Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a former state rep and 
one-time Miami-Dade property appraiser who wants to replace Sen. Marco Rubio in D.C., is trying to cast himself as a near carbon copy of his would-be predecessor, a 2012 VP contender with the real potential to be the first Hispanic U.S. president.
It ain’t gonna fly.
Read related story: Carlos Lopez-Cantera kicks off senate race right on schedule
Sure, C-Lo and Rubio are pals. The LG sat on stage at the Freedom Tower when Rubio announced his run for the White House in April? They stood together last year in Doral with Gov. Rick Scott 
denounce the Venezuelan government’s crack down on students and activists. He announced Rubio at the Miami-Dade Republican Party’s sold-out Lincoln Day Dinner last month.
They’re both young — CLC is 41 and Rubio is 44 — and have pretty wives and cute, little kids in private school.
In his speech, Lopez Cantera made references to the same themes that Rubio has been running on — liberty and freedom, opportunity and roots and family. He talked about being the son of immigrants ad talked about creating a “better version of the American Dream.” 
He also has a quote about “The American Dream” as a slogan on one of his campaign photos. Rubio’s second book is called “American Dreams.”
And Lopez-Cantera even mentioned Rubio, saying he would basically be the same kind of senator. “I’ll continue the fine work of our United States Sen. Marco Rubio,” he said in his announcement speech, the most exciting part of which was that it was Periscoped.
There’s only one problem: Ladra has met Marco Rubio. Ladra knows Marco Rubio. And you, C-Lo, are no Marco Rubio.
In fact, other Republicans in the race or likely to jump in seem more Marcolike than the former House Majority Leader who hasn’t had to debate anybody in his life and doesn’t have the charisma that Rubio exudes. Ron DeSantis is a fiery speaker with a better back story and can move conservatives across the country. Congressman David Jolly, who is expected to announce, is a Tea Party darling who won an underdog race, like Rubio.
Read related story: Coveted Marco Rubio Senate seat makes for mad primaries
Other ultra conservatives are also said to be looking at the race, which means that CLC, who is more establishment mainstream GOP, could gain an edge.
In fact, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Lopez-Cantera — whose family owns a lucrative real estate property management firm — is more Jeb Bush than Marco Rubio. With maybe a little dash of Scott thrown in for relevancy.
He certainly seemed to be channeling Scott as he stood before a giant American flag draped over cardboard boxes stacked high to the ceiling in a warehouse at All American Containers, a business owned by Remedios and Fausto Diaz Oliver, longtime GOP donors who also pleaded guilty in the 90s to tax evasion charges. The photos look a lot like pics taken during Scott’s”Jobs! Jobs!” re-election campaign that toured manufacturing factories last year.
Creating jobs will be a recycled theme for C-Lo’s senatorial bid. “We’ve added 879,000 jobs,” said Lopez-Cantera, 
who is apparently going to be leaning heavily on Scott’s record.
“Here in Florida, we’ve turned the economy around, creating almost 900,000 jobs,” Lopez-Cantera said in a video he released a few hours before his announcement speech, “cutting our debt, balancing our budget and giving you back more of your money, making our state a place where families ad small businesses can flourish and grow.
“Doesn’t sound much like Washington, does it? But we’ve proven conservative principles work: Less taxes, less government and more freedom. My priority will be to keep govt spending and govt. power under control so you keep more of your money and your freedom. Now, there will be a lot of people in this race who promise a lot of things. But my conservative record in Florida is more than a promise. It shows that I’ll fight and win for you.”
In a video released later Wednesday by Javier Manjarres, who writes the Shark Tank blog, Lopez-Cantera also denounced the renewed U.S. negotiations with Cuba — saying he would vote against sending an ambassador to Cuba — and the nuclear arms deal that President Barack Obama has presented for Iran.
“It’s a bad deal for the safety and security of our country and our world,” C-Lo said.
There he goes again: Trying to sound like Marco Rubio.
Try as he might, Carlos Lopez-Cantera ain’t no Marco Rubio added by Ladra on
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Rubio is an idiot! And I’m sure this other guy is the same.
He’s rich kid looking for something to do. This guy is a do nothing, looking to boost his ego. What a waste of time. Oh that sounds just like Golden Boy; an empty suit looking for a payday.
Lopez-Cantera hasn’t been good at anything except ride other people’s coat tails. He nothing more than a spoiled rich kid whose never done anything for anyone except himself. Let him run his daddy’s real estate empire like a god little boy.
So much love
Hard to imagine how this guy got the party behind either now or when he was house whip . i know when he was property appraiser he did play well with others. He butted heads with both labor and management. He even tried to get his bosses on the BCC to give him money to sue his boss, the BCC in state court over a union grievance that started with one guy over a birthday cake.
I will never vote for Lopez Cantera the can not stay in a position for long, He is always looking for a way to benefit himself
Mr Lopez Cantera ( and I use the Mr lightly ) is not like anybody else. He exudes incompetence, speaks like a 14 year old and has yet to prove that he is worth any thing. Being the messenger as a member of the house, trying to help his friends as a property appraiser and not knowing how it was created and then wanting to control the $ without supervision ( not accomplished ) and now being the cubanito in Governor Scott’s mix has not given him much of an opportunity to learn how to be a man, and educated person in the facts he will have to face as a senator, gossip and rumor spreading does not fly in Washington. His skills are from 0 to none. His ego is the one that is out of control. GO FOR COUNSELING OR SOMETHING THAT WILL HELP YOU GROW, DON’T BURDEN US WITH YOU STUPIDITY.
A friend commented that Rubio is the Republicans Obama like.
He questions…as Obama…what business has he run, military experience, et al?
Go Sara!!! You are correct.
Carlos Lopez-Cantera was terrible ad Miami-Dade’s Property Appraiser. He allowed too many residents in our county to get away with not paying their fair share of property taxes. It was a huge contributing factor to the library budgeting debacle.
I don’t think Marco Rubio is good, either. He’s against anything progressive and for everything regressive.