A number of Florida House seats in the 305 will be vacated by term-limited legislators next year — and already there are a bunch of wannabes getting in line to replace ’em.

David Rivera jumped into the race for District 105 last week, which would pit him against Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez, who filed her campaign paperwork in December for the seat vacated by State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.

But that’s not the only GOP primary already shaping up for 2018. There are three others.

Read related story: If at first you don’t succeed… David Rivera tries again

In District 119, where State Rep. Jeanette Nunez serves now, Republicans Enrique Lopez and Andrew Vargas have already opened up campaign accounts. Lopez has loaned himself $50,000 and raised another $33,240 in February alone. Vargas just filed last month so he has nothing to report. Ladra hears that Commissioner Joe Martinez‘s daughter may also consider a run there.

In District 116, where Rep. Jose Felix Diaz is getting a time-out, Republicans Jose Mallea and Daniel Anthony Perez have also made their intentions clear. Neither has raised any money yet.

Say buh-bye: In this picture, only Rep. Jose Oliva (top, left) is not termed out.

There are three Republicans already raising money for a campaign in District 115, where Rep. Michael Bileca will be termed out: Vance Aloupis, Carlos Gobel and Carmen Sotomayor. Only Sotomayor has reported raising any money, and its $100 at that, having filed in January. Both Alupis and Gobel filed last month and have not had to file any campaign reports yet.

Each of these are already Republican seats and it’s curious that no Democrats have yet shown their faces, especially in 105 and 115, both of which are seats where Obama did well.

Instead, we have Republicans dominating the early game, with two GOP challengers filing against two of the three newly-minted, freshman Democrats. Jose Pazos, who abandoned his campaign last year due to his father’s health, is going against Rep. Daisy Baez in 114 and Rosy Palomino, who lost last year against Nicholas Duran in 112 (53-47%), wants a rematch.

You just know someone is going to file against the other freshman Dem, State Rep. Robert Asencio in 118. Give it another month or two.

Setting up a GOP primary with Doral councilwoman

No this is not an April Fool’s joke.

Former Congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera is nothing if not persistent.

And you never know where he’s going to turn up next.

Rivera — who lost his congressional seat in 2012 to Joe Garcia and then lost a Republican primary in 2014 to get his seat back then lost his bid to return to the Florida House last year — announced last week that he would run in a different House district: 105, where Rep. Carlos Trujillo is termed out in 2018.

He must think that’s an easier win in Doral than a rematch with State Rep. Robert Asencio, the retired school board cop and public labor advocate who beat Rivera last year in such a tight race that there was a manual recount. Asencio won by a scant 53 votes (originally it was 68 and Ladra has to wonder if a second recount would have found the gap closer). Many political observers were certain we would see a rematch in 2018, as Rivera had said to some of us that Asencio would be there to keep the seat warm, unable to get anything done in a minority.

Read related story: David Rivera collects petition signatures for 2016 state House run

But this week, Rivera filed the paperwork announcing his candidacy in 105, which is an open seat since the incumbent is termed out. He already has an opponent in the primary, however. Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez filed in December and has already raised $12,000.

“A lot of people were asking me what I was going to do after I was termed out in 2018 and I’d like to continue serving,” Rodriguez told Ladra Friday. And she’s not backing off just ’cause King Nine Lives wants his old seat back.

“He has the right to run. I’m kind of surprised he’s running in this district, but he has every right,” Rodriguez said, adding that she will keep her campaign clean and positive. They are both Republicans and have been friendly. Both serve on the Miami-Dade Republican Committee. Here they pose for a photo together at the Jose Feliciano concert dinner for Lighthouse for the Blind in 2011. No, it was not a date. That’s her husband, Clemente Canabal, on her right (our left).

“I’m going to be transparent as always and focus on the issues that matter,” Rodriguez told me in a telephone interview after the mother of two had finished washing the dinner dishes at home. “I’m going to run on my merits, on my accomplishments, on my record.”

Read related story: Doral councilman succeeds in ousting clerk — now what?

Among those accomplishments was starting the local conversation about paternal leave. Doral was the first Miami-Dade municipality to pass the parental leave ordinance, sponsored by Rodriguez, that gives employees four weeks paid for childbirth. Other cities have used it as a model.

She was also able to pass a workforce housing ordinance last year that provides an incentive bonus for developers to build affordable housing in booming Doral.

And, until order was restored in last year’s election results, she was known by many as the “voice of reason” at council meetings — the only elected in Doral not embroiled in some kind of political drama at some point or another. That’s got to be worth something in Tallahassee.

