If you, like Ladra, love elections and like to follow campaigns like sports teams, then there is good news from Tuesday’s election results: Two exciting local runoffs.

The mayoral seats in both Doral and Miami Lakes, where epic battles are being waged between colorful rivals, the excitement continues for a few more weeks while voters get to pick between the two finalists in each town.

In Miami Lakes, embattled on-again, off-again Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi — who survived a federal bribery trial and fought tooth and nail to get his seat back — came in second place to Councilman Manny Cid, who fell five points short of winning the mayoral race outright. But Cid’s 45% was still a double-digit lead over Pizzi’s 31%.

Both will now compete fiercely for the 23%, or 3,253 votes, that went to founding former Mayor Wayne Slaton.

“Our message resonated with Miami Lakes residents and it is clear that it’s time for new leadership,” Cid told Ladra late Tuesday.

We shall see about that on Nov. 29 when voters get round two.

The second exciting runoff is Dec. 13 in Doral, where founding Mayor JC Bermudez has forced current mayor Luigi Boria into a runoff. Bermudez is probably happier, however, about leaving his nemesis, Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz, in the dust.

Bermudez had the most support Tuesday, with 46% of the vote. Boria came double-digits later with 33% and Ruiz barely competed with 20% — despite being a Democrat female in the one election when that should have counted the most.

Councilwoman Christy Fraga held on to her seat with 53% of the vote over two challengers who split the difference. But there will be a second race in the Dec. 13 runoff — between PTA activist Claudia Mariaca and Adriana Moyano, a marketing company owner. Neither secured 50% of the vote to replace Ruiz.

In the Lakes, both Councilmen Nelson Rodriguez and Tony Lama easily won re-election and newcomer Luis Collazo won the open council seat with 52% of the vote. Esther Colon and Nayib Hassan split the difference.

When we went to sleep last night, it really looked like there was going to be President Donald Trump today. Shiver.

But that’s not the only bad news.

We also have a new state senator in sucker-punching homophobe bear hunter Frank Artiles. Sigh.

U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a lobbyist with a secret client list and a penchant for lying to get his way, won another two years basically solidifying his congressional seat for the next decade. Gosh darnit.

And we get four more years of the Carlos Gimenez gravy train for his friends and family members and those who gave to his $10-million campaign. Shake my head.

It’s enough to make Ladra wanna cry.

Bet there’s going to be a lot of tears Wednesday. A lot of Monday morning quaterbacking, too. But the regrets? They’ll come later. Like when Artiles sponsors a law in the Senate legislating bathroom use. And when the mayor goes back to his key role — giving away pieces of the county to his connected friends and fam.

Everyone knows Ladra supported Raquel Regalado, even before we joined her campaign team. Because everyone knows Ladra lost her love for Tainted Boy Gimenez long ago. But now they will see why. Because with no future election to hold him back, Gimenez now has four years to collect as many contracts as he can for his friends and family before he is forced out by term limits in 2020.

He has no incentive to fulfill any of his promises. There is no reason for him to fix the broken transit system. There is no reason for him to open libraries five days a week. There is no motivation for him to hire  more police officers. He certainly won’t think twice before violating process again. The voters have said they don’t care about those things so he’ll make sure he keeps doing what he’s been doing — giving millions away to friends in high (and low) places.

He has billions in capital improvements for transportation and federally- and state-mandated water and sewer improvements to dole out. Can’t you see all his contributors salivating already?

And then, buoyed by this victory that he will call a “mandate,” and — tapping those same people again for another $10 million investment that they will happily pay to continue feeding on the public trough — he will run for Miami mayor in 2021.

Just watch.

Carlos Gimenez — and the decisions he makes in the next four years — will haunt us for decades to come.

It may be a contentious election year with many close races as the Democratic Party tries to snatch up some red seats and Republicans try to hold on and/or turn a few of their own.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t still get along, right?

A bi-partisan group of electeds in three contested races got together last week to promote living wage legislation that would pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour instead of $8.10 an hour.

The press conference came on the heels of an announcement Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity that the state’s minimum wage would go from $8.05 per hour to $8.10 per hour. Elected officials around the state are saying that this token nickel raise is simply not enough to keep up with the much more rapidly increasing cost of living.

But Ladra bets most of them are Democrats. In Miami we had two, count ’em, two Republicans.

Taking a break from their campaigns for low-wage workers this morning:

• Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who despite her attack ads calling him a drunk driver, is facing the most serious challenge to her since Annette Taddeo, the OG version (in her first bid for office in 2008) from Democrat Scott Fuhrman.
• State Senator Anitere Flores, who faces attacks of her own from the Florida Democratic Party as they support Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in a redrawn district that is pretty evenly split, or maybe favors Republicans by just a tad. But will they come out to vote?
• State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who left the comfort of a guaranteed slide back to the House so he could change chambers with a challenge to the ever popular Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla in what has become one of the roughest local campaigns this year (more on that later).

Wait a minute. Didn’t the SEIU endorse DLP? Well, Local 1991 did. They represent the nurses and staff at Jackson and also endorsed Flores, Ros-Lehtinen and Sen. Rene Garcia. The other two locals, 1199 and 32BJ endorsed J-Rod in District 37.

Read related story: Public employee labor union backs three GOP legislators

Ros-Lehtinen has long touted her ability to reach across the aisle and build consensus. She is known to be pro equal rights and she seems to have some sanity regarding climate change. She recently helped write a bipartisan letter to UNESCO about Jerusalem and introduced bipartisan a bills to restore rights of Holocaust survivors. And she’s not voting for Donald Trump.

