It’s becoming a broken record: Politicians lie or cheat or steal or hide something or otherwise fail us and when Ladra exposes it — or simply points out something curious that they don’t want anyone to notice — they shout “witch” to redirect the attention from themselves.

This has happened to Ladra over and over again since I started Political Cortadito in 2010. First it was former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina in the 2011 recall mayoral race claiming that Carlos Gimenez was paying me. Then it was his successor, Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez, claiming that former Mayor Raul Martinez had paid me off in his comeback attempt. Then it was Carlos Gimenez, in a strange twist, whose family told people that the PBA was paying me to write critical posts about Not So Golden Boy. Then it was then congressional candidate Carlos Curbelo, telling reporters that the only reason I wrote about him putting his company in his wife’s name to intentionally hide his client list from the public — a story that broke on Political Cortadito — was because he didn’t advertise here. After that, it was Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine who called me a “paid political assasin.”

There have been a few, less memorable others. The latest clown to make these spurious accusations is Doral Mayor Luigi Boria.

First, in a video he emailed to supporters on Saturday, where he called me Ileana del Valle — getting my name wrong three times — and said that he had “received information” that I was a paid operative on the campaign. Then, again, in a hastily called press conference at his personal office Monday morning, he said “numerous sources” had told him that former Mayor J.C. Bermudez and former Counciwoman Sandra Ruiz — who came in third place in the first round and has since endorsed Bermudez — paid me to write a post that exposes the link his family has to an election fraud investigation. He announced that he had filed a complaint against me with the Florida Division of Elections and the State Attorney’s Office. He provided the news media at the press conference with copies of the complaint with the Elections Commission and the request for an investigation with the SAO. 

Read related story: Nasty Doral race tops $1 mil approaching runoff

First off, there would have to be a crime for the SAO to investigate. I called a source to ask if they had received the request. He laughed. “I don’t like the price of eggs but we can’t open an investigation into it. We deal with crimes here.” He assured me that even if I had been paid by the Bermudez campaign, it would not be a crime. As far as the Elections Commission is concerned, the complaint is against Bermudez. The claim is that he did not report my alleged fee in his campaign report.

But, dear readers, it is not in the report because no payment was made. Boria admitted to the press at his little dog and pony show that he has no evidence (because there is none). You know when I am paid by somebody. Because I tell you. Because it is only unethical if I don’t tell you. And I tell you at some risk and expense. Because you complain. Loudly. You don’t like it. And I don’t blame you. I don’t like it either. I’ve only done it a few times, and only because I felt that my contributions would truly help the right candidate or, at the very least, help get rid of the wrong candidate. It’s always been with the best intentions.

But in those few cases, anyone whose campaign I contribute to knows very well that the blog is off limits to them. There is a firewall — like the one that exists between advertising and editorial at The Miami Herald and at WPLG Local 10 — and Political Cortadito will never be used to smear someone’s opponent with lies or exaggerations or the wrong context or to bring up old and irrelevant arrest records on people who help or support their opponent. Have the suggestions (read: requests) been made? Perhaps. And I’ve loudly refused and made it known that under no circumstances would the blog be used as a campaign tool. It may not have always gone over well. Oh, well.

And the few times I have written about races in which I have been involved (during the Raquel Regalado and Ralph Cabrera campaigns) it has only been because the mainstream media has missed important stories, angles, details or connections — or the inside baseball shenanigans that are the very reason Political Cortadito exists. Trust me, when I am wearing my media consultant’s hat, I would much rather get the Miami Herald or Michael Putney or Erika Carrillo to cover some issue or conflict of interest for my candidate. But when they miss, and they sometimes do because everybody is cutting back on local coverage, it’s Ladra’s fair bone to pick.

Why should my carefully chosen candidates be deprived of something others get for free?

There’s more. Please press this “continue reading” button to “turn the page.”

Week two of our new feature, The Cortadito Calendar: A weekly calendar of political powwows, government meetings and events with electeds.

Stay informed. Get engaged.

If you know any political happening that should be included in the Cortadito Calendar, please email the information to edevalle@gmail.com. And thank you.