If she wants to go negative, however, the councilwoman has plenty of fodder.

Rivera, who did not return a call and a text message Friday, has been dogged by headlines about an alleged criminal investigation into whether or not he propped up and financed a plantidate against Garcia in 2012. But federal prosecutors have not charged him with anything or questioned him about anything — and the statute of limitations is going to end this year.

So could Rivera finally be able to campaign on something as positive as vindication?

One of the Democrats already getting ready for 2018 is Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who has been thinking for the last few weeks about challenging Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

She said Friday that many people had approached her and “an exploratory committee is testing the waters.” But those close to Rosen Gonzalez told Ladra she may file for the seat in District 27 as early as next week.

“The district deserves a Democrat. It has been redrawn for a Democrat and it needs a new fresh voice,” Rosen Gonzalez told Ladra Friday, sounding pretty much decided.

Yeah, but voters rejected a Democrat just this past November when IRL beat Scott Fuhrman after some nasty campaigning that reminded voters of his drunken driving past. But Fuhrman still got 45% of the vote, despite the DUI ads. Perhaps Rosen thinks a woman will fare better? Maybe she thinks anti-Trump fervor will help usher her in?

Read related story: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hits hard with Fuhrman DUI ads

“As I meet people and tell them what I want to do, I realize I have support out there,” she said. “It’s really outrageous that we don’t have a Democrat representing us at the national level. None of the people we have in Congress are representative of this area. They’re out of touch.

“There is so much angst and despair about what is going on,” she said, referring to the national issues like healthcare, the environment and the coming nominations to the Supreme Court that would tilt it to the right. 

While she is a freshman city commissioner, Rosen Gonzalez has been expanding her profile and dipping her feet more and more into national politics for months. She came out strong for immigrants on the sanctuary city fiasco and joined the protests against Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez for kowtowing to Trump’s ridiculous demands. She has championed increased mininum wage and she spoke on climate change at the Women’s March.

She would have to leave her commission seat a year early, but says that the time is now and Ileana — who is seen as invincible by most in the political 305 — will never be more ripe for the taking. “There’s a lot of positive energy right now in the community and I feel like this is the time,” Rosen Gonzalez said, adding that she wants to work on national flood insurance reform.

Rosen Gonzalez has already met with members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has probably talked to a couple of different people (though the blue bench is not too deep). Other names that have come up for this seat are Jose Javier Rodriguez — but he just moved to the Florida Senate from the House so another jump so soon would not look too good — and State Rep. Daisy Baez, but she was just elected so she’s even more of a freshman.

Ladra feels that Rosen Gonzalez, a single mother and college professor, is the natural choice — and the front runner already.

“I’m proud of what I’ve done in the city but we need a Democrat to win a good race and give people hope,” said Rosen Gonzalez, who was elected in 2015 despite her opponent’s help from millionaire mayor Philip Levine.

Read related story: Kristen Rosen Gonzalez wins in Miami Beach race

“The best part of my election in Miami Beach is that it disrupted nature and allowed everybody else to speak out. And now we have a lot of good candidates running,” she said, referring to the election this November and a slew of candidates that have filed to run, including former Commissioner Michael Gongora, who she had a fundraiser for.

But while it may be good timing, it still won’t be easy. Ros-Lehtinen is seen as invincible because she has been there for almost 30 years and espouses many moderate views. Even Democrats love her. She has defended immigrants and introduced legislation on climate change. Her son, Rodrigo, is transgender and she is beloved by the LGBTQ community.

And she’s going to have more money.

Rosen Gonzalez said that her campaign will be a grass roots effort and she believes the anxiety that registered Democrats are having with everything out of the White House will transfer to the ballot next year.

“Too many Democcrats vote for or support ‘moderate’ Republicans and this is why we have a Republican majority.”

Four candidates have filed to fill the seat left empty by Coral Gables Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick‘s mayoral bid. And while they couldn’t be more different, they all sound pretty much the same.

We have a soft-spoken schoolteacher/grandma activist, the retired cop and union leader, the land use attorney who works with the construction industry and an angry civil engineer who can best be described as the City Beautiful’s own version of President Donald Trump when he was a candidate.

All of them talk about curbing development and easing traffic and filling police vacancies as the top priorities. There are a few differences in their approaches, but they pretty much espouse the same positions. So, we are left with figuring out who might be the best candidate based on who they are and the baggage they bring.

So, who are they? What baggage? Let’s take them in the aforementioned order, which happens to be alphabetical, shall we?

