It’s always the cover up that gets ’em.

We all know that Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez is a big, fat liar. It’s documented. He was caught when he testified in the tax evasion trial of former Mayor Julio Robaina admitting that he charged 36% interest on a personal loan, something he had repeatedly denied publicly and to the media for years. He was fined by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, which found that he violate the Citizens’ Bill of Rights “Truth in Government” provision when he lied in both Spanish and English about his loansharking activities.

But now we have evidence that the mayor has lied under oath, which is much more serious and could be a chargeable offense. We might have him on perjury, of all things!

Read related story: Hialeah mayor’s enforcement ‘snitch’ was paid city funds

Hernandez hemmed and hawed and blatantly lied in a sworn statement to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust when he said he didn’t know that his political enforcement — a man he called his “snitch” — was getting paid taxpayer dollars for odd jobs Rice did in the city.

An Ethics investigation that concluded in April found that Glenn Rice, the mayor’s longtime ally and political enforcer, had been paid a total of $18,000 in multiple checks out of city coffers in 2015 and 2016. But there was evidence to suggest it was for legitimate work, monitoring the city’s new privatized solid waste service and doing background checks on vendors and potential employees. Officials in other municipalities had talked to Rice and provided him with public records. He had been present at several meetings. And he had a photograph of curbside garbage that had not been picked up. Who cares if it was the mayor’s curbside?

But while there may have been no crime here, there was a cover up, which is a whole ‘nother crime.

Hernandez was under oath when, a little more than five minutes into the testimony at the law office of his attorney Tom Cobitz, he told the investigator he didn’t know Rice was getting paid by the city.

Read related story: Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez is fined for loanshark lies

“I think he volunteered something afterwards, once we had — what’s the word? — implemented the whole thing,” Hernandez is quoted in the close-out memo as saying. “I know he assisted our director of public works… and I think he could better answer the question. Armando Vidal can give you better information on that.”

Really? Does anybody believe he really thinks that Glenn volunteered?

So it was just a happy coincidence, then, that those payments were made through the law firm of the mayor’s best friend, former Miami Lakes Councilman Ceasar Mestre, who went to the police academy with Hernandez and later served as his partner on the Hialeah Police force? And it never came up in conversation for two whole years, even though Mestre told the investigator that he has lunch with his old partner at least two or three times a week?

No, actually, we don’t even have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

That’s because Hialeah Public Works Director Armando Vidal, a man with far more credibility, said that Hernandez himself requested he retain Rice, going so far as to suggest the Mestre go-between to hide it! “The mayor didn’t want to hire Glenn Rice directly,” Vidal is quoted as saying in the close-out report.

Of course he didn’t. That would look like he was hiring Rice as a reward for doing his dirty work.

“He said the mayor trusted Rice to provide an independent look at matters relating to city of Hialeah affairs… Mr. Vidal advised that several of the jobs originated with Mayor Hernandez and that Rice’s involvement was expressly requested,” the report states.

Read related story: Carlos Hernandez testifies in Robaina trial, admits crime

“Not only was Mayor Hernandez aware of Rice’s involvement in overseeing Progressive’s performance, Vidal further advised that it was the mayor himself who requested that Rice be retained in this capacity,” it says later in the conclusion. Mr. Vidal stated Rice was someone the mayor ‘trusted’ and that the mayor specifically asked for Rice to be used on several occasions, including the consulting firms Matrix and Aecom.

“Mr. Vidal stated that while Mayor Hernandez clearly valued Rice’s opinion, ‘the mayor didn’t want to hire Glenn Rice directly,’ and suggested to Vidal that Rice could be contracted through Councilman Mestre’s lawfirm. ‘The mayor discussed it with me. He authorized it,’” Vidal is quoted as saying.

Duh. Of course it was the mayor’s idea to go through Mestre. Of course he authorized it.

If anyone deserves to be charged with perjury it is Carlos Hernandez. If not just because he is a liar then maybe because he is a loanshark. Or how about for the many times he has abused his power and his office to go after his political enemies? Or maybe for the many times he has retaliated against city employees who don’t support him or are critical. Or maybe because of the absentee ballot fraud he has committed and tolerated among the most frail and vulnerable in his city.

Ladra would say he is definitely due. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has an opportunity to right a wrong here and finally deliver justice to the people of Hialeah for a myriad of sins.

The fact that it would be with a perjury charge is just gravy.

