Carlos Hernandez to back Mayor Gimenez Friday

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As has been rumored for weeks, Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez is expected to give Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez his endorsement tomorrow.

At the Hialeah La Carreta. At high noon. Can you hear Ennio Morricone’s famous cowboy western showdown whistling song from “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly?” Yeah, me too.

Looks like politics and bedfellows are going to be a pattern in this election cycle.

But aside from what this means for Gimenez, besides more Hialeah votes, Ladra is looking at what this means for Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador, Hernandez’s campaign manager who is handling the mayoral bid against Gimenez for Commission Chairman Joe Martinez, and her reign in the City of Progress.

She already called the Matias Farias show on La Poderosa — which is the only person on radio that still gives her the time of day, because, well she pays him to — and blasted her old friend and client for crossing loyalty lines. “I’m embarassed by this. He is a traitor to Hialeah and a traitor to me,” Tirador said on the air.

“Tomorrow, Hialeah will be in mourning,” said Tirador, who had not been able to get Castro Hernandez to withdraw his endorsement of Gonzalez, who she has thrown an employee of hers, a no-chance candidate against, like she got all but one of the council members to — because she has no pull with Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz.

Tirador may also be on the outs with friend and But Ladra hears that some of the Seguro Que Yes council may also be there tomorrow to back Gimenez. Wouldn’t it be funny if Council President Isis “Gavelgirl” Garcia-Martinez showed up. But, naaaaaah. Politics and bedfellows can’t be that extreme. Rumor has it Gavelgirl is going to run for mayor and has already been encouraged to do so by Tirador, her campaign strategist and friend.

“The future of Hialeah politics” was the theme of the night for a meeting some people told me about that was going on tonight at a banquet hall on West 84th Street — next to the Flannigan’s where Castro had me issued an illegal trespass warning when I surprised him and his goon squad on election night in November last year. Apparently, a bunch of politically active gadflies and campaign volunteers were invited to discuss, I was told by one, this years elections at both the local and state level.

Ladra was told Gavelgirl had called the meeting. But Gonzalez said he had been invited to it by Hernandez.

Hmmmmm.

The state rep also told Ladra he was going to show up at the La Carreta and throw his own weight behind Gimenez — the political kind, not the kind that can crush the Golden Boy Mayor.

“If we’re going to do something in Hialeah, I think we should do it together,” Gonzalez told me, after I broke the news about the looming endorsement, which he said he did not know about. (He had a pending phone call from Hernandez he hadn’t returned yet, so probably was going to be invited).

Gonzalez told me that Hialeah’s mayor has no beef with his countywide counterpart.

“He said Gimenez had done a good job. ‘He has reached out to cities, cut his salary, balanced the budget.’ That’s what he told me,” Gonzalez said. “He’s doing it for all the right reasons,” he added, meaning Hernandez.

Yeah, but is Gimenez doing it for all the right reasons?

The mayor knows Castro Hernandez is not a good guy. He knows Castro Hernandez has ties to the ponzi scheme loan-shark activities operated by his mentor, former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, who lost last year’s bitterly-fought post-recall mayor’s race. He knows Castro Hernandez promised a gunshop owner permits for an illegal gun range if he joined the mayor’s ticket in a council race against one of his enemies last November. He knows Castro Hernandez has punished his own supporters — including Fire Union Vice President Eric Johnson — for supporting former Mayor Raul Martinez in his failed bid to go back to City Hall last year. He knows Castro Hernandez has had me investigated and followed by the police, who he has had expel me from public events and issue me four illegal trespass warnings. Not one. Four. He knows that these complaints have been forwarded to the Miami-Dade Police public corruption unit, the FDLE and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office. He knows all this.

Or did he conveniently forget?

“I’m a little perturbed by it,” said Johnson, who is still being investigated for humorous comments he made on facebook, which is blatant political retaliation for him having the loudest voice against the administration. “Because he was such a harsh critic of his administration before and now it’s suddenly okay?”

Like me, Johnson gets a little queasy at the thought of our Golden Boy and Hernandez hugging for the TV cameras.

I mean, I’m not at all saying that he should have declined the endorsement — even though maybe I would love that — but at the very least he could have said his thanks and added Hernandez’s name to the list of enorsements. Instead, he’s celebrating the nod as if Hernandez was a good guy. He’s not.

“But I understand that he’s running an election and has to do everything possible so he can keep doing the job he’s been doing,” said Johnson, who will likely stick with Golden Boy. The two of them have this bromance going and call each other “Big Daddy.”

Then, he added: “Don’t worry, I won’t post it on facebook.”