This is not the way it was supposed to happen.
As expected, State Rep. Eddy “Here Comes Hialeah” Gonzalez heads into the runoff for the Miami-Dade Property 
Appraiser’s position after Tuesday’s election, but he is going into Round 2 with the second highest number of votes, trailing former Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia by a whole 10 points.
That’s a double digit lead for someone who was supposed to, according to political observers, come in at number two.
Even though he was the defacto incumbent — having lost his seat in 2012 to former State Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who was later tapped to be Lt. Gov. — Garcia was the underdog next to Gonzalez, who had more than twice as much money and a whole sophisticated political machinery supported by his Hialeah hoodlums and the state legislators who serves with him in the Miami-Dade delegation.
Even Garcia was surprised by his 35% finish, while Gonzalez got 25% of the votes.
“I always knew it would be close and that we would be going into a runoff with him, but I didn’t expect to have such a big advantage,” Garcia told Ladra.
He was surprised that even in some Hialeah precincts, Gonzalez’s lead was not that wide. Where the state rep had an edge was places like Miami Gardens. But Gonzalez did get on that fraudulent Tim Milton slate card with Obama, of all people, and sent out a mailer to black voters that was different from his mailer to white voters because it replaced an endorsement from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez with endorsements from three black legislators.
Read related story: Eddy Gonzalez — a tale of two mailers, black and Hispanic
Garcia said he will have to work harder in the black community. For the primary, he focused on the West Dade and South Dade districts that overlap with the Republican Congressional primary in District 26. He did not have as much money as Gonzalez, and knew these voters were already going to be motivated to cast their ballots after candidates in the congressional race spent hundreds of thousands on advertising and mailers and phone banks.
That helped Garcia beat Gonzalez countywide in each of the voting methods: Election Day, early voting and absentee ballots, even though Gonzalez is said to have an AB machinery in Hialeah.
This doesn’t bode well for Eddy. Not only because the sheer numbers are awful — 55,416 for Garcia and 39,975 for him. Three out of every four voters voted against him. We haven’t done a geographic precinct by precinct breakdown yet, but Ladra is willing to bet that a good majority his votes were centered in Hialeah. Gonzalez would have to woo practically all of the 16,600 people who voted for 5th place finisher Carlos Gobel. And even so, we all know that the bulk of the 22,900 votes for the 3rd place finisher Albert Armada are going to Garcia. Armada will endorse Garcia this week, Garcia told me, and Ladra finds it hard to believe that Gonzalez will be able to peel off too many voters from the other candidates, Gobel or Alex Dominguez.
And not only because of another set of numbers: The money spent. Gonzalez — who is termed out of the House this year and is looking for a place to crash while he waits out the Hialeah mayor’s seat — spent at least $240,000 just out of his own campaign account, not counting PACs. Again that’s more than twice as much as Garcia raised.
Read related story: Eddy Gonzalez has quick cash in property appraiser’s race
But no, while that’s bad enough, the biggest reason this is bad news is because this is the best Gonzalez could do with all that Tallahassee money — which may not flow as freely now — and the support of not only the Hialeah hoodlums but his Miami-Dade delegation of legislators who were all helping him behind the scenes.
And he can’t pull off a better second place even than 25%? David Custin, his campaign consultant, must still be fuming.
What’s Gonzalez gonna do when he loses this contest in the primary? Maybe he’ll run for something in Hialeah sooner than he planned to, after all, since he can probably win something there.
Maybe he’ll have to go work for another elected. Wouldn’t that be something.
Que paso? Eddy Gonzalez heads into runoff as numero dos added by Ladra on
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To Adrian
This has nothing to do with comedores or uneducated Cuban as you said, It’s all about who’s the most qualify and experience person to be voted into office to oversee the Property Appraiser Office, Hopefully the right person will get the job.
To Ozzie, Mr Garcia was a huge disappointment as our Appraiser. He should not be reelected period. Gonzalez at least is willing to listen and is in favor of independizing the office going forward. Garcia is your typical comedores candidate who caters to the uneducated Cubans who listen to the Poderosa and would vote for anyone without even knowing what they stand for or even their track record. god help us if he wins.
What ALL political candidates forget about is reaching out to ALL VOTER. The candidates in Miami Dade county spent Hundreds of thousands of combined dollars on Hispanic Radio and Television advertising for the primary. If candidates want to win, they need to place commercials on stations other than those that broadcast only in Spanish. Second and third generation Hispanics are not listening to WAQI or WQBA AM! They list to Y 100; Newsradio WIOD (who is a bigger name that Hispanics listen to than Rick Sanchez 10a-noon Monday-Friday); BIG 105.9; POWER 96 and others. Candidats who want to win will advertise on these stations to reach voters. They can also reach voters by advertising on The Total Traffic Network. Politicians need to be different…have your message heard by voters your competition doesn’t care to reach!
I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Holmes. I’ve been following this race closely and attended multiple forums. My two favorite candidates have been eliminated and of the two left, Mr. Gonzalez is the one who appears to be more competent. Mr. Garcia is archaic, has trouble articulating, and is way past his prime. His age showed when asked questions he couldn’t answer or got lost in his thoughts. Our voters didn’t support the three best candidates, so now we are left with these two – Gonzalez will do more for the taxpayers. He has more of a vested interest in doing a good job since his political career depends on his performance. Mr. Garcia should have stayed in retirement.
Dear Political Cortadito and Very Esteemed Readers:
I believe the County Property Appraiser’s race is one of the most important any of us has to vote on, because it directly impacts the amount of taxes we pay, and whether, or not, our tax bill is just, or corrupt.
As we may remember, the County Property Appraiser was — alone among all of Florida’s 67 Counties — APPOINTED, NOT ELECTED, until 2008.
All human beings are mindful of who can hire, and who can fire, them.
Until 2008, only Miami-Dade County, among all 67 Counties in the State, had a Property Tax Appraiser who was hired, and fired, by those who wanted higher taxes (the County Manager/Mayor).
All other 66 Florida Counties have had, and do have, Property Tax Appraisers who are elected, and thus who are hired, and fired, by the voters / taxpayers, who want lower taxes.
PEDRO GARCIA is some 80 years old, and he is a product of, and a supporter of, the old — HIGH PROPERTY TAXES — system.
EDDY GONZALEZ is closer to 40 years old, and is a product of the new, Elective, Not Appointive — LOW PROPERTY TAXES — system.
I am an expert in very few things in life, but this is one of them.
More to come, Sincerely,
Jackson Rip Holmes
Coral Gables
305-338-5000
With all due respect Mr. Holmes. Eddy Gonzalez is your typical politician who has been termed out in his current job and is looking for his next gig. We voted for a politician last time (Carlitos Lopez Cantera) and he used the position to further his own political career. We need someone who is focused on doing his job; not looking for his next political gig.
Eddy should get himself a new consultant. The one he uses sucks and cares more about sucking up all his money.
We the people must vote wisely when electing our Elected Officials. In this case it’s a no brainer Eddy Gonzalez a Novice in the appraising field with no prior experience and Pedro Garcia, our prior property appraisal with 30 Plus years experience in the field.