This is Marlin Ebbert‘s second attempt at a commission seat. The retired teacher ran two years ago against Commissioner Vince Lago and Ross Hancock. But she is a veritable staple in Gables civic life, having served on too many committees and boards to name here and being involved in preservation efforts.

Ebbert is a really nice lady. She is the candidate that was recruited and is endorsed by the Riviera Neighborhood Association (aka Gables Neighbors United). But that might be all she has going for her. She is passionate about the Paseo project’s approval and says the city turned a deaf ear to residents’ concerns, which it really did. But from the two candidate forums in which she has participated, she seems a little lost in the headlights on everything else.

“I have a good head on my shoulders. I’ve made wise decisions all my life. I really feel that I’ve amost been in training for this job, to stand up and run for a commission seat.”

A good head on your shoulders is nice, but I think that you also need a good grasp of administration, economics and policy. Also, Lago and Commissioner Frank Quesada will eat her alive at the meetings and the administration will likely be able to manipulate her more easily.

Sgt. Randy Hoff is a retired  officer who has worked at the city police department for almost 30 years, the majority of that time on the marine patrol, before retiring recently in order to run for office in the city where he has lived for 20 years. He has been vocal on public safety, as vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 until his term ran out in December. That has led some of his opponents to float the idea that he would be soft on labor. But Ladra thinks that what they are forgetting is that he is no longer labor. He is now just a homeowning taxpayer — and retired on a fixed income, at that — so he’s going to watch that bottom line same as anybody else.

But what it could mean is that we’ll finally have a former employee on the dais to help the commission navigate issues with staff. He’s going to bring that perspective. Ladra suspects that will be an advantage to the city at contract negotiating time. And Coral Gables employees are such an integral part of the city’s fabric, it’s about time one is elected.

Mike Mena is an attorney partner at Akerman. He admits to working with the construction industry and said at the last forum that he “negotiates deals.” Does that mean he’s a lobbyist? He’s not registered, but he touts experience in working with developers and construction companies to get desired results so what do you call that? You call it being too close for comfort.

He actually said “it could have been a Home Depot” about the Paseo project on U.S. 1, which is what developers always say when they want to upzone a property. So he sounds like he would take the developer’s side.

A handsome dad with hipster facial hair and more money than any other candidate, Mena has been in Gables mailboxes more than anybody else. But he seems a little like a carbon copy of Lago and Quesada, only shorter. And he seems a little too ambitious. I mean, he has never served on any city board or committee and has come out of the blue, after moving to the city some years ago, to run for a commission seat? Why not mayor? Ladra bets that, like Lago, Mena he has higher office ambitions and would use this seat as a stepping stone.

I have five little words for him: Pay your dues, young man.

Serafin Sousa is a civil engineer with a construction company who got pissed off at the city’s building department — it takes too long to get a permit and it’s too hard to get an inspection — and decided to run for office. He apparently has all the answers. He does actually make sense when he said that the Miracle Mile project should have been done in stages, finishing one block before starting another. “That way you don’t have all the merchants going through one year, or a year and a half, of suffering,” he said.

But his anger comes through too strong. He has a Trumplike air of the no bullshit businessman going against the establishment and he says everything with a sense of “duh!” like the rest of us are stupid. Eso no cae bien. He does not seem like a serious candidate, however, and Ladra suspects he will come in a distant fourth place.

This race is the gentlest of the three and all the candidates, pictured here at the debate last week at Coral Gables Congregational Church, are cordial and respectful to one another. Maybe that’s a result of being in a four-way race rather than a one-on-one.

But that may change soon because there’s going to be a runoff here. It will be the first time in Coral Gables, where the highest scoring candidate used to win before voters approved a charter amendment last year. And while Ladra may like Hoff and Ebbert the most, I predict a runoff between Hoff and Mena. Hoff is a strong candidate who has campaigned hard, knocking on doors six days a week. He has the support of city employees and their families and he should have gotten the nod from the Riviera preservationists because Mena is going to get into the runoff simply because he is the only Hispanic and the retired cop has a better chance of beating him in the runoff than the retired teacher has.

Word about town is that Mena was recruited by Lago and Quesada because they don’t want Hoff or Ebbert to thwart their drive to redevelop every part of Coral Gables. With Mena, the three of them would have a majority to approve whatever they wanted.

