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Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado
Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado won’t rule it out an attempt to become the first female mayor of Miami-Dade.
Some have suggested that the only reason she mounted 
this tremendous, one-woman anti courthouse tax movement was to raise her profile and get one up on Gimenez early on. She scoffs and it seems pretty typical that anytime a woman does something important people want to undermine it by casting aspersions about the motive. Besides, she is going against the entire legal community, which is known to generously give to the mayoral candidate of choice and his or her PAC. She risks losing lots of financial support by being so publicly and actively against the courthouse tax.
Regalado, like Ladra and a lot of other people, just saw the bond question on the $400 million courthouse bond as the scam that it is. But, unlike most of us, she has the ability to get that message out across multiple media platforms.
And now that Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has shifted focus from the mayor’s race to the UM presidency, it won’t be so awkward.
Read related story: Alberto Carvalho drops mayoral hopes for UM dream
Regalado has long been rumored to be waiting for her dad, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, to step aside and hand her the throne. But that’s a cakewalk. And the county race is winnable. A Hispanic woman who can articulate herself much better than the mayor in both English and Spanish and who has the chops and the guts to do it. I’m in. Yes, I have encouraged her to run because I think she would be not only a great viable candidate to defeat Carlos II, but because I also think she will be a good mayor. Oh, and also because I love to see her make Gimenez sweat.
She wouldn’t commit. But she wouldn’t deny that it interested her, either. She wants to keep her options open, she said. But one thing she is clear on: She will not run for school board again. “I think I will, by the end of my term, have accomplished what I set out to do.”
Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine
When Miami Beach Mayor Philip “Fix It” Levine first thought about a run for office, he was looking at the county mayor’s seat. One might say that 
the Miami Beach election last year was a practice run for a countywide challenge against Gimenez. He certainly has the money to self finance it.
Levine doesn’t speak to Ladra, who he calls a “paid political assassin” simply because I didn’t pick him in the Beach mayor’s race, but people who are closer to him say he had first talked about mounting a countywide mayoral race around the time of the recall. He may have been scared by the number of candidates.
And while I am still unconvinced that the millionaire businessman who is used to ordering employees around is ready for prime time government, it would be fun to see him give Gimenez a run for his money.
Ladra believes he would be the first Jewish mayor elected to the highest office in Miami-Dade if he manages to pull it off. But he is the least likely. First, because his name is Levine and if a non-Hispanic could win a countywide race someone ought to call former Commissioner Katy Sorenson.
Read related story: Miami Beach paves way for electeds to become employees
Second because he will probably be heading into the mayoral re-election race with no challenge and by then — by giving commissioners jobs and appointing new commissioner cronies — he will be doing whatever he wants there. Why would he give that up?
Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez Cantera
If former Gov. Charlie Crist gets to take the mansion in Tallahassee, as expected, then Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera might be back into the game. 
C-Lo was widely rumored to be eyeing the seat before he was tapped to be Gov. Rick Scott‘s No. 2 (read: Hispanic card for re-election).
He would be a very serious contender against Gimenez, especially now that he is coming from the state’s No. 2 position. Like Regalado, he can talk circles around Gimenez. Either one of them is a debate that Ladra would love to see.
C-Lo also has a large base to draw from as a longtime state rep who won a countywide race for Property Appraiser in 2012. And he would have no problem raising money from the many all too friendly and grateful Republican state legislators that Lopez-Cantera helped with funding and photo ops.
Oh, and he will have the support and financial backing of car mogul Norman Braman. The two men are close.
Former Miami-Dade Dems Chair Annette Taddeo
If Gov. Rick Scott manages to hold on to his office, then former Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairwoman Annette Taddeo, who is now 
campaigning and nurturing her profile as Crist’s running mate, could pose a challenge. She had been rumored to be setting herself up for such a contest with her constant criticism of Gimenez’s budget — the library issues, the labor issues, the stadium issues. She was front and center.
Taddeo has lost two elections already, though — one for Congress against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and one for county commission, which she lost in the first round. This one would be a third and she might get discouraged or tired. Who wouldn’t?
Then again, Crist will almost certainly win Miami-Dade and Taddeo got better at county runs helping Levine Cava before she got distracted with the governor’s race. She could be a real threat if the Florida Democratic Party feels it owes her and decides to help financial and with people.
There have been very few other people mentioned by name. The black community will certainly put someone up and there will be another labor candidate, if Taddeo doesn’t run, and Farid Khavari, probably. I think the campaign helps him sell his self-published books.
But c’mon! Who else could but these people even stand a chance? Julio Robaina?
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