Cuter Bay Mayor Ed “Mac” MacDougall has no hard feelings after losing the Republican primary for the congressional district 26 race last month. Really. And considering he was the old gringo who was supposed to get single digit dust, he sorta made history by coming in second in a predominantly Hispanic district.
But “Big Mac Daddy” does have a post election challenge for his partymate and the ultimate victor in the Aug. 26 election, Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos “Crybaby” Curbelo:
Come clean with your client list from your lobbying firm, Capitol Gains (because we all know it’s yours even if it’s in your wife’s name, wink, wink), and you will get Mac’s endorsement in what looks like a heated anyone-takes-it race against Democrat Congressman Joe Garcia.
Well, that is, as long as said client list doesn’t show what Ladra and others fear is going to be a clear conflict of interest with clients who may have benefited or stand to benefit from Curbelo’s position on the school board or stand to benefit from his potential election to Congress.
Don’t disclose the list and the longtime Republican’s nod will go to the Dem incumbent.
That’s right. And you heard it here first: Mac will back Joe Garcia if Curbelo doesn’t come clean.
Them there are some fightin’ words. Ladra always expected Mac to abstain, you know, being the good Republican that he is. But this is more his John Wayne style: Holding Curbelo’s feet to the fire.
Read related story: Carlos Curbelo hides client list under wife’s skirt
Mac told Ladra he didn’t know how else to respond to Curbelo’s unapologetic and arrogant (my words, not his) refusal to disclose the list of clients that bring him a six figure salary, as is the intent of state and federal disclosure laws for all elected officials and candidates. As Political Cortadito pointed out 
in June, Curbelo gets around that requirement by conveniently listing his lobbying firm in his wife’s name, even though she does not work there at all.
“I don’t know what else I can do to make people come clean,” said MacDougall, who is staying active and has been approached about starting a political radio program. He says he wants to take the fight to what he says is a tainted Republican Party establishment (more on that later), which endorsed Curbelo in a five-man primary without so much as a how-do-you-do to the other hopefuls.
“I hate to do it, but if Carlos Curbelo continues to intentionally dodge this question now that it’s out in the open, I will endorse Garcia,” Mac told Ladra.
But, and here is the challenge, if Curbelo just lists his clients and proves that there is no there there — how difficult can that be? — Mac will throw his support behind the GOP challenger and enlist his supporters as well. “Because good Republicans only support honest people,” he said.
“I dislike both of them,” MacDougall said about the congressional choices. “They’re both bad apples. But at least with Garcia, you know what you are getting. Garcia is the evil you know.”
So there you have it, Carlitos. Can you rise up to the challenge? It would be the statesmanlike thing to do. Show that you are congressman material.
Read related story: Who are some of Carlos Curbelo’s business partners?
And it would only be fair for you to give the client list to Ladra first. After all, she was the first to break this story and expose your convenient little loophole. But I know you’re still kinda peeved and you don’t talk to me anymore at all, especially since you cannot face me after making those false allegations about Ladra’s professionalism.
So go to anybody else. The real mission here is public disclosure, and Ladra is certain Mac doesn’t care how you come out with it. Neither do I. Go to Michael Putney or Glenna Milberg at WPLG Local10. You told Putney once — before you did a double take and about face and said it was 
“arbitrary” — that you would give him the list. Give it to him. Or to Jim DeFede at CBS4. Or to Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera at Mira TV.
Pay for a full page ad in The Miami Herald if you want to.
Pick your press.
It really makes no sense that Curbelo wouldn’t do this. Not just because MacDougall might help him cross that finish line, but also because just imagine the earned media. He would get millions of dollars worth of free publicity right as absentee ballots drop! My free media advice to you, because I hold no hard feelings either, is that you list your clients — if, of course, you have nothing to hide.
And while Mac has a challenge to his former colleague in the primary, Ladra similarly challenges her colleagues in the media: Do not let up on this.
Please do not let Carlos Curbelo shrug his shoulders and thumb his nose at us, saying that it’s “arbitrary” for to ask who his clients are. That’s ludicrous. He is not like any other private individual. It would not be like asking any one of us or Joe Blow from the street who signs his paycheck. Curbelo is a school board member and, by God, a congressional candidate. Elected officials and candidates must be held accountable. Those disclosure laws are there for a reason. He knows this. At the very least, he knows this now.
So, Michael, Glenna, Jim, Roberto — I’m even going to beseech Patricia Mazzei and Marc Caputo at the Herald — please don’t let Curbelo get away with this blatant disregard for the law.
Is he breaking the law? No.
He’s just totally disrespecting it and, if nobody stops him, laughing all the way to Washington, D.C.
Ed MacDougall to Carlos Curbelo: ‘Come clean’ or I back Joe added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