Turns out Glenn “The Goon” Rice, the political black ops soldier who did Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez‘s dirty work for years, was indeed paid with city funds, supposedly for odd jobs for the public works and human resources departments — and through the lawfirm of a then sitting Miami Lakes councilmember — during part of his time as the mayor’s “snitch.”

That’s what Hernandez called Rice when an ethics investigator asked him if the former police officer was his political operative. “Glenn’s my snitch,” Hernandez answered.

A snitch that was paid up to $18,000 in taxpayer dollars through the law firm of former Miami Lakes Councilman and Hernandez BFF Ceasar Mestre to do what the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust — in a new investigation closed last month — determined was legitimate city work.

Read related story: Hello FBI? Abuse of power continues unchecked in Hialeah

Really? If it is so legitimate, why did the mayor ask Hialeah Public Works Director Armando Vidal to hire Rice — and to pay him through Mestre? “The mayor didn’t want to hire Glenn Rice directly,” Vidal is quoted in the close-out memo as saying. Of course he didn’t. Because the optics were terrible. Because Hernandez knows we can add 2 plus 2 and come up with quid pro quo, that’s why.

Because, sure, on paper Rice was monitoring the roll-out of the new, privatized solid waste service and vetting potential contract employees or vendors. There are reports and records that show he did perform certain duties. There was work product, like one photograph of garbage that was not picked up.

Of course that garbage was at the mayor’s house.

Because this was really another way the mayor compensated Rice for his “snitch” work. He was throwing his dog a second bone.

The first treat was getting Rice sweet no-show jobs as a “government consultant” with Waste Pro and Waste Management, two of the three companies who were seeking the $40 million, 8-year solid waste contract at the city. Ladra believes that Rice was already working for International Management Consultants, the lobbying firm owned by former Hialeah Councilman Herman Echevarria, who represented the third company, Progressive, and, on the side, ran the City of Retrogress until he died unexpectedly last September. Progressive got the contract, of course. There are malas lenguas who say the whole bidding war was invented to create a revenue stream for Rice because it was always going to go to Progressive anyway.

The Ethics Commission and the State Attorney’s Office investigated those payments — roughly $176,000 over three or four years — and concluded last August that no city official had recommended Rice or pushed his services onto the companies. Basically, they feel that Rice himself got the work by creating the perception that he had influence over the mayor and some council members. Guess they thought he was just a good ol’ fashioned political entrepreneur and hustled everybody. It’s not illegal.

Read related story: Hialeah’s oppression, er, I mean elections start to heat up

But Rice himself said in October that he never filled out an application and that Hernandez got him the gigs. And that wasn’t legit work.

“My real job was to be there for the mayor, to spy on his perceived political enemies,” Rice told El Nuevo Herald. “My duty was to spy on city employees and political opponents, and report their actions back to the mayor.”

Apparently, Rice did not speak as freely with Ethics or SAO investigators, choosing not to cooperate instead. But, then, isn’t that what subpeonas are made for?

During that inquiry is when investigators learned about the city payments through Mestre and decided to look into that further, you know, to make sure it wasn’t to — how’d Rice put it? — to “spy on city employees and political opponents and report their actions back to the mayor.”

Since at least 2011, Rice has shadowed Hernandez at events, intimidated and hurled insults at the mayor’s critics and challengers — heckling one mayoral candidate outside his home — and followed and photographed and harassed city employees who campaigned against Hernandez or who were otherwise thought of as disloyal. Ladra has multiple photos chasing me around the parking lot at JFK Library during early voting days in 2011 (examples throughout the post). We really don’t know what he looks like without his cellphone in his face.

Rice was widely known as the mayor’s “enforcer” before they had a falling out last year, probably over money. (Ladra heard that Hernandez and Councilwoman Isis “Gavelgirl” Garcia Martinez was also on the outs but las malas lenguas say they made up).

Read related story: Glenn Rice PAC funds Carlos Hernandez mailers

Glenn told the El Nuevo reporters he was paid to spy on department heads and, at one point, Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Munoz, who has been an on-again, off-again Hernandez ally. This was during one of the estrangements. He said that the mayor paid him to antagonize former Mayor Raul Martinez as well as longtime activist and onetime council candidate Julio Rodriguez, and mayoral candidate Juan Santana, who captured Rice’s harassment on video and posted in on YouTube. That was in 2013, before the payments that are documented. But you know Rice didn’t do it for free.