Still, Ladra is pretty sure it was uncomfortable for her and Flores to be standing with J-Rod while he’s attacking their friend, the Flagship DLP, on the airwaves on a year when he could very well lose his seat — even if they were on opposite sides of the podium.

The Latin Builders Association sent out an email blast last last week, right before early voting started, with their endorsements for the Nov. 8 election. But there was one glaring omission: Hillary Clinton wasn’t on it.

Hillary Clinton wants to know why she was slighted, omitted from the list, Mr. Lastra

That’s odd. The LBA had endorsed Clinton earlier this month, and it was big news, too, because it is the first time the group — the largest organization of Hispanic construction professionals in the U.S. — supports a Democrat for president.

“Throughout its 40-year history, the LBA has consistently endorsed candidates who have conservative principles, a pro-business mindset, believe in limited government regulation, and possess strong business ethics and family values that have closely aligned with ours,” LBA President Alex Lastra said in a statement. “In the past, these candidates have tended to be from the Republican Party.”

But, he added, the president should also “possess the right temperament, sound judgment, knowledge of national and international issues and the ability to bring people together, regardless of party affiliation.”

“It is clear that, in this election, the candidate whose values best align with the LBA and who possesses these important qualities is Hillary Clinton.”

But now it’s been less than two weeks and already they forgot how wonderful she is. Or maybe they just ain’t that proud of it? Because her picture and name are MIA from the list of endorsements they announced Friday morning.

Were they afraid to include even one Democrat in what is otherwise a completely Republican slate card? Did they get a lot of blow back from the community after the Hillary nod?

Ladra called Lastra and left a message to find out why Clinton had been left off. But we are not holding our breath. The LBA is probably playing out of sight, out of mind.

The list doesn’t have any mention of the top of the ballot and starts, instead, with the Florida Senate race and their nod to Sen. Marco Rubio. Then it goes into the mayoral race (which is non partisan), congressional races, state races, the county clerk’s race and only one school board runoff.

Probably because the other contest is between two Democrats and they just don’t care who wins.

I’m not scared of what might happen if Donald Trump loses.

We woke up Thursday morning to a new climate of fear among political observers and junkies after the Republican presidential candidate hinted during the last debate Wednesday that, should he lose, he may not accept the election results.

For days now, and less than a month before the election, Trump has claimed that the election has been rigged against him by the media, the Department of Justice, the FBI and a group of “global special interests.”

On Monday, he tweeted “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!” On Wednesday, he said there are “millions of people that are registered to vote that shouldn’t be registered to vote” and wouldn’t commit to accept whatever happens.

“I will look at it at the time,” Trump told moderator Chris Wallace and the projected 70 million or so American people watching. “I will keep you in suspense.”

This wait-and-see response seems to have caused a rippling shudder across the media and social media platforms as the Twitterverse bristles with murmurs about a possible civil war. After all, the last time someone didn’t accept election results was in 1860, when a Republican named Abraham Lincoln won the election — and we all know what happened after that.

But c’mon! Civil war? In 2016? Maybe I’d be a little more frightened if a sitting president were to say that he was not going to accept the results. A sitting president can command the military. But what power does Trump have? What on Earth can he do except whine and pout? He is just doing what The Donald always does — ranting like a lunatic because he can’t accept reality. What a cry baby. Look how much he complained about a silly little skit on Saturday Night Live.

Maybe he just wants to secure his TV time after the election. He’s addicted to it. In fact, the thing that scares me most about his not accepting the results is that it could mean six more months of 24/7 Trump TV.

Ladra has relatives, friends and acquaintances, however, who are truly scared of possible riots and uprisings. They think the “basket of deplorables” — which is admittedly one of the worst things a politician has ever said about a wide group of voters, clueless and disenfranchised as they may be — will drop their chicken wings, grab their rifles and AK47s, leave their trailers, hop in their pick-up trucks, raise the confederate flag and go all postal on the electorate. Especially the bad hombres of the electorate. You’re probably at greater risk if you are black, Hispanic, gay, a journalist, use solar energy, wear Jesus-like sandals or are otherwise suspected of being even the teensiest bit liberal.

If you think about the last year of the Trump campaign as a precursor to incite racial and xenophobic violence, it almost seems like some kind of conflict is inevitable when Trump loses. Hopefully it will be contained to isolated incidents by crazy White trash militia people who are immediately arrested. Maybe Trump can be arrested, too. If his intent to destabilize the post-election environment ends in violence and domestic terrorism.

But you know what? I’m more scared of what could happen if Donald Trump actually wins. Those are the truly frightening results.The

He could also appoint Supreme Court justices that will set us back decades as far as equality and women’s rights. Women could die from alley abortions. Married gays may have to get divorced. Mosques could be outlawed. People could be arrested for having Muslim friends.

Global warming will happen faster without the Environmental Protection Agency that he would eliminate and civil rights may be violated at schools because there will be no Department of Education to keep tabs on that stuff. The poor will stay poor.

The first amendment could be a thing of the past as President Trump limits media access to him, the White House or any federal agency to only those reporters who are “nice” by his standards. Our information from the government could be reduced to meaningless catch phrases repeated over and over again.

Rudy Giuliani could be our director of Homeland Security. Chris Christie could become Attorney General. We could have a group of thugs with tri-state accents running our federal government.

And, most frightening of all, maybe Trump could have SNL cancelled and Alec Baldwin jailed.

Bring on the civil war then. It will make for good skits.