And the winner of the recall lotto is … Vice Chair Lynda Bell

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Ladra was almost right.

I had bet on Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo being the chosen one. After all, rumored recalls have dogged him since last year’s primary when his district aide was caught collecting absentee ballots at his Hialeah office.

But my second choice was Vice Chair Lynda Bell.

That was the name pulled out of a hat today by a coalition of activists who set out to recall one of the eight commissioners who voted in favor of a zero tax increase that led to drastic cuts in library and fire-rescue services as well as the inability to fully fund a no-kill shelter as voters demanded last year.

There are some who say that the other seven papers in that big, floppy Uncle Sam hat had Bell written on them, too. And Miami Herald reporter Patricia Mazzei tweeted from the scene that the activists refused to let her see the names written on the pieces of paper before one was picked.

Bell not only voted for Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s about-face budget, which called for a zero tax increase and drastic cuts to library services, fire-rescue services and the plan to fund the voter-mandated improvements to animal services. She has also ardently defended his position.

She also comes from Homestead, where she served as mayor, and which is positioned as the location for a new shelter to be built, bringing jobs. The area has long suffered the brunt of the problem with abandoned pets in Miami-Dade, dropped off in the southern stretches of our county where mental midgets convince themselves that little Pulguita or Spot will live free and happy on some nice redneck’s farm.

And Bell  is also one of the perceived enemies of labor unions, who have been rumored for weeks to be itching to oust either Bovo or Bell.

And Bovo has the backing of the Hialeah absentee ballot mafia. Bell is more vulnerable.

The next step for the activists with Miami Economic Sustainability Alliance, led by former South Florida AFL-CIO president Fred Frost (read: labor is involved), and the political committee of the Pets’ Trust, called Pets’ Voice, is to gather signatures from at least 10 percent of the registered voters in District 8.

Ladra is not sure if they are going to go through the considerable trouble and expense of a real recall, though. The photo op Friday was meant to put pressure on commissioners, who can still change their minds about the budget and re-mail trim notices with the non-refundable monies left over from when Miami Dolphins stadium owner Stephen Ross paid for his referendum-that-never-came. That’s why they picked a name from a hat. There’s no real intent to follow through.

The recall in 2011 of former Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas — who, ironically, were ousted in part because they raised taxes, not because they refused to — has caused a nervous condition at County Hall called ousterphobia. This could be meant to scare already skittish commissioners into thinking any one of them could be recalled next.

But it’s also a possible scenario that professional political operatives take advantage of this publicity stunt and take over the movement in an effort to (1) weaken Bell for her 2014 re-election and/or (2) hurt the political aspirations of her husband, Mark Bell, who is running for mayor of  Homestead.

That is, if it wasn’t planned by them to begin with.

  Lynda Bell, recall