The mayor can deny it all he wants. He told the reporters the same thing he told Ethics investiagtors: That he never paid Rice for anything and that Rice was never part of his trusted inner circle. But Hernandez, who is known to lie, is lying again. Otherwise, the goon would not be chairman of his PAC, Citizens for Efficient Government, which at one point had $360,000 and from which Rice was also rewarded. He got $7,100 in checks to himself and, maybe, another $5,000 through a payment to Mestre.

He got at least $5,000 more out of a $15,000 consulting check in April of 2013 to Hernandez’s former campaign consultant, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador. She confirmed to Ladra that at least once or twice Hernandez paid Rice through her company, G&R Strategies. When asked what Glenn’s role was, she said she didn’t know.

“Consulting is what Carlos told me,” she said.

So we guess he has experience “consulting” after all.

Ladra hopes everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend and got lots of love and nurturing comfort from our mamas… because it’s another doozy of a week in the 305 political world.

We’ve got soccer and activism 101 and a group of preservationists’ last stand and the mother of all fundraisers — this last one for Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez, who still doesn’t even have any real opposition yet in his bid to become the second in his family to be Miami mayor (more on that later). Oh, and the county still wants to give Vizcaya away to be run by a private, non-profit board. You know, because that went so well for the Frost Museum.

If we don’t list your event, sorry. It is probably your own fault. Get me the info on your government and club meetings, campaign fundraisers and political powwows and it will be included. Trust me. Nobody gets a no. The easy way is to send an email to edevalle@gmail.com.

And now, with no further ado, I bring you the Cortadito calendar for the current week.

TUESDAY — May 16

8:30 a.m. — The Miami Beach Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club could rename itself the Miami Beach Candidate Speaker’s Bureau since every single one of its speakers has been a candidate for commission (Group 2) or the mayoral seat. Bless their little collective activists soul. Someone had to do it! This week’s guest speaker is Adrian Gonzalez, the owner of David’s Cafe, who is running for commission in Group 3. Former Mayor Matti Bower, who is still so far not running for anything, serves as moderator at the morning meetings, which are at Puerto Sagua Restaurant, 700 Collins Ave. Questions can be submitted in advance via Facebook.

9:30 a.m. — The privatization of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens continues as Miami-Dade Commissioners meet again Tuesday to discuss transitioning the powers and responsibilities of the historic and county-owned facility from the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Inc, which will allow them to grant contracts and manage the considerable budget of county tax dollars with less public oversight. The Carrie Meek Foundation’s lease agreement at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport will also be discussed. Commissioners could also approve an $8 million budget for the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency and $1.6 million for the South Miami Community Redevelopment Agency. They will also consider increasing an agreement with Nova Consulting from a total of $8 million in value to a total of $25 million in value for management of our water and sewer pump system. Oh, and Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, who lost her beloved husband last week, wants to increase the number of local people a company must have in its employ to qualify for local preference in procurement. They will also spend a lot of money, again. This includes $22.5 million for the lease or purchase of vehicles, $118.7 million for contract employees for different departments ($30 mil just for Elections) and $3.6 million for enterprise construction project management software. Does that mean the county won’t need individual construction project managers at $200 an hour like Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s BFF Ralph Garcia Toledo? Or is this to make his job easier? If you want to speak on any item on the agenda, the meeting is in commission chambers on the second floor at County Hall, 111 NW First Street.

WEDNESDAY — May 17

6 p.m. — Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez wanted to put the sale of the last parcel needed by David Beckham for his soccer stadium to the commission Tuesday. But Commissioner Audrey Edmonson wanted to have a town hall with the residents who live adjacent to the properties first. That will take place Wednesday evening at the YWCA, 351 NW 5th St., where residents of Overtown and Spring Gardens are invited to have a conversation with representatives from Miami Beckham United about the potential sale of the property and the future of the site. Its the same place where residents voiced their concern at the first soccer stadium town hall meeting in 2015. MBU already has six acres of property in Overtown acquired. The county parcel is the last piece needed.

6:30-9 p.m. — SAVE, formerly SAVE Dade, wants more people engaged in local and national politics. To that end, they are hosting a townhall Wednesday evening titled Effective Activism for Social Change. And they should know. SAVE has been instrumental in passing several municipal ordinances that give same-sex partners the same benefits of any spouse and was also instrumental in the county’s passage of protection for transgender individuals (fighting ugly bathroom police laws at the state simultaneously). The group has had some notable successes, even if they sometimes support the wrong candidates. This townhall is moderated/hosted by WPLG Local 10’s political reporter, Michael Putney. It is at SAVE headquarters, 1951 NW 7th Avenue, sixth floor.

