She’s in: Candidate Raquel Regalado declares for 2016

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Let the games begin.

Call her candidate Raquel Regalado, as she officially was born Sunday as the Miami-Dade School Board member  announced that she will run for Miami-Dade mayor, after all — which was sorta the best kept secret in local politics.

It was first outed by Doug Hanks at the Miami Herald that she was going to file Monday and announce on WPLG Channel 10 tonight with Glenna Milberg.

but it’s not like it’s huge news that Regalado is challenging Mayor Carlos “Pick Your Nickname” Gimenez. It’s just huge period.

We all saw it coming, didn’t we? Regalado has been positioning herself as the anti-Gimenez, go-to challenger to the mayor for months. It may have started with her opposition to the courthouse tax that she helped kill in November. It’s been further fueled by her criticism of Gimenez on the value adjustment board issue and the $9 million giveaway to SkyRise Miami developer Jeffrey Berkowitz, a member of the Gimenez friends and family plan.

She told Ladra Sunday that the State of the County address sorta sealed the deal.

“I thought, ‘Maybe he can change. As an incumbent, he has the ability to shift gears,” Regalado said. ‘There was some hope he would present some sort of road map.

“But when he focuses on these projects that are not aligned with what we need, there comes a time when you have to say ‘If not you, then who? If not now, then when?'”

Look for that to be a theme in the campaign, which is about to begin 60 seconds ago.

As far as Ladra is concerned, it was about time. This will put to rest the Gimenez apologists who say she should “wait her turn” and run in 2020 or after. A few have said she should actually cut a deal with Gimenez — as if he had anything to offer — and run for Miami mayor with his support.

First of all, women are sick and tired of being told to wait their turn. This is her turn. She is taking it.

Secondly, ahem, that train has left the station. In fact, it’s halfway to the 29th floor already.

She’s opening herself up to attack, the haters and apologists say. Well, bring it on, Regalado said, adding that her life is an open book and that anything that they can say about her has been widely covered in the news already. She will address these coming attacks about her alleged lack of experience and foreclosure (more on that later) in a video she plans to post tomorrow afternoon.

Regalado has already posted two videos in response to Gimenez’s SOTC last month and the mega mall announcement last week — and she has 10 more or so recorded to roll out in coming weeks. Two will be posted Monday. The first announces her run as a community endeavor.

“This really isn’t my campaign. This is our campaign,” she said, echoing the message. “This is a campaign about what we want as a county. Why? Becuse that’s exactly wht this guy is not doing. That’s the frustration. That there’s no access beyond ‘Fulanito came into my office and this is what we’re doing.'”

She’s meeting with the mayors of Medley, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay and others and doing a sort of listening tour (my words, not hers), in areas off the county where she may not be as well known as Miami. Also, because it is exactly what this guy is not doing. People feel, she said, as if the county is a roadblock to what they want.

So, while it’s not big news that Regalado is running against Gimenez in the 2016 election, it is big. This will set off what might become the biggest and most expensive county mayoral battle ever, dwarfing the 2011 Gimenez match with former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, a race that broke records with more than $3 million spent between the two candidates.

Regalado said she has talked to the money people, not just those who support her but also those who are the regular funders of Gimenez and his campaigns to see how committed they were. She says it isn’t as solid as his thinks.

“They don’t agree with the direction the county is going, with the gatekeepers, with the agenda, with the lack of information,” she said.

She has said publicly that she can win with half or a third of the $5 million that Gimenez expects to raise.

“Obviously, it’s a big fight. But I think it’s a worthwhile fight.”

This battle will be bigger in terms of substance and context. Why, it may be the very first race in a long time where issues will take the center stage.

“This is going to be one of the few campaigns you see driven mostly by the issues because we’re both known, we’re both in office already,” Regalado said, adding that she will reach out to as many people as possible.

“I don’t want to be the candidate somebody sees in a commercial. I want to be the candidate somebody talked to,” she said. “He’s going to focus on raising money. I’m going to focus on getting out there and meeting people and addressing their issues.”

Again, something that the other guy does not do.

“I’m not the typical mayoral candidate. That’s exactly the point. If you want more of the same, vote for Carlos Gimenez.”

  Carlos Gimenez, Raquel Regalado