Carlos Lopez-Cantera to Tally; JC Zapata wants appraiser gig

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It’s [almost] official. And it is a Hispanic after all.

The guv and his campaign team must have seen the writing on the wall.

Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Carlos Lopez-Cantera is almost assuredly headed off to Tallahassee to be Gov. Rick Scott‘s No. 2, despite the fact that he wasn’t on the shortlist a month ago, when it lacked even one Hispanic name.

Lots of lobbying was apparently done on CLC’s behalf between then and now. Either that or the gov and his team woke up and smelled the Cuban coffee (read: saw the polls).

Scott, who has been fumbling for a new lieutenant governor since the resignation 10 months ago of former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, after a veterans’s group she did PR work was accused of an illegal gambling operation, is expected to make the announcement officially Tuesday.

CLC, a Cuban American, would be the first Hispanic to get that appointment. While the post is ceremonial and largely used for campaigning, leave it to someone like Lopez-Cantera — who by most measures has done a lot with the property appraiser’s office in one year — to turn the position into one of real power.

The 40-year-old former State Rep. and House Majority Leader did not return an immdiate call from Ladra, but he did tell friends that he was taking the job.

Among them: Miami-Dade Commisssioner Juan Zapata, who is said to be eyeing the appraiser’s $196,000-a-year  job, for which there will likely be a special election.

This is according to very good sources. Neither Zapata nor Lopez-Cantera CLC, who told me once that it would be difficult to leave his young family for long stints at a time, would answer Ladra’s multiple calls and messages Monday night. A sign in and of itself.

Last we heard back in December, CLC was being pushed on the governor by more than one insider, including his longtime advisor, Tony Fabrizio, who many credit with Scott’s 2010 victory. Some say Lopez-Cantera made the most sense in what could be a tough election year in a state where Hispanic voter registration is growing. He is young, he’s not hard on the eyes or too Hispanic — un cubano rubiesito con ojos claros — and well spoken in both languages. He will be a darling of Spanish-language media and with the fastest growing Latino demographic: U.S. born Hispanics.

And he can raise money, too.

But while he may look good on video and on paper, there are minuses. He is relatively unknown outside Miami-Dade, he’s worked with Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador and, as the Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo  — who broke the CLC news story pointed out today, hid his property records and address from public view after a reported threat to his family. It’s not new, judges and police officers are legally entitled to hide their address from public records. But it looks like it may be the first time an elected property appraiser does so.

And while some friends say he has loved the challenge of the appraiser’s office, where he has updated the website, streamlined appeals, increased enforcement of Homestead exemption fraud and kept property values in check, even sued the county over the reach of his powers, others say that the job is taking a toll. In other words, he doesn’t relish suing the county.

If Zapata wants the job, he would have to resign as commissioner post will likely be filled by special election. County rules call for the deputy appraiser to take the position, but that person may go to Tally with Lopez-Cantera. That means a special election will have to be had. And there’s ample time to get the nonpartisan race on the August primary ballot.

But Zap could be in for a run. Other possible hopefuls floated around include former State Rep. Marcelo Llorente, now a lobbyist, and former Doral Mayor JC Bermudez. Both men have aspired to the Miami-Dade mayoral post before — Bermudez dropped out of the 2011 recall race and Llorente came in No. 3 — and the countywide appraiser’s election could be a good stepping stone to that.

Former Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia, who lost in a squeaker of a race he briefly challenge in court, might also want to try again.

  Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Juan Zapata