7 p.m. — The Palmetto Bay Council Committee as a Whole will meet Wednesday to discuss a number of issues important to the village community — from an analysis of traffic in the urban downtown district to regulations for special events to evaluation forms for the manager and assistant manager to the noise coming from Thelatta Estate to speed limits around village parks to the upcoming budget process. Mayor Eugene Flinn wants to talk about the FPL property and parking lot regulations. And as if that wasn’t enough, they are also going to discuss the procurement process, light rail “issues,” the launch of the village website and new mobility fees for developers. This looks like a catch all meeting to Ladra. So many important things going on in Palmetto Bay, we may just have to start paying attention. The meeting should last a few hours, at Village Hall, 9705 E. Hibiscus St.

THURSDAY — May 18

2 p.m. — The Transportation Planning Organization (the old MPO) will meet to discuss four proposed amendments to the Long Range Transportation Plan that affect the 112 Expressway, the Gratigny Expressway and the new two-lane road along NW 7th Street under State Roade 826 and the widening of 97th Avenue. Commissioner Dennis Moss wants the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority to put accent lighting on the State Roade 874 ramp connector bridge to SW 128th Street. Commissioner Javier Souto wants to ask the Florida Turnpike to “refrain from proceeding” with the widening project at Coral Way, which would affect the brdige spanning from Southwest 115th to 118th avenues until there is a public meeting with area residents and a traffic study. The meeting is in Miami-Dade Commission Chambers at County Hall, 111 NW First St.

6-8 p.m. — That big todo in oh-so-hipster Wynwood for Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez is going to be the social gathering of the month for young politicos. Perhaps the season. It’s got the largest host committee in formation I have ever seen, and Ladra has seen a lot of host committees in formation. Even if you were not invited, we are quite certain that you can get in. Just bring a check. The festivities begin at Goldman Global Arts Gallery, 260 NW 26th St., inside Wynwood Walls. Enter through the gallery entrance between Second and Third avenues.

7-9 p.m. — Billed as the “last chance meeting,” the activists who make up the Miami Pine Rocklands Coalition will meet to discuss final efforts to save a swath of protected land that is the only known home to an endangered and indiginous beetle. This last piece of pine rockland — less than 2% of which exists today — is slated to become a Walmart parking lot. Believe it. Or help stop it. The tree huggers meet at 7 p.m. at the Tropical Audobon Society, 5530 Sunset Drive.

FRIDAY — May 19

6:30-8:30 p.m. — Brad Bonessi and J. R. Bult will host a fundraiser for Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who is runnning for the congressional seat vacated by a retiring Ileana Ros Lehtinen, at the St. Tropez Condominium Friday evening, 7330 Ocean Drive. This is that same block in North Beach that was going to have some huge enormouse highrise until Rosen Gonzalez and other preservationists opposed the developer-financed voter referendum to increase zoning density and height. Ladra expects the campaign to strike it rich.

SATURDAY — May 20

6:30 -8 a.m. — Rise early if you want to run in the Village of El Portal’s 9th annual Armed Forces Day 5K Walk/Run Saturday. Same day registration is from 6:30 to 7:15 a.m. and the program starts at 8. The race/walk starts in front of Village Hall, 500 NE 87th St., and winds through the small municipality.

Sweetwater voters elected four new commissioners on Tuesday, booting two incumbents — the mother of the former mayor and the brother-in-law of a county commissioner — out of office in the process. That’s a new majority on the 7-member board — although none of them is entirely new to the city and one of them is an old throwback.

But even though he wasn’t on the ballot, Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz lost Tuesday also. So did Mayor Orlando Lopez. All but one of the candidates he backed lost.

Commissioner Isolina Maroño, mother of former Mayor Manny Maroño — who was arrested in 2013 and convicted on federal bribery charges in an FBI bogus grant scheme — was ousted by former Commissioner Cecilia Holtz Alonso, who was in office from 1992 to 1999 and got 55 percent of the vote.

And Commission Chairman Jose Bergouignan, who is married to Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz‘s sister, lost to former Sweetwater Polict Lt. Marcos Villanueva, a onetime chief of staff to the previous mayor, Jose M. Diaz — whose son won another commission race — in a squeaky tight contest. Villanueva got 32 more votes than the 16-year incumbent and wins with only 46% of the vote. Sweetwater city charter gives the victory to the majority, without needing a 50% plus one threshhold. There are no runoffs.

