J. Ricky Arriola has become the latest in a group of seven people — so far — who hope that three open commission seats in Miami Beach can spark their political careers.
Arriola filed for the November city elections on Tuesday. 
But it’s not the first we hear of his political aspirations. His name was floated as a possible successor to Commissioner Ed Tobin when the veteran elected applied to the police department and it was almost certain he would get the job. That fell through for whatever reason — las malas lenguas say Tobin wasn’t going to pass a test and was given a heads up so he could come back in a couple of years.
So now, Arriola has to run as a newby like anybody else, instead of as an incumbent.
Of course, he is expected to have Mayor Philip Levine‘s support. Levine would have been the one to appoint him to fill Tobin’s vacancy. But he is still an interesting candidate: A celebrated entrepreneur who has been to multiple Christmas parties at the White House and can fund his own campaign if he wants to.
With his brother Danny — one of four Columbus boys (or are there five of them?) — he runs Inktel Direct, a marketing firm 
that serves private corporations and governments and that reported more than $40 million in annual revenues — in 2003. Immediate past chair of the Performing Arts Center Trust, he was named to the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities and has dabbled in some Democratic political campaigns (Alex Sink, for one). He’s won awards for CEO of the year and for best company to work for. He’s an iron man triathlete who goes bungee jumping in New Zealand and posts pictures of micro breweries and macaroni-and-cheese donuts on his Facebook page. Ladra can’t help but like him already, even though he co-wrote that ill-thought letter to Obama praising the president for reaching out to the dictators in Cuba.
Arriola will run in Group 5 against Mark Weithorn, only because the husband of Commissioner Deede Weithorn filed first.
That’s the seat being vacated by Tobin. There are two others opening up opportunities for fresh elected meat because both Weithorn and Commissioner Jonah “Potty Mouth” Wolfson are also termed out.
In Group 4, to replace Wolfson, we have Elizabeth “Betsy” Perez and Isaiah Mosley. In Group 6, to replace Deede Weithorn, we have attorney Jeff Cynamon, realtor Scott Diffenderfer and Mark Samuelian.
Todos muy conocidos en su casa. More candidates are expected to drop into the open seat opportunities before qualifying ends this summer. Andres Ansion and Alan Randolph are names batted around. So is that lady’s who was going to run against State Rep. David Richardson.
But, at least so far, Arriola acting on what some friends say is a longtime dream, makes for the most interesting race.
In his announcement earlier this month, Diffenderfer pledged to “focus on biggest challenges” for the city and work with local and state government to address them. Those issues are the obvious buzz words that any newby candidate has to learn like a mantra: “Traffic gridlock, limited transportation options, sea level rise and irresponsible development are seriously threatening our quality of life.
“These are complex issues that are regional in nature and cannot be tackled by the City alone. Strong, collaborative relationships between City, County and State governments are absolutely necessary to solve these problems,” Diffenderfer said in his statement bragging years of experience “in a number of civic and community organizations solving real world problems.”
The statement was distributed by Christian Ulvert, who ran the 2013 Levine mayoral campaign and will likely be running his re-election campaign — if there is one. That may show that Diffenderfer, like Arriola, is likely another Levine ally.
Which raises the question of who has the most opportunity here: Newby wannabe politicos who can take advantage of an open seat or Levine, who can stack the whole commission in one fell swoop.
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