Three open seats on the Miami Beach City Commission this year have really brought the wannabes out of the woodwork: November’s Beach ballot keeps growing, with two new candidates, bringing it to a total of nine all-new faces in the three group races.
And while nobody’s running yet against Mayor Philip Levine — who hasn’t filed any paperwork that he will run again, although he is expected to — the election six months from now will still have hizzoner’s fingerprints all over it since Levine is supporting candidates in each of the groups.
Read related story: Miami Beach’s Philip Levine to file for re-election
So, this election presents the mayor with a real opportunity to completely stack the dais in his favor with allies. Levine stands to lose two of his pocket commissioners now that Commissioners Jonah “Potty Mouth” Wolfson and Ed “I Coulda Been A Kojak” Tobin are termed out. Unless he has two new ones to replace them with.
And he will also want to replace Commissioner DeeDe Weithorn, also termed out and looking to run for state House, with someone a little more, um, friendly to his overtures. Enter Levine slate candidate No. 1: Ricky Arriola, a respected businessman and Levine pal who was supposed to replace Tobin as an appointed commissioner if he had been able to pass the tests to be a cop. He is running for Weithorn’s seat in Group 5 against the commissioner’s husband, Mark Weithorn.
Levine told Ocean Drive magazine weeks ago that he would “once again be devoting his considerable resources to supporting kindred candidates—and maintaining a solid majority of votes in support of his vision for the city.”
Read related story: Ricky Arriola makes Miami Beach election interesting
But November also presents voters with an opportunity to restore balance to what has become a tyrannical rule. If they elect the right (read: independent) people.
Of the two new names on the list, we know that one is truly independent and one, we hear, is on Levine’s slate.
Kristin Rosen Gonzalez, a realtor and Miami-Dade professor who might suddenly jump to the front of the line in Group 4 thanks to that wonderfully blended name, both Jewish and Hispanic, that is the envy of any Beach politico. Rosen Gonzalez filed Friday and will be running against Elizabeth “Betsy” Perez — the Levine plant, whose husband made tens or hundreds of thousands on the centennial celebration six weeks ago (more on that later) — and someone Isaiah Mosley.
You may have heard her name before. Because Rosen Gonzalez used to run with Levine and his gang in 2013 — she was one of his former slate mates in 2013. Tossed to the wolves after she started asking questions, she withdrew after she felt pressured. She was since booted off the city’s diplomatic committee as Levine cleaned house with the committees and watched 
incredulously as his cronies are favored and any naysayers vanquished.
“It’s a difficult decision to run because he really is bullying people,” Rosen Gonzalez told Ladra shortly after she tweeted that she was the “independent and courageous voice for Miami Beach.” The single mother, realtor and Miami-Dade professor is not the only one who has said that Levine hints loudly that you shouldn’t run against his plants.
“He’s committed millions of dollars. I was bullied and I was very afraid to run. And the reason I am running is I can’t sit back and let it happen,” Rosen Gonzalez said.
“If he controls the whole commission, we’re in trouble.”
Read related story: Miami Beach Mayor Levine takes over finance committee
She is not the only committee member that has been swapped out for his friends. “And people no longer feel welcome at City Hall. It’s like there’s a velvet rope for him and his friends.
“Miami Beach is a very welcoming city. We are a city of the descendants of Holocaust survivors, Cuban immigrants and these people are what make Miami Beach such a special place,” Rosen Gonzalez said. “To see these people squeezed out of government is not what Miami Beach is all about.”
You probably won’t hear words like that from John Elizabeth Aleman, who becomes the fourth person in the Group 6 race free-for-all against Jeff Cynamon, Scott Diffenderfer and Mark Samuelian, who had declared earlier. Aleman, who is the guest speaker at Tuesday’s Breakfast Club, is reportedly Levine’s candidate, although Ladra thought it was Difenderfer because they share the same campaign consultant.
But, hey, Levine has enough money to buy two candidates in every race and hedge his bets against a coup d’etat.
Open Miami Beach seats become mayoral power playground added by Ladra on
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