Joe Martinez hints at 2016 rematch with Carlos Gimenez

There might be another candidate declared soon for the Miami-Dade County race for mayor in 2016 — but we’re not talking about Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who says he is still considering the contest.

Former Commissioner Joe Martinez, who lost against Gimenez in 2012, must smell the blood in the water and has strongly hinted that he may be ready for a rematch. He would not only be running against Gimenez but also against Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado, the only declared candidate so far.

The Joe Martinez for Miami-Dade County Mayor Facebook page had some activity recently after years of being ignored. A “coming soon” sign was posted to the cover Thursday. His profile picture was updated in April. This, after nada since February 2013.

The same day, he reached out to Ladra about the special taxing districts that are being slammed with a tax increase this year (he lives in one). He reminded me of an ordinance passed by former Commissioner Miguel Diaz de la Portilla that prohibits funds from taxing districts to be comingled and pay other taxing districts and was curious to see how much his own taxes would increase this year.

Asked if he was going to run for Congress in District 26 again against U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, whose RINO ways seem ripe for another primary (more on that later), Martinez said he had not decided. But he seems itching to run for office again — and he seemed to indicate he was going for the other rematch.

“The more I watch things going on, the more pissed I get at how county government is running and how screwed we’ll be after 2016,” Martinez told me.

He’s talking, of course, about some of the budget borrow-now-pay-later gimmicks that Gimenez is famous for. Like the $5 million annual giveaway to the Miami Dolphins for having events they were already going to have. He also cited the CRA deal with Miami Beach, in which Gimenez deferred about $29 million in payments but then extended the agency for another 20 years — and another $840 million or so more over those years. Like the special taxing districts fiasco.

“Just so you can say from now ’til 2016 that you didn’t raise taxes,” Martinez said.

Sounds like a campaign message to me.

Martinez also reminded Ladra that he raised more than $700,000 for his 2012 race — and that more than half a million was practically stolen by his campaign manager, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador. He wouldn’t make that same mistake again, he said.

“That means I was able to get 75,000 votes with $210,000,” he said.

Actually, it was 71,814 to Gimenez’s 126,525. But we get the point. He wouldn’t need to raise Gimenez’s millions to be a contender.

Martinez never broke 31 percent because of the other five nobodies who got single digit support and stole the other 35,000 votes or so.

It was also the first time in county history that a county mayor was elected with almost as many absentee ballots as election day votes. Only 27 more people voted for the mayor on Election Day. It seems he shouldn’t act as cocky as he does.

Another 17,260 voted for him during early voting. Martinez got 13,407 of those votes.

In the end, Gimenez was re-elected with just over 54% of the vote.

And that was before he showed his true colors. Before he started giving county dollars and assets away to beneficial deals for his friends and family plan, before he showed that his priorities include securing state land at bargain prices for a millionaire mega mall developer instead of opening our libraries every weekday or hiring police officers for the 300 existing vacancies.

It’s no wonder Martinez isn’t seriously thinking about a second swipe at him.

“That may have been premature,” he told me about the “Coming Soon” sign he says was done by someone else with access to page management.

“I’m waiting to see what my tax notice for my special taxing district is going to be,” Martinez said.

Carlos Gimenez, Joe Martinez., Miami-Dade Mayor 2016

Joe Martinez hints at 2016 rematch with Carlos Gimenez added by Ladra on June 5, 2015
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