Attacks on in heated District 8 Miami-Dade commission race

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The email is almost breathless.

“I’m not sure if you heard the news, but our campaign is under attack and we need your support,” read the email addressed to me from Miami-Dade Commission candidate Daniella Levine Cava. “Rather than starting with a positive message, our opponent has begun airing television commercials attacking me directly.”

Levine is whining about a video ad that a PAC put out for Commissioner Lynda Bell. It was posted on YouTube last week and basically calls Levine a carpet bagger.

“Okay, this is about  to get complicated. So follow closely,” a woman’s voice narrates over a map of Miami-Dade.

“This is where Daniella Levine Cava lived. Then she bought a house here,” the map moves south to District 7. “Then a few months ago, she decided to run for office, so she bought another house here,” the woman says, the map indicating where Levine purchased her million-dollar home three days before the required residency deadline.

“But she still owns that house over there. So if she loses, she can move back. That’s convenient,” the annoyed woman says.

“Daniella Levine Cava is not from here. And she doesn’t know us. That’s not complicated.”

The ad is paid for Good Government Now, an EOC chaired by none other than Wendy Lobos, who got at least $20,000 from Wayne Rosen, $10,000 from Sunlife Stadium (wonder how she’s going to vote on Tuesday), and $10,000 from the Safe Wrap airport plastic people. It also got $2,500 from New Leadership Network, a PAC chaired by none other than lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez, which is seemingly working for all the incumbents. It has collected $50,000 out of Lopez’s lobbying clients: $30,000 from Florida Power & Light — which has been trying for years to get approval to run power lines up and down U.S. 1 — and $20,000 from the Homestead Miami Speedway. Another $30,000 comes from an engineering company in Charlotte, NC, and $18,000 from project managers in Colorado.

Neither Levine nor Bell nor their campaign people could be immediately reached for comment. But we can say that the carpet bagger attack was expected, as it has been a whisper campaign for weeks.

Levine’s new home at 15360 SW 67 CT was purchased in November last year. She and husband Robert Cava still own a home on Jeronimo Drive in Coral Gables purchased in 1993 for $575,000 that is worth $1.36 million today. County property records also show that the couple own a medical office building  on LeJeune Road purchased in 2000 for $220,600.

So what? If that’s the best Bell and her supporters have to throw at this neophyte candidate, they are in trouble. Because Levine can pick through a treasure trove of stuff to attack Bell. And she indicated Tuesday that she will.

Related reading: Candidate Daniella Levine seizes library issue opportunity

  Daniella Levine Cava, Lynda Bell