Does this indicate the same type of campaign as 2012?
It’s no surprise to some that Jesse Manzano-Plaza would reprise his role as candidate Carlos Gimenez‘s 
spokesman and message massager for the Miami-Dade mayor’s re-election bid next year.
It was announced last week, that Manzano-Plaza had joined the G-Man team as “senior consultant” for the candidate’s political committee, which is now called “Miami-Dade Residents First” instead of “Common Sense Now!” The latter was right for the post -Marlins deal, anti-Carlos Alvarez Candidate Gimenez, so the update to a more voter-friendly name could make common sense. Especially since common sense is not something you would describe Gimenez with anymore.
But are there going to be any changes in tactics and strategies if the same guy is in charge?
Or guys.
Supposedly, Freddy Balsera, who hired the mayor’s son after the last election, is already back on board. Because Gimenez needs two guys to figure out his message. Three if you count his county spokesman Mike Hernandez, who recently got his long-encouraged story about his great ol’ self in the Miami Herald and who used to work for Balsera, too.
Four if you count former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who might also be coming back to the campaign. The Dean took a hiatus from the first re-election bid in 2012, but was a pivotal member of the G-Men in 2011 when JC Planas was in charge instead of Manzano. That doesn’t have to be the reason, however. It might be because Dean DLP was busy with he and his brother’s failed attempts to get back into the state House. Or it could be the fact that Gimenez didn’t need him as much as he did against former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, who was leading Gimenez with double digits a few months before the special recall election.
Read related story: Raquel Regalado’s message: ‘I can be a better mayor’
But if Manzano-Plaza’s presence indicates the same kind of campaign as the 2102 contest against former Commission Chairman Joe Martinez, perhaps The Dean’s role indicates the Gimenez camp know
s School Board Member Raquel Regalado — who is the only declared candidate at this moment and the mayor’s worst nightmare in an opponent — is not Joe Martinez.
Reached Monday, Regalado told Ladra she had not yet hired everyone on her team but had several interviews and was looking nationally as well. She will likely have the help of people she has worked with in the past, including fundraiser Esther Nufer, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador and political consultant/lobbyist Armando Gutierrez, but on a smaller scale. She hired Brian Andrews, a former TV reporter, to help her with media releases and coordination.
But she is not going to hire a spokesperson.
“No one speaks for me. I can speak for myself,” said Regalado, who speaks better Spanish than the mayor and is now learning to speak Haitian Kreole. “I can handle it. That’s not something I would even consider.”
She also is not going to have a team managing her messages by committee. “I don’t need someone to tell me what people need to hear,” Regalado said.
With Manzano’s return, Ladra can’t help but wonder if Al Lorenzo is going to be working on the Gimenez campaign, too… you know, 
to keep the whole 2012 team together since fundraiser Brian Goldmeier is already there, making it rain. In fact, maybe it is a surprise that Gimenez went to Manzano again, after all. Not only because he was in charge during the 2012 debacle with the Hialeah boleteras that got caught committing fraud — and here Manzano is pictured at the Gimenez victory party with Hialeah Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Munoz , who is said to have run the bolteras that were caught — but also because, even with all the AB shenanigans, Gimenez only beat Martinez with 54% of the vote.
Not exactly a mandate of the people.
Either way, and even without Al, I would pay to see Freddy and Jesse and Alex brainstorming in the campaign war room. Or just storming — which is what I suspect will happen when they try to work together without tripping all over each other’s egos. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
“Working with Miami-Dade Residents First to support Mayor Gimenez is a great privilege for me,” Manzano-Plaza said in a statement. “I am looking forward to helping share the Mayor’s vision with the residents of our community.”
But isn’t it also a conflict of interest? Manzano-Plaza’s day job is as a lobbyist. He is registered 
to lobby for Genting, the Malaysian gaming giant with dreams of a mega resort and casino on waterfront property in downtown Miami (an artist’s rendition is pictured here). Like, what vision might he share with the mayor?
“It’s not a conflict of interest so much as it is further confirmation that this is where he stands on the issue. Gimenez has not made it a secret that he’s all in with Genting,” Regalado told Ladra, referring to the contributions that Genting has made to Gimenez and the mayor’s veiled support of their proposition or agenda.
“In theory, the person who does your campaign and speaks for you shouldn’t also be advocating for or against an issue,” Regalado said. “But they’re in the same boat.”
Read related story: New purple spin doctor duo — Jesse Manzano and Ben Pollara
Ladra thinks it still raises a bunch of questions. Especially because Genting is likely not Manzano’s only client. Since February, the 37-year-old has also been working at LSN Communications, a division of Alex Heckler and former State Rep. Marcelo Llorente‘s lobbying firm. They represent a lot of big hitters (Duty Free Americas at MIA and Turnberry, among others), and were recently lobbying on a multi-million water and sewer contract. So when did Gimenez know he would hire Jesse for the campaign? How long ago? How can we be sure that Genting or Llorente — a Gimenez ally whose failed 2011 mayoral bid was run by, who?, Manzano — or anyone else isn’t paying the political consultant’s fee rather than make an obscene campaign contribution they would have to disclose?
Manzano-Plaza told the Miami Herald that if he were to shift to a consulting or staff position on the actual candidate’s campaign, rather than the PAC, he would revisit the issue of those possible conflicts of interest. Really? Really? Oh, because only then is it a conflict of interest? Um, how does that really make a difference? We all know the PAC exists to reelect the mayor, so you are working for him defacto.
Besides, that’s where the money is going to be. As of the end of April, Residents First had acquired just over $1 million for its campaign, which, according to statements made by Manzano, is going to sound like an educational awareness campaign on all the great stuff the mayor has done for the county without raising taxes.
But Ladra is sure he’ll come up with a better message than that. After all, it’s why he gets paid the big bucks.
Jesse Manzano and Carlos Gimenez together again for 2016 added by Ladra on
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