Absentee voters in the special, shotgun wedding election for Miami-Dade Commission District 5 started getting ballots last week — and returning them, with 2,535 mailed back as of Monday. So, naturally, they’re also already getting campaign mailers in their mailbox. Every day. Sometimes three and four a day.
Naturally, there are attack missiles against the two front runners, Zoraida Barreiro and Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
At least three mailers that make huge stretches to tie Barreiro — 
in a very Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon way — to Odebrecht corruption in South America and the Nicolas Maduro Venezuelan regime have landed in mailboxes in the past week, paid for by Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade County, which has an office on Kendall Drive near Dadeland.
But you can bet your ballot it’s all coming from or on behalf of former Sen. Diaz de la Portilla. ADLP and Mrs. B are the two big names in the race against radio show host Carlos Gorin and Democrat activist Eileen Higgins. Nevermind the money. Gorin, who is irrelevant, and Higgins, who could be a surprise dark horse (cross your fingers), don’t have the brains or maldad for this kind of sneaky PAC attack. Which leaves ADLP who has both in spades.
The Dean’s name is not just all over it figuratively, it’s actually on one of the mailers literally.
“Maximo Alvarez, one of the maximum distributors of Citgo Venezuelan gas through his company, Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, is financing the dirty and defamatory campaign against Alex Diaz de la Portilla to help Zoraida Barreiro because he fears an independent voice like Diaz de la Portilla’s,” it says in Spanish.
Which may be partially right, since Sunshine Gas gave $50,000 in March to Leadership for Florida’s Future, which paid for this hit 
piece on ADLP that reminds voters of his reputation as a bad boy, which he relishes, by the way, and his temper and his penchant for stubborn self righteousness.
“Get to know the real Alex Diaz de la Portilla,” it says. “Breaking Florida Election Law… a reckless lifestyle… accused of abusing his former wife… our next Commissioner?” The busy back has a laundry list of headlines from the Dean’s not-so-good days.
But the problem with that is: This ain’t the Barreiros. The Barreiros just don’t do those kind of negative hit pieces. If they held back against Joe Carollo and his domestic violence issues in last year’s city commission race, why would they go here now? Barreiro did mail a soft negative against The Dean with their own PAC, in a piece that really said what everybody else was thinking anyway: Just how many Scooby Doo edibles had the Miami Herald editorial board already eaten when they decided to endorse ADLP? Seriously, have you seen Facebook? The Herald nearly broke it with this 
endorsement. Even his die hard supporters did a double take. Ladra thought it might be a sign of the apocalypse. (And we’re still hoarding food and batteries, por si las moscas.) That mail piece was warranted.
But Florida’s Future, the one funded with Sunshine Gas money, isn’t the Barreiros. It’s the same PAC that went against ADLP during the state Senate primary in District 40. It’s probably people who are still pissed off that Diaz de la Portilla hurt former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz so much that, in their minds, it ended up handing the general to Annette Taddeo, of all people.
Or maybe it’s someone else. The last contribution reported to Florida’s Future was actually not from Sunshine. It was a $100K donation from Grossman, Roth, Yaffa, Cohen, a Coral Gables lawfirm that, let’s be honest, could be a pass through for a client. It really could be anyone. Because the list of people who don’t want to see Alex Diaz de la Portilla in office again is long. And deep. And wide. It would be easier to list the people who do want to see him in office ’cause it’s so short: Joe Carollo, Marc Sarnoff, CJ Gimenez, the mayor’s son, and one of his two brothers (you guess which ’cause I ain’t sayin’). Ladra isn’t sure Mayor Carlos Gimenez wants Alex on that dais so much because Alex is not controllable. Ladra thinks Gimenez has buyer’s remorse already.
Anyway, we do know that the Proven Leadership PAC is him. That’s what Nancy Brown, the accountant, said anyway. Ladra dropped by the return address on the mailers, an office on the fourth floor of the Greenery Mall, Tuesday afternoon to see if it was for real. It was. Brown said there was a delay with getting the paperwork online but that it had been submitted. She said other questions would have to be answered by the attorney, but then couldn’t tell Ladra who that was. “Alex was working with someone,” she said.
So this is Alex Diaz de la Portilla’s PAC? “I believe so,” Brown said.
We knew it! It was just so much his style. The dark pictures of Maduro and Max Alvarez. Sure reminded Ladra of mailers sent for Joe Carollo against Tommy Regalado just last year that painted Tommy as a commie. Is that coming, Alex? Is a Zoraida la comunista 
piece in the works? Maybe it will be another piece on Odebrecht, where he attacks her simply for having their lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez raising funds for her. Didn’t Alex happily spend the funds that Lopez raised for Gimenez once?
But that’s only for the older voters. Millenials are getting positive ADLP pieces about him lowering taxes or holding the line on taxes or whatever, but it’s about taxes.
Since early voting begins Saturday, you can bet there will be more mailers raining down every day through the weekend. I wonder if the documents and campaign report that Brown said were submitted — but were still not online Tuesday afternoon — will be posted online before early voting begins. Already, more than 2,535 voters have cast their absentee ballots without knowing who is funding this campaign against Barreiro.
Diaz de la Portilla hung up on Ladra after I identified myself 
when he picked up the phone Monday afternoon. He did not pick up the phone again, or return subsequent calls or text messages Monday and Tuesday explaining that I was writing about the mailers in this race.
So, maybe he will answer someone else. I urge the Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks to ask him about the mailers and the PAC and this convenient delay in reporting. In fact, where is Nick Nehamas when you need him? Maybe he can get the state attorney’s office to ask questions.
I mean, what good are campaign finance laws if political operatives and candidates can thwart them so easily? How is this fair to those who do abide by the rules?
Kathy Fernandez Rundle already allowed a shady PAC that still hasn’t reported any contributions or expenses to rip into newly-elected State Rep. Javier Fernandez for months without lifting a finger to stop it. Will she do the same now with this Proven Leadership PAC? Because basically she will be giving a green light to every Republican fighting the blue wave this November.
Another shady PAC attacks Zoraida Barreiro in county Commission race added by Ladra on
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