Talk about persistence: It took a fourth try, but former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla is an elected official again.
It also took about a million dollars. But more about that later.
In what Ladra is pretty sure is yet another sign of the apocalypse, Dean DLP won the runoff for the Miami District 1 commission seat vacated by Willy 
Gort Tuesday against Miguel Angel Gabela, a perennial candidate that nearly beat Gort once but came way behind this week with only 40% of the vote.
They were the only two standing after a first round Nov. 5 with seven candidates. ADLP, who was arguably the front runner from the day he announced, got 39% and Gabela got 21%, beating out Eleazar Melendez, a former aide to Commissioner Ken Russell who had his support. Melendez lost with just 19%.
Alex is going to be insoportable con ese 60% mandate from this runoff. If he can, he will wear it on a t-shirt. He will print it out and frame it on the wall. After all, this is a longtime coming vindication for the veteran politico after a series of embarassing losses.
Diaz de la Portilla — who served six years in the House and 10 in the state senate, including two as president pro tempore — lost a bid to go back to the Florida House in 2012 (to a young up-and-riser named Jose Javier Rodriguez). It took him a while to bounce back from that one but when he did, he went three races in three years.
He lost a special election to go back to the state senate, but in District 40 (carpetbagging), in 2017, losing to Jose Felix Diaz who then lost to Annette Taddeo. ADLP lost a third time in the special election for county commission District 5 in 2018, coming in third behind Mrs. Bruno Barreiro and, the eventual winner, Eileen Higgins.
Read related: Senate District 40 GOP race gets ugly fast with attack on Alex DLP
So what did ADLP do? Some might give up after the third rejection. But Diaz de la Portilla set his sights on an even smaller piece of the pie in a district 
where he does have roots — he may not really live there but his father’s mattress joint is in Allapattah — and the competition is a little lower grade. And he raised more than $820,000 from special interests, according to the latest campaign reports, to spread his campaign message and smear Gabela. That’s almost four times as much as Gabela raised and, especially since it doesn’t count any political action committee funds, could be a record for a city of Miami commission race. This is probably the only way The Dean could get back into office. And one can’t help but feel a little happy about the sheer joy this will give him, along with the fear about what he might do with his newly grabbed power.
Now, this does not necessarily have to be bad. Sure, it smells bad. It feels wrong. It seems like Jorge Mas and his real estate scam disguised as a soccer stadium is going to get another ally on the dais and it looks like the Tallahassee lobbyists who helped fund his campaign have their boy in Miami.
But ADLP can be predictable until he surprises you. It’s like he has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other and just because he has listened to the devil more often than the other guy doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to sell Miamians out.
Okay, okay, odds are he will. But let’s give people hope. He really does want to leave a legacy.
Another big winner Tuesday is former State Rep. Manny Prieguez, who served as ADLP’s biggest adviser and one of his biggest donors, pouring more than $10,000 into the campaign through his different companies, and making awkward calls to burnt bridges on the Dean’s behalf. Ladra can’t help but wonder what Prieguez, a lobbyist whose family owns a business and property along the Miami River, is going to get for his trouble.
Read related: Alex DLP bolts out of Miami gate with a campaign cash advantage
Trouble. That’s a good word for what to expect with ADLP and Commissioner Joe Carollo on the same governing board. If you thought the Miami commission meetin
gs were entertaining now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
And what about that PaellaGate investigation? When are we going to hear what the State Attorney, who just hates going after politicians, will do with that bag of abuse of office? It was for another campaign — the county one — when Carollo allegedly used his office staff and budget to buy paella lunch for senior voters and had ADLP help hand out the plates during early voting.
Is this the kind of behavior we can expect from commissioner DLP’s office?
Alexa, add popcorn to my list.
Alex Diaz de la Portilla finally cons his way back into office in Miami added by Ladra on
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