Villanueva and Holtz Alonso, will join David Borrero — who works as the city’s grants administrator — and Yoniel Diaz, the former mayor’s son, for the swearing in ceremony Friday. Borrero and Yoniel Diaz ran in open seats, getting 65 and 54 percent of the vote, respectively.

Yes, that’s right, the son of the former mayor, ousted by the current mayor, is now a commissioner. Awkward.

“The residents of Sweetwater have decided that they want a change,” said Villanueva, who has been on again off again on the city’s police force since 1997 (with a spotty record) and first ran for office in 2007, when Maroño beat him for the mayor’s seat. “They want to be done with the old guard and the political infighting and they want to move on.”

Read related story: Sweetwater election ends today but war is just starting

But Sweetwater has always been a tiny little bastion of political infighting and intrigue and this election cycle, no exception, certainly didn’t portend happier times ahead.

First there was the concurrent recall effort against Mayor Lopez, which, let’s be honest, was masterminded by some council members most likely with the help of the county commissioner. The idea being that, as commission president, Bergouignan, Diaz’s brother in law, would become interim mayor, which would help him win subsequent elections as an incumbbent, and he would consequently hold the seat for Diaz when he is termed out at the county in 2022. Petition gatherers got almost twice as many signatures needed for the first round, showing apparent disregard for Lopez exists anyway. They needed 950 and got more than 1,800 in less than three weeks. Of those, 1,776 signatures were verified by the Miami-Dade Elections Department.

But that apparently wasn’t good enough for Lopez, who said that the political action committee behind the recall lied to voters, telling them that this was for lower taxes or to improve trolley services. He had copies made of every petition and ordered police officers in uniform to visit some homes to confirm the residents’ signatures. He got 47 or so affidavits from people who said that either they were lied to about the recall, or that they didn’t speak English and didn’t understand it or that a fired Sweetwater police officer who signed as a witness to the petitions was not there. But, I mean, the mayor’s personal police force was asking the questions. “Why’d you sign this petition?” Ladra might understand someone saying it was to free the whales. This seems like some strongman in a third world effort to intimidate voters and stop them from signing a second petition, as the charter required and which was already underway. Ladra has heard from a couple of sources that there is or will be some kind of follow up investigation from some independent law enforcement agency. I won’t hold my breath. In any case, the shakedown was apparently moot and stopped when the court threw the recall out. Lopez sued to stop it and a judge ruled that it was invalid because the reason used — that Lopez was absent from too many commission meetings — was not a justifiable reason per the city charter.

J.C. Planas, who represented the PAC, Providing Effective Government for All Residents — which was chaired by the live-in boyfriend of Commissioner Idania Llanio — said the mayor violated his duty. “I don’t think the court read the petition carefully. The petition said he also didn’t send staff.” It listed the last five meetings Lopez, a strong mayor, and his staff missed. “That’s the only way commissioners can talk about public policy, in a public setting,” Planas said, adding that private one-on-one chats with each commissioner bring “the possibility of him being a conduit to a Sunshine Law violation.”

Jose Bergouignan

Bergouignan, who would benefit the most from a recall as the commission president becomes interim mayor, then tried to get Villanueva, a Lopez ally, taken off the ballot. A week before the election Tuesday, Bergouignan had Planas — his attorney and, by the way, also County Commissioner Diaz’s attorney — file a lawsuit that claimed Villanueva intentionally omitted information on his required financial disclosure. A judge threw that complaint out.

On Monday, Villanueva had a press conference where he called Commissioner Pepe Diaz “el Chapo de  Sweetwater,” and named four “puppets” that included Bergouignan, Planas and the city’s former construction manager.

Read related story: Jose “Pepe” Diaz will bring up DUI arrest, then say nada

But he said he was not behind the young people who showed up to the Jorge Mas Canosa Youth Center on election day with t-shirts and signs identifying themselves as “FIU Students Against Drunk Driving” with mugshots of Diaz when he was arrested in 2015 in Key West for driving his motorcycle under the influence. Sweetwater is looking more and more each day like Hialeah.

Evidenced by the fact that campaign consultant and Absenee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador, who represents both Lopez and Villanueva, heckled the county commissioner — who was there stumping for votes all day — on a megaphone.

“Ding, dong, the witch is dead,” Tirador told Ladra on Wednesday.