TUESDAY — Dec. 13

2 p.m. — The Unincorporated Municipal Services Area Committee meets. This board oversees the municipal services provided to residents who live in the unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade — addressing areas of slum and blight, policies governing incorporation and annexation procedures, zoning issues, code enforcement issues, areas of slum and blight, the Urban Development Boundary and the public library system, among other things.

WEDNESDAY — Dec. 14

9 a.m. — Miami Beach Commission meets. Look for Mayor Philip Levine to formally backpedal from his very unpopular train to nowhere proposal with a resolution urging the county to step it up on their end (more on that later). The agenda is packed with all kinds of important items — historic preservation, economic development, lease renewals. There will also be a discussion about the creation of a dedicated fund for homeless services and for affordable/workforce housing to come from short term rental violation fines. Is that a slush fund we didn’t know about? In another item: Commissioner Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez will present former Sen. Gwen Margolis with a proclamation honoring her lifetime of public service.

5:30 p.m. — After months of hard work — and I am talking about having to explain themselves to everyone they know — the Trump campaign volunteers will be treated to a Christmas party at Las Vegas Restaurant on Coral Way, 11995 SW 26th St. Have some nog for Ladra.    And a proclamation of achievement will be given to Sen. Gwen Margolis for a lifetime of service.

THURSDAY — Dec. 15

9:30 a.m. — Miami-Dade Commissioners meet to discuss the Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP). This document expresses Miami-Dade County’s general objectives and policies addressing where and how it intends development or conservation of land and natural resources will occur during the next 10-20 years, as well as the delivery of county services to accomplish the CDMP’s objectives. This CDMP establishes the broad parameters for government to do detailed land use planning and zoning activities, functional planning and programming of infrastructure and services.

6 p.m. — Want an update on the SMART plan to improve transit? The Citizens Independent Transportation Trust will get one from Miami-Dade MPO Executive Director Aileen Bouclé at its next meeting Thursday. Also on the agenda: A resolution urging the county to issue $200 million in transit surtax bonds.

FRIDAY — Dec. 16

9 a.m. — The City of Miami’s Bayfront Park Trust Management will meet to finalize preparations for their New Year’s Eve event. The meeting is open to the public in the conference room at the Bayfront Park Trust building, 301 N. Biscayne Blvd.

The mayoral race in Doral between incumbent Mayor Luigi Boria and former founding Mayor J.C. Bermudez has only gotten more heated now in the weeks and days before the runoff Dec. 13.

And Boria — whose 33 percent Nov. 8 was dwarfed Bermudez’s 46 percent vote — has been the one on full attack in what seem like a desperate attempt to keep his seat.

Boria, who bought his last election, loaned himself $260,000 for the campaign within the last two months — $35,000 on Nov. 2 and then $200,000 on Nov. 15 and $25,000 on Dec. 5 (that’s after Bermudez beat him up with a 13-point lead in the first round). It makes up almost  half of his campaign account total of $530,000. He had earlier given $20,000 to his political action committee, Doral United, which has raised and spent about $230,000.

Yes, by Tuesday night, Ladra fully expects Boria to have spent at least $1 million – on paper. Who knows how much money is being spent under the table? But, hey, it is expensive to attack your opponent.

There have been video ads about “shady deals” and mailers calling Bermudez corrupt, phone calls promoting ethnic division, fake social media profiles and fake news sites with stories about yard signs getting stolen.

A 30-second video spot with a movie trailer-like voiceover says “This November, a storm named JC Bermudez threatens Doral. Bermudez wants to take Doral back to the past of shady deals, where his friends would benefit from our taxpayer dollars… shady deals for his shady developer friends.”

The whole tack is pretty laughable — if Doral’s future wasn’t in the balance. It’s also pure projection. Guess Boria is hoping people forgot about the zoning changes requested for high density residential for his children and their business partner right after he was elected the first time — a shady deal Ladra believes is still being investigated. Maybe he is mentally blocking all the memories about Joe Carollo and the many allegations that he was in bed with the Venezuelan government.

But there’s more.

