Raquel Regalado hints louder on 2016 mayoral run

In what seems like the natural response to a growing organic momentum, Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado gave a strong indication Monday on Miami’s increasingly influencing Gray Zone radio program that she would run for county mayor against incumbent Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez in 2016.

While she officially repeated that she is looking at both options — and she means between the county and the always expected city of Miami mayor, which would be more of a cakewalk — she hinted on the 880 The Biz AM morning show, and repeated later on Spanish TV news, that the county may be where she is more needed.

“I think the biggest consideration, and I’ve said this, is at the county level. Obviously the city is in great shape,” Regalado said after she was pressed on the issue by Gray Zone producer and co-host Fred Menachem. “My father made some very difficult decisons he leaves a city that financially is in wonderful condition for whoever is the next mayor.

“The county is very different. I mean you guys know what’s happening with the county debt,” she said, hinting at a possible campaign issue.

Menachem wanted her to definitively answer the “million dollar question.”

“What are we going to do with the courthouse,” she asked.

“Let it out there. It’s time,” he said.

“Relentless,” she called him, during a half hour of banter that you do not hear on any other political talk show. “I don’t have Daddy issues,” Regalado laughed after co-host Marcos Lapciuc tried to play psychologist to her politician’s daughter and point to the long shadow of her father, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado.

“You have Daddy issues that you want to talk about,” she asked him.

It was hilarious.

But it was serious, too.

Regalado didn’t really want to talk about the race in 2016. La pobre could feel pressured already from the anonymous social media draft pages and the sudden widespread speculation, met with people constantly begging her to tell them, just them.

What she wants to do is continue the conversation about the courthouse, which is still in disrepair and could quite possibly pose a health and safety hazard. At least two commissioners and, las malas lenguas say, Gimenez — who isn’t blind, you know? — are looking for alternate ways to address the urgent issues first and then the amplified or expanded space issues, once they are determined. Well, duh!

She wanted to tell listeners that there are courthouse managers in each of the county’s 11 courthouses paid between $70,000 and $90,000 to do what exactly? She wanted to tell them that the old Children’s Courthouse would be empty in two months, not eight, and that the U.S. government wants to give away the old, abandoned, historic federal courthouse that costs them to maintain.

“Even if it costs $10 million. Even if it costs $50 million,” Regalado said. After all, the bond tax she is single-handedly credited for defeating was for a $393 million blank check.

Not a one-trick pony who is definitely already immersed in county politics she has also brought attention to the debt increase. And her eye may next fall on the MPO, which she said on the Gray Zone may need to be restructured, made smaller like the Jackson board was reorganized. Ladra suspects we may be possibly seeing the formation of campaign issues.

“Shrink the MPO and give it more power,” said Regalado, adding that she has already talked to legislators about this. Ya. You know? Down to business. Like she’s already representing us. And in a way, she is.

If that is not a sign she is running for county mayor, I don’t know what is.

How’s this one? Regalado’s school board district, where she’s done arguably well, covers Key Biscayne, parts of Miami, Coral Gables, South Miami and Westchester. “It mirrors the county,” she said on the show, and you can’t help but wonder if she winked.

Regalado may not be saying that she is seeking the county mayor’s seat but she sure is acting like it. And it’s probably a safe bet that she will make the inevitable announcement soon. Like the Gray Zone hosts, Ladra believes that she has already made up her mind.

Ay, Raquelita, no te hagas.

Carlos Gimenez, Miami-Dade Mayor 2016, Raquel Regalado

Raquel Regalado hints louder on 2016 mayoral run added by Ladra on November 10, 2014
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