God help us, but Ladra thinks State Rep. Frank Artiles could very well become my state senator in November.
Yes, he is a homophobic, sucker-punching Fight Club aficionado who looks like Magilla Gorilla (it’s the jaw line), lied about his 
residency when he was first elected and wants to kill a Florida black bear. The only real thing to admire about him, personally, is that he’s a Marine.
But legislatively — and despite last year’s unfortunate and hateful transgender bathroom ban law that never got traction — Artiles has had some good ideas. Boy, that was hard to say. But he has. He wants to make Florida the 34th state with a cancer presumption law that would make it easier for firefighters to get health and disability benefits — which could be to cleanse his soul from saying in 2012 that they had firefighter/paramedics have cushy jobs. And he wants to make the top cop job at Miami-Dade Police an elected sheriff’s position, like in Florida’s other 66 counties.
And, now, for his first campaign for state senate, Artiles has tapped into another winning issue close to his constituency in Southwest Miami-Dade: Highway tolls.
Read related story: State Rep. Frank Artiles wants to kill a Florida black bear
He’s hit independent voters (like Ladra) at least twice with mailers vowing to take on the
tolls in Tallahassee. They doesn’t say how, mind you. Just that “together we can fight excessive tolls on our expressways.” What the mailer does is offer a “petition” that voters can sign that is really a postcard back to his campaign office — so they can target you again now that they know what pushes your buttons, maybe get you to vote absentee.
UPDATED: Artiles even has this hilarious web video on his Facebook page of people stripping their shirts off their backs — to express how the tolls are affecting us. One by one, they take their tops off for the camera. But don’t worry, there’s no nudity. It’s G-rated.
Whether Artiles can end excessive tolls or not is moot. Just the mere fact that he is willing to advocate against the increasing highway tax is going to be enough for many people who feel politicians have just been completely deaf to them about this issue.
It’s such a good issue that State Rep. Michael Bileca also put it on a mailer. But he actually has ideas about restructuring MDX and forcing it to recalculate the cost of tolls.
Two state candidates hit campaign gold going vs MDX tolls added by Ladra on
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