Diaz did not return mutliple voice and text messages left on his cellphone Wednesday and Thursday. Probably busy licking his wounds and plotting his next step.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro — who was chairman when the Marlins Stadium deal was voted on and sort of ushered the process along — announced officially Monday morning, as expected, that he would be running for the congressional seat vacated next year by a retiring Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Immediately, one could hear a soft cheer throughout the 305. Those were Democrats. Because, let’s face it, Barreiro as the Republican nominee in a post Trump election would be like the elephant giving the donkey a gift. Wrapped. With a bow.

Sure, both Barreiro’s commission district and his House district — District 107 from 1992 to 1998 — are squarely within congressional District 27, but he’s never ran in large swaths, including Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay. And that’s the least of his problems.

Read related story: Raquel Regalado vs. Bruno Barreiro for Congress?

Barreiro is a soft, easy target for anyone and a dream opponent in an increasingly blue-leaning District that went to Hillary Clinton in November by 20 freaking points. He’s never run a real race, except against former State Rep. Luis Garcia who forced him into a runoff in 2012 that Barreiro won with 52% of the vote, and Ladra would say Garcia botched it. Barreiro had almost been recalled in 2011 with former mayor Carlos Alvarez and former Commissioner Natacha Seijas after the Marlins money mess, but activists fell 35 petition signatures short.

As state rep, Bruno was one of the least effective legislators — nicknamed “el mudo,” or “the mute” by collegues —  and his time in Tallahassee is marked by nothing except conflicts of interests and questionable deals. His family’s struggling Little Havana medical clinic suddenly got a juicy state Medicaid contract after he was elected and was later sold to a larger conglomerate for $10 million. A Miami New Times story from when he was made county commission chaiman says that Barreiro made $200,000 off the deal. And he became very close to the man who bailed the struggling clinic out, former Sen. Al Gutman, who made half a million as a “broker” and was forced to resign as part of a plea deal in 1999 after being caught in an unrelated Medicaid fraud scheme.

As commissioner, Barreiro — who is also the Republican State Executive Committeeman for Miami-Dade — sees nothing wrong with the fact that the county paid his family between $30,000 and $40,000 a year rent for at least a decade so he could have his district office in their building. He called it a savings coup. And, despite a spotty attendance record for public meetings, he urged the Florida legislature in 2007 to abandon the Florida Government in the Sunshine Law that prohibits electeds from talking in private about anything they may vote on in the future.

He was re-elected unopposed last year, but still managed to spend almost $140,000 in campaign contributions, much of them from contractors who do business or want to do business with the county. Among his expenses in an unchallenged race, before he donated the rest to organizations: $31,000 in consulting and campaign work, $3,000 for supplies at Costco, $4,370 for Apple computer (that’s two laptops, right?) and almost $17,000 in printed campaign materials from Image Outfitters and Alina Sportswear (that’s a lot of t-shirts for someone who didn’t have to run). Among the organizations that got donations from the leftover funds was the Barreiro Foundation, which got $10,000.

The negative campaign mailers write themselves.

Read related story: Bruno Barreiro’s district digs, mortgage raise questions

“Bruno Barreiro is one of the most self-serving politicians in Miami-Dade. And that’s saying a lot,” said Juan Cuba, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democrat Party.

Then there’s the matter of his energy. Bruno might need a job when he is termed out in 2020, but he has neither the media presence nor the campaign stamina to match up to someone like Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez or Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who are the two most likely to succeed in the Democrat primary. There’s no fire in his belly. There never has been.

But why not? There’s no risk in running because he doesn’t have to resign. If he loses, he can stay on as county commissioner. Maybe he just needs another laptop or more seed funding for his foundation?

Barreiro — whose wife Zoriada Barreiro is running for Miami city commissioner — said in a statement Wednesday that this opportunity was a longtime dream of his. If you will recall, his name was floated in a poll for Congressional District 26 four years ago.

“Throughout my years as a public servant, I have witnessed first-hand how my efforts can positively contribute to the growth and well-being of our residents in South Florida. It truly would be an honor and a privilege to serve our community, and our country, as a United States Congressman,” Barreiro said in a statement released as another Republican, former Miami-Dade School Board Member and county mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado, met with GOP leaders in Washington, D.C. Ladra bets Democrats would be much more afraid to run against her.

“I have a pulse for the needs of our community, and understand the importance of having a strong advocate for South Floridians in Washington D As Congressman, I will work in a bipartisan manner to bring to the table important issues for our residents, such as economic prosperity, improved infrastructure, modernized and efficient transportation alternatives, affordable housing, viable healthcare options, and so much more,” Barreiro added.

Did you hear that? Sounded a little like a distant crowd. Cheering.