Oooops! Dems add Jeanette Nuñez to incumbent challenge

• Tweet
• Sumo

• Tweet

The Miami-Dade Democratic Party said Monday that they had found challengers for every single Republican incumbent in the Florida House — but they had actually missed one.

Had they simply forgotten about State Rep. Jeanette Nuñez of District 119 in Doral? Or had they given her a pass because she backed the Miami Dade College sales tax bill that the local party also supported?

Neither. Milagro Ruiz, “a Honduran-American schoolteacher of nearly 20 years, proud Miami-Dade College and St. Thomas University graduate” was just undecided when the Miami-Dade Democratic Party decided to announce it’s “No More Free Rides” campaign Monday.

But Ruiz was all in by Tuesday morning when Dade Dems Chairwoman Annette Taddeo-Goldstein presented her supposed dream team at a press conference.

Who? Exactly. Ruiz is just the latest addition to a veritable Who’s Who of wannabes that don’t stand much of a chance beating entrenched Republican incumbents in a midterm year.

And you just know it’s an uphill battle if that’s the best they can glean from Ruiz’s political resumé. Like 90 degrees uphill.

The one-liner descriptions on the others are not a ton better.

Related story: Miami-Dade Dems wage full House battle with six challengers

Most qualified of the bunch is Juan Cuba, Executive Director of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, former White House appointee and Obama field director (read: ground game guy), who will take on Rep. Jose Felix “One More Pepe” Diaz in Kendall. He has the most experience, knows how to deliver messages and will likely get the help of former State Rep. and new party turnover Ana Rivas Logan, who is going to be motivated after Diaz beat her in 2012’s dirty, nasty race. But even someone like Cuba, who is known in political circles but hardly outside, is going to be an deep underdog.

“It’s not going to be an easy race, but the community is with us on the issue,” Cuba said on his Facebook page.

“I’m running because Tallahassee has stopped caring about people like my parents who worked low wage jobs just to make ends meet,” Cuba posted. “They worked hard to give me and my older siblings the opportunity to succeed. Our community is stronger when we ALL do better.”

Free media advice to Juan: If you want a political career in Miami, get rid of the communist language, Democrat or not. Also, you should probably look for another job: It doesn’t help your early political profile or la causa if it looks like the party is pretty much paying you to run, which is something that has been mentioned to me and to the brand new candidate a couple of times.

But Cuba said he will step down if he wins. And that, by the same philosophy, people like Sen. Anitere Flores (R-Kendall) and Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., (R-Hialeah Gardens) are paid to run by the charter school industry. Well, yeah! As well as Rep. Erik Fresen. Don’t forget him.

“I’m not worried,” Cuba told Ladra. “If they are attacking me for working for the Democratic Party, then they’re missing the point. It’s about the issues, raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid, investing in public education.”

The rhetoric is good. But he knows it’s an uphill battle.

The rest of the fat chance candidates are:

• Kristopher Decossard, “a Miami native, FIU alum and Army veteran raised by a single mother” — I swear Ladra did not make those creds up — will run against Rep. Michael Bileca in Pinecrest.
• Nelson Milian, “a Cuban-American tech entrepreneur from Hialeah and founder of a youth summer camp focusing on the intersection of technology and the arts,” will go up against Speaker-designee Rep. Jose “Cigar Czar” Oliva in Miami Lakes.
• Carlos Pereira, “a community organizer and president of the Venezuelan-American Democratic Club,” drew the straw for State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, who the party has repeatedly slammed for refusing to bring the minimum wage issue to the Economic Development and Tourism Committee he chairs. That District includes Doral. The Dems are typecasting.
• Omar Rivero, “a Cornell graduate and digital entrepreneur who specializes in online political activism,” is running in against Rep. Frank Artiles.

The Dade Dems also got someone named Mariano Corcilli, an attorney, former criminal prosecutor and U.S. Marine, running in an open seat where there is no Republican incumbent on a free ride, as it were. There were already three Republicans after the seat vacated by State Rep. Eddy “Here Comes Hialeah” Gonzalez, who is termed out and is running for Miami-Dade property appraiser, including heir apparent Bryan Avila, who Gonzalez is having a fundraiser for next week (more on that later). But there were no Dems. Until Corcilli.

“This is the future of Miami-Dade,” Taddeo said Tuesday standing in front of the fat chance candidates (my words, not hers). And she may be right.

But Ladra is thinking the more distant future.

  Annette Taddeo, Florida House, Juan Cuba, Miami-Dade Democrats