State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez is going to have to look for a real job.
Gonzalez, who is termed out this year, lost to former Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia in the runoff Tuesday — even though he spent more than twice as much as Garcia.
Guess voters could see right through the slick career politician’s trick, see right through the Hialeah hoodlum bravado, see right through his $450,000 campaign — $410K was spent through Oct. 30 while Garcia spent $175,000 by the same time.
Guess voters saw right through his negative attacks on Garcia, which turned out to be exaggerated half truths at best, blatant lies at worst.
Garcia won with 58% of the vote compared to 42% that Gonzalez got. He did worse than he did in the five-way primary Aug. 26. Yeah, he got a higher percentage Tuesday but he lost by a 16 point gap. He was only 10 points behind Garcia in the primary.
Neither candidate could be reached Tuesday night. Garcia was at his victory party at Graziano’s in Coral Gables and couldn’t hear his phone when I called. He was responding to wellwishing messages until after midnight.
Garcia had filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics against Gonzalez for the ad that claimed he had paid a staffer a $400,000 salary to do nothing. Turns out that employee was paid $86,000-a-year and was representing the union for four years, a perk negotiated by the administration that allows them to take a paid leave for union work.
It’s possible that Garcia will forget about this complaint now. But I hope he doesn’t.
Because it’s likely that Gonzalez will just float into another campaign, for Hialeah mayor or council — or maybe even community council in his buddy Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo‘s district.
But Ladra is still going to have the classifieds delivered to his house this weekend — the house he lives in outside his district.
Pedro Garcia kills it over Eddy Gonzalez and his money added by Ladra on
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