Stealing the script from the national campaigns, Boria — or, more likely, his political guru, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador — has also fashioned a fake news website called Real Doral News, complete with a tagline that reads “Real Doral News is a web Newspaper specialize in Braking News About City of Doral Fl.” I kid you not. It really does say “specialize” in “braking” news. Maybe Boria, whose English is obviously limited, did write it himself.

A recent post on the website claims that someone with the Bermudez campaign stole a Boria yard sign. The post comes complete with multiple time lapse photos of a blond woman taking a Boria sign into a gray van. But there’s no way to know that Boria (or Sasha) didn’t make that happen, too. There is no way to know that blond woman isn’t with Boria’s campaign. It’s easy to tell someone to steal your own sign so you can capture it with blurry phone pics.

Most recently, Bermudez accused Boria of creating fake social media accounts with the former mayor’s name. “And posting lies about me,”  Bermudez told supporters in an email blast last week.

“These dirty tactics do not reflect the values on which we founded our city. We ask Mr. Boria’s campaign to please respect our community and not offend the intelligence of our residents,” Bermudez wrote, urging residents to “focus on the issues that are really important to our community.”

And that can be summed up in three things: Development, traffic caused by development and government accountability and transparency.

While he has blasted Boria on these issues in a couple of email blasts, Bermudez has basically centered his campaign around putting Doral “back on track.” It is basically a referendum on the incumbent — without naming him. Bermudez characterizes it as a rescue.

In his video commercial, he tells us himself that he decided to run after many people told him “things are not like it used to be.”

“People asked me to run,” Bermudez told Ladra recently. “They don’t like what they are seeing, the direction that the city is going in. It is not what we thought of when we incorporated Doral.”

As expected with a message like that, Bermudez has gotten the support of Doral’s founding father, Morgan Levy and founding former Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz — who came in third on Nov. 8. Their message is that Bermudez can better represent the ideals and quiet, residential community goals on which Doral was founded.

Less expected is the endorsement from several leaders in the Venezuelan community, like Jose Colina and the members of VEPPEX,  Venezolanos Perseguidos Politicos en el Exilio.

Bermudez says getting Doral “back on track” means going back to the city’s master plan and advocating for smart and planned develoment. He claims that Boria has granted 29 zoning variations during his years in office. Boria’s campaign, on the other hand, claims that Bermudez approved 89% of the projects that came before him. But wouldn’t that make sense in Doral’s infancy? And what’s important is the upzoning changes, no?

Bermudez is also concerned about what he says is an effort by Boria to silence dissent by putting limits on public speaking and having emergency meetings during the day. There’s also the high turnover and the multiple stains on the young city’s image during Boria’s tenure. The firing of city attorneys and multiple city managers.

Boria, who is Venezuelan, has been telling people that getting Doral “back on track” means getting rid of the Venezuelans and putting it back into the hands of Cubans. Boy, did that backfire.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez, wishy washy as ever, was a day late and a dollar short Thursday when he put out a statement supporting the deferred action on immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

“This morning, I was briefed on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). I fully support the extension of DACA until Congress can approve and our next President can sign comprehensive immigration reform which addresses the status of our Dreamers and the millions who lack legal status throughout the country,” reads the mayor’s statement, more likely written by his spokesman, Michael Hernandez.

“Miami-Dade County is home to thousands of young people who through no fault of their own were brought to the United States by their parents and are currently undocumented. They deserve an opportunity to achieve the American Dream. I encourage the next Congress to prioritize common sense immigration reform.”

But Gimenez apparently passed on signing a letter from 19 other U.S. mayors hand delivered Wednesday to President-elect Donald Trump, asking him to extend the temporary stay from deportation given to students and young people brought into the U.S. illegally as children by their parents and guardians.

Maybe it would have made the next round of golf awkward?

According to the Miami Herald, Gimenez’s office acknowledged getting the request to join the mayors from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. They were told that the mayor asked for a “policy briefing” to “help make up his mind.” But that didn’t happen before the letter was delivered.

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez’s next mancrush giveaway to Donald Trump

Did it happen before Gimenez issued his statement Wednesday morning? What exactly was the mayor told at this policy briefing to help him “make up his mind”? Why do these young people “deserve an opportunity to achieve the American Dream” today and not last week? What is different for DACA Dreamers today? What does the mayor of the seventh largest county in the U.S., a region rich with immigrants from all over the world, not know about DACA?

