It was bound to happen.
Cutler Bay Mayor Edward “Mac” MacDougall — whose profile has soared from his vocal opposition to the Miami Dolphins public
ly funded stadium renovation deal — was very coy when he was first asked if he was using this platform to run for higher office.
“I just find it offensive that they would use public money for a billionaire,” he said, referring to the plan that would divert about $379 million in tourist tax dollars toward the $350-million renovation of the privately-owned SunLife Stadium.
“And I’m happy where I am,” he added, making self-depricating remarks about his age and universe of appeal, as if he didn’t have aspirations.
Oh, but he does.
MacDougall, a Republican, is running for Congress. He is the latest to challenge — and the first to start campaigning, I think — newly elected U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, a Democrat.
His campaign kick-off is next Wednesday at the Palmetto Bay Village Center on Old Cutler Road. It is hosted by Michael Kesti and Dr. James A. Thomas and about two dozen co-hosts. Ladra has only heard of a few of them, including lobbyist and campaign consultant Bob Levy and former police officer Bobby Brown, a close friend of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez who was part of the furniture in the mayor’s first campaign after the recall.
The mayor had to know he was planning this all along. And, in fact, the www.VoteMacDougall.us domain name was secured in February by one of his hosts, Cutler Bay’s Marcos Fullana, one of the co-hosts at the kick-off event and one of the agents at MacDougall’s real estate office.
“But I wanted to get this Dolphins thing out of the way,” he told Ladra Tuesday morning.
“I still have four years left,” MacDougall said. “But I’m Jeffersonian. ‘Don’t stay too long.'”
He said former Congressman David Rivera, a fellow GOPper, did not do the best job representing the district.
“I grew up in South Dade and I have lived here all my life,” MacDougall said. “I think South Dade has had a lousy shake.”
Many on the pro-stadium side have been saying, since Mayor Mac first came out against their “unprecedented” accord with Mayor Gimenez, that this was part of MacDougall’s strategy for his own political campaign.
“They can say that,” MacDougall said, seemingly unconcerned. “But I’ve been vocal on a lot of issues. Environmental issues, PACE issues.
“I know who I am,” said the former Miami-Dade Police officer who now owns a family real estate company. “I’m an honest man, 100 percent. I’ve been in business down here for over 30 and my integrity has never been questioned.”
Plus, he said, he is making enemies, too. He is not likely to get financial support from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who is contributing to many other campaigns, or lobbyist and habitual bundler Ron Book or any of the other two dozen or so advocates and political operatives working on the pro-stadium side.
“It’s a double edged sword with something as controversial as this because you are also putting off the people who are for it,” MacDougall admits.
But, if the polls we know about so far are correct, more people are against it. And anti-stadium rhetoric can be a good pre-game tactic for a political campaign.
Watch for another anti-stadium candidate to pop up: Despite MacDougall-like denials and smiles about political aspirations, Ladra suspects that Miami-Dade Democratic Party chairwoman Annette Taddeo, newly minted as Annette Taddeo Goldstein, will run for something, too.
Anti Dolphins stadium mayor to run for Congress added by Ladra on
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