Let this be my official endorsement of Hoff. Ladra feels a little bad, because Mena was the only candidate who purchased advertising on Political Cortadito. I wish I could support him back, but I can’t. Not yet. Let him serve on a city committee or board — may I suggest Hoff appoint him to one — and come back in four years when Lago runs for mayor (or county commissioner or state rep).

Are we a third through this year already? Does anybody else think it’s going much faster than ever?

Maybe it’s because there is always so much going on.

This week’s Cortadito Calendar seems a little thin, though. I guess people are still pooped from last week, which was a little busier. Or are we saving our strength for next week? Or did Ladra miss something?

If you’re event is not here, you only have yourself (or some lackey) to blame. As always, please keep sending information about your government meetings, candidate forums and political powwows to edevalle@gmail.com and they’ll keep appearing in the Cortadito Calendar.

TUESDAY — March 28

8:30 a.m. — Just in time for the Miami Beach election season! The Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club is back. Or at least one version of it is (another version is announced for April 11). This version seems more legit if only because it is not tied in multiple ways to a big controversial developer. Tuesday’s breakfast is being moderated by none other than former Mayor Matti Bower. The speaker will be commission candidate Joshua Levy, who is running for one of the open seats. Ladra wants to thank Puerto Sagua Restaurant, 700 Collins Ave., for stepping up to the plate as the new venue for this and subsequent   meetings. I recommend la tortilla de platanos maduros.

9 a.m. — It’s gonna be a little awkward at the Coral Gables Commission meeting Tuesday, the first one since every one of Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick‘s colleagues endorsed former mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli in next month’s election. But they’re going to have to grin and bear it as the talk about major changes proposed, once again, for The Plaza project (aka Agave, aka Mediterranean Village, aka Old Spanish Village). They’re also going to talk about opening Giralda Plaza to vehicular traffic. They’ll also consider “piggy backing” off a contract in Aurora, Illinois, for $1.4 million in red light cameras and the corresponding programming. Why Coral Gables would piggyback off a city 1,418 miles away? They will also vote on moving $3.9 million from the “capital improvement fund balance” to the trolley depot/fire station project. And much, much more. See agenda here.

7 p.m. — Donald Trump’s power goes beyond the White House. Everyone is talking about “fake news.” Even the Miami Young Republicans. They are dubbing their meeting Tuesday night “News + Spin: A discussion with the media.” The speakers are Politico’s Marc Caputo, The Miami Herald’s Patricia Mazzei and CBS4’s Jim DeFede (Caputo and DeFede — well, Ladra, too — also once worked at Ma Herald, which shows what a magical place it once was). The “lively debate,” which Ladra suspects will be between the baby Goppers and the top three political journalists in South Florida and not between my esteemed colleagues themselves. It’ll be at CubaOcho Museum and Performing Arts Center, which is a fabulous Little Havana space to go anytime, 1465 SW 8th St. Meet Ladra at Ball & Chain after for a drink.

WEDNESDAY — March 29

6 p.m. — Former Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Gongora has a lot of collegial support. Former Mayor Matti Bower and at least four former commissioners and one current one (Kristen Rosen Gonzalez) are hosting a fundraiser for Gongora’s campaign to get back on the dais. He is running for an open commission seat. The host committee includes former commissioners Ed Tobin, Deede Weithorn, Jorge Exposito and Saul Gross as well as several known longtime activists and preservationists. The shindig is from 6 to 8 p.m. at Poseidon Greek Restaurant, 1131 Washington Ave. And tell him Happy Birthday if you make it.

THURSDAY — March 30

7:30 p.m. — The second of two Coral Gables candidate forums and likely the last official debates before the April 11 election begins at 7:30 p.m. at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 DeSoto Blvd. Ladra apologizes if anyone went last week. The first hour will go to the two candidates running for commission in Group 3, incumbent Pat Keon and former Commissioner Wayne Withers. The second hour will be for the mayoral debate between Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick and former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli (incumbent Mayor Jim Cason has decided not to run again, for real this time). This is where many Coral Gables voters make up their minds and the place fills up rather quickly. Doors open at 6:30 but get there earlier if you want a seat up front. Maybe someone can ask Valdes-Fauli about his disengenuous and negative campaigning.

FRIDAY — March 31

3 p.m. —  Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava will meet with the mayors of the South Dade cities — Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, Homestead and Florida City — to discuss South Dade issues. Hopefully that includes any movement on the SMART plan’s south corridor of light rail, not high-speed buses. Since Commissioner Dennis Moss may drop by, the meeting has to be held in the sunshine and is open to the public at the Cutler Bay Town Center,  10720 Caribbean Blvd.