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, on the other hand, wasn’t even asked to sign the letter. Emanuel should have asked Regalado, who wouldn’t have blinked. Regalado told the Herald that he would have signed “in a heartbeat.” Because, really, what is there to think about? Yes, comprehensive reform is needed, but what does that have to do with extending DACA for Dreamers? You can do that with or without the reform, which is going to take years and years if it ever happens (Ladra thinks its convenient for both parties to keep up this chaos, but that’s another story).

So what was the hold up for Gimenez?

Ladra bets that “policy briefing” is really code for a chat with his son, CJ Gimenez, a lobbyist who had The Donald as a client in Doral. After all, Papi ya la chivo when he backed off of giving Trump our public Crandon Golf Course on Key Biscayne. Then Mayor Gimenez — in the throes of a heated re-election where he needed black and Anglo votes — said he voted for Hillary Clinton!

Maybe he doesn’t want a strike three.

DEVELOPING STORY: The mayoral runoff in Doral has gotten dirty with campaign ads claiming the corruption of both candidates, incumbent Mayor Luigi Boria and former founding Mayor JC Bermudez.

Now we learn that the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is investigating possible voter fraud centered around eight people who registered to vote with an office building as their home address. That is not allowed . The law requires people register with their home address because, otherwise, they might vote in a city they do not live in.

One of those voters, Jonathan Aserraf, told Channel 6 that he simply listed his work address rather than his home address in Doral. He owns Offix Solutions, the business with its name on the door at 7950 NW 53 ST, Suite 337. He told reporter NBC6 Willard Shepard — who broke the story Wednesday night — that his brother also registered to vote from that address, but that he didn’t know the other six people.

Read related story: It ain’t over in Doral, Miami Lakes, with mayoral runoffs

The same office suite, however, has also been used by Boria’s brother-in-law  Miguel Hervas who gave $200 from his business, NetMicro, in April. Their wives are sisters.

And if you look on his Facebook page — full of posts about the incumbent mayor — Hervas, who is now a real estate agent, worked at The Wise Computer, Boria’s distributor company, from 1994 to 1999. His LinkedIn profile says he was the general manager through 2000.

In his “About” section, Hervas also listed himself as Chief Executive Officer of the City of Doral (though Ladra is pretty sure he has never worked there) and former TV producer for Alpha & Omega church, the same church that Boria is a pastor at.

Miguel Hervas Facebook page has many photos with Luigi Boria

It’s obvious they’re close. There are several photos with the two of them together at family and community events — dating back to 2009. Boria and his wife had dinner at Hervas home in February of last year. It looks like they hung out at the Miss Universe pageant and maybe travelled together to Colombia in 2013 (Photos taken by Maria Lorena Boria were marked “in Melendez, Colombia.”). In another photo without Boria, Hervas is wearing a shirt that says “Luigi Boria Foundation.”

Hervas is registered to vote at his house on 110th Avenue in Doral but it is curious that it is his business address — the mayor’s brother-in-law’s business address — where these other alleged voters are registered. It is also worth noting that Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador, who the state attorney has investigated for AB fraud before, is running Boria’s campaign.

The other seven names registered to vote at that office are Jeannette Esmeralda Santiago, Gulnaz Shiriyazdanova,  Iskander Umarov, Joseph Harrison Parris, Robert William Parris, Rollyn M Sy and Willie Son Sy. Only Santiago registered this year. The others registered in 2015 and 2012.

Ladra could not find most of these people in social media or anywhere else, for that matter. Shiriyazdanova (which sounds like Shitty Casanova if you say it really fast) was found in Boston and Russia. I can’t imagine there would be more than two people with that name. The only Willie Sys I could find on Facebook were in Baton Rouge and Manila, Phillipines.

But if this is voter fraud, it’s not very good fraud (Sasha, are you slipping?). According to the Elections Department, only Aserraf voted in the Nov. 8 election and he is the only one to cast a ballot so far in the Dec. 13 runoff.

Ladra is still investigating and more details will be added to this story when I get them.