. Dan Gelber. A new PAC created in April also has connections to Grieco.

For months, the commissioner denied having anything to do with the Better Leaders PAC. In January, after an anonymous email blast — which illegally had no disclaimer — made the connections, Grieco told Ladra that he didn’t know anything about Better Leaders or the people behind it. But in an email last week to the Herald reporters, Nicholas Nehamas and Joey Flechas, he said that he did know Chairman Brian Abraham, after all.

Read related story: Miami Beach: Anonymous email attacks Michael Grieco

“I know the chairmen of many political committees, such as John Morgan, Ben Pollara, Brian Abraham, Stephen Bittel, Adonis Garcia and others through my political, personal and professional relationships over the years, so the premise of your question and this article itself merely makes this publication an accomplice to a dishonest attack on me by my political opponent, his consultant, and developer backers,” Grieco wrote to a reporter he accused of being on the other campaign’s payroll.

“As I have demonstrated, this is a textbook case of character assassination, and in any other arena this would constitute an act of slander/libel.”

But he really hasn’t demonstrated anything — except maybe that he’s too defensive about it — and the Herald did a good job of connecting the dots. Such a good job, in fact, that Abraham said he was closing the PAC and returning the money to the donors.

Wonder how many of those donors will turn around and re-contribute that money to a second PAC, Our Time Is Now, which has raised only $10,000 so far — and quickly spent them on consulting and communications by Grieco’s newest political consultant, Pedro Diaz.

This PAC business may be par for the course in some elections, but it’s a big deal in Miami Beach, where they have become political piranhas. They were never looked upon fondly, but became extra sketchy in 2015 after Mayor Philip Levine and then Commissioner Jonah Wolfson collected more than $1 million for their shady Relentless for Progress PAC –and quickly came under fire. They were accused, understandably, of using their office and position to shake down contributions from vendors and contractors who either had business or wanted business with the city. It prompted the city commission to pass an ordinance in January of last year that prohibit electeds or candidates for soliciting PAC funds directly or indirectly. The county also passed an ordinance last year that requires candidates of any municipality to register if they raise PAC cash.

Grieco has not registered, but the Miami Herald reporters got at least one contributor to say that the commissioner himself solicited the contribution, which would be a violation of the Miami Beach ordinance. The commissioner did not return several calls and text messages from Ladra. But in January he said he would not open a PAC and he has since raised more than half a million in his candidate account.

Read related story: Michael Grieco hits $500K, with help from real estate investor

Our Time Is Now is actually an “Elections Communications Organization,” which is a PAC with a different name that operates under a few different rules (for example, you can’t say “vote for” in the propaganda). It opened in April and the only real contribution as of the end of May was $10,000 from TTD, LLC, which is owned by Roger Thomson and James Tyrrell, both of 4271 Alton Road.

Thomson, an attorney active in LGBTQ advocacy who appears to work in the restaurant industry, also gave $10,000 to People for Better Leaders in January. And that’s another connection to Grieco. It also brings Thomson’s investment total to $20K, around the same time that commissioners are considering limits on formula restaurants like Chili’s or Olive Garden in certain areas.

Our Time Is Now spent all $10,000 — $7,500 on May 5 and $2,500 on May 30 — on consulting and communications by Pedro Diaz, a political consultant that just joined Grieco’s team. The PAC is chaired by Mark Rivero, who works with Diaz Consulting Group.

Diaz did not return a call from Ladra, but earlier had told me that he uses a number of PACs for different campaigns. He also represents Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who announced she would run for Congress, and Miami city commission candidate Alex Dominguez.

Our Time Is Now says it will be used for Miami-Dade candidates — which I guess is anybody in Miami Beach as well.

There are three other active PACs in Miami Beach — Beach Residents for Quality of Life, Guardians of Miami Beach and Save Miami Beach 2016 — but none of them have done any recent fundraising or spending. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more other mysterious PACs operating.

And let’s remember the original email blast that exposed the connections between Grieco and the Better Leaders PAC had no legal disclaimer. Could be yet another mysterious PAC, so mysterious we don’t even know its name.

Ladra thinks the Beach voters don’t like any of this and that it might be an opportunity for a third candidate.