A judge ruled on Monday that Sweetwater Mayor Jose Diaz cannot run for mayor because 
he did not officially resign from his commission seat, as required by Florida’s “resign to run” law.
Miami-Dade Civicl Court Judge Barbara Areces said Diaz — who was appointed mayor after former Mayor Manny Marana Marono was arrested on bribery charges and suspended from office — must have resigned from his last elected post by March 6 before he could run for mayor.
Commissioner Orlando Lopez, who is running for mayor also, and his campaign consultant Sasha Tirador — who used to work for Mayor Diaz — celebrated in the 
courtroom. But if you think about it, putting Diaz back on the dais and losing Commissioner Catalino Rodriguez, who was appointed to replace him, will not help Lopez if he is elected mayor.
The mayor’s attorney, former State Rep. J.C. Planas, already filed a brief on his intent to appeal the decision, an emergency motion to be heard and an extension of the stay on the absentee ballots so that they are not mailed out yet. He says Diaz was not serving as commissioner and that seat was already filled, through appointment, by Rodriguez. After all, the seat could have been kept open if the intention was for Diaz to return to it.
His team maintains that a separate swearing-in three months after he stepped up to the job, because by then Marono had been sentenced, took Diaz from interim mayor to mayor and that he effectively resigned his seat back then. Otherwise the city clerk and city attorney may have violated the city charter for not notifying anyone — including Diaz himself — that he was occupying dual offices.
Read related story: Sweetwater commissioner sues to get mayor off the ballot
Still, the argument put forth by the attorney for Commissioner Orlando Lopez, who is also running for mayor, is that Diaz could legally return to that commission seat should he lose the mayoral race. Rodriguez was not elected and Diaz was and, it could be argued, the voters have the right to have him returned to the office they elected him to.
And that right there is where the story is, folks. Because the worst case scenario for Diaz is he goes back to his commission seat, joining three commissioners — Prisca Barreto, Manuel Duasso and Jose Bergouignan — who are clearly his allies. Meanwhile, if Lopez is elected mayor, he will only have two in his corner, maybe one if Idania Llanios beats incumbent Commissioner Jose Guerra in that race. The other is Commissioner Isolina Marono, mother of the arrested mayor who is doing three and a half years in the federal prison.
So, basically, Lopez would be a lame duck from the day he is sworn in.
Some might call that karma. Others might call it justice.
Sweetwater’s mayor ordered off ballot, would go back on dais added by Ladra on
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