Miami-Dade mayoral push poll precedes first 2020 debate Tuesday

Ladra got the most interesting phone call Monday, on the eve of the first debate for the Miami-Dade mayoral candidates in 2020. It was a push poll, likely for former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas.

Why? Penelas was the only candidate that my interviewer spoke positively about during a nearly 20 minute Q&A (okay it took longer because I kept asking him to repeat himself as I wrote some of it down).

It also indicates that the half-penny tax and how badly it was misspent will be a campaign topic. Like we didn’t know that already. Expect blame to be pushed around at Tuesday’s debate. It is not too soon.

After asking if I thought the county commission was doing a very good, good or poor job (poor, obviously), Ladra was asked to identify two of the following issues as my most important: traffic, sea level rise, crime, the cost of housing, clean water, good paying jobs or keeping taxes low. It was not easy picking just two.

Then came the half-penny sales tax question and which of the two statements I believed: That the original backers over promised and misled voters on the 2002 referendum that passed the half-penny tax for mass transit solutions or that the politicians in office since then have diverted and misspent the money on things it was not intended for?

Can you all guess where Ladra landed on that one? Ding, ding, ding to door number two!

After that, I was asked to give favorable or unfavorable nods to a list of mayoral hopefuls that included two rumored wannabes who have not declared yet and likely won’t: Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and County Clerk Harvey Ruvin.

The others on the list are the expected: Penelas, County Commissioners Esteban Bovo, Daniella Levine-Cava, Jean Monestime and Xavier Suarez and former Commissioner Juan Zapata. Oh, and, just for good measure how did I feel about Donald Trump? Probably so Penelas knows how to best use any impression of the most loathed U.S. president in history.

I was then asked who I would vote for if the election were today. After that, I got to hear a lot of good things about Penelas, like the interviewer was trying to change my mind (sorry, Alex). After each I was asked if, knowing this, I would definitely vote for him, probably vote for him, if it made no difference or if I didn’t know:

He has an “action plan to attack pollution and clean up Biscayne Bay and the beaches.”
He will “continue the fight he began in his first term to stop the pay-to-play political corruption…” especially when it deals with lobbyists. This is where Ladra laughed out loud.
He is for stopping gun violence and was “one of the first elected officials” to support anti-gun laws.
As a candidate with “someone close to him with mental health issues” — and certainly the statement refers to his late brother Pedro, who battled mental illness– Penelas would increase the county funding for mental health and counseling programs.
Penelas is coming back to end the misspending of the half penny sales tax and “make sure the money is paid back and used for mass transit.”
He used the first bonus check from his first job to help his parents buy a house, coached his son’s soccer team and “drives his daughter to school every day.”

Ho hum. Sounded more like a campaign commercial and less like a poll.

“Alex is coming back to offer his experience, leadership skills and knowledge of county government to provide a bold vision to move Dade County forward,” the interviewer repeated twice so I could get it all down.

The caller identified the company as National Opinion Research just after 7 p.m. and the call lasted 19 minutes. No joke.

Yes, I had the guy repeat a few times. But it’s also because of all the negative messages on the three front runners. Asked after each accusation if the news (as if) would make me more likely or less likely to vote for the accused, or if it didn’t matter, the interviewer said, basically:

Steve Bovo is a pro-blasting, “typical pay-to-play politician who has taken $100,000 from businesses with airport contracts,” has an A rating from the NRA and a “senior staff” that dabbles in absentee ballot fraud.
Xavier Suarez was known for “erratic behavior” as mayor of Miami — including “showing up at his critics doors late at night” — and “disrespected the African American community when he refused to honor Nelson Mandela on his visit to Miami.”
Levine Cava is another “typical pay-to-play politician, taking tens of thousands from developers and then approving their projects,” who just talks about fixing transit and homeless problems and then does nothing but vote to divert half-penny tax funds from expanding mass transit.

This is the Penelas campaign testing messages against the front runners. The ones that score the highest will be heard again.

They also tested negative messages that could be used against them: While he was mayor last time, Alex Penelas was investigated for giving airport contracts to his friends. And after badly losing the presidential race in 2000, Al Gore called Penelas the “single most treacherous and dishonest person” he had dealt with during the controversial campaign.

Perhaps Penelas thinks these are the best arguments against him. The latter doesn’t really matter unless you’re a diehard Democrat. But the first is a doozie that might be hard to overlook at a time when mistrust in government is downright trendy.

We can certainly expect some of these attacks to be made at the first debate of the year, which begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14, at the Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana, 900 SW First Ave. It is organized by the Calle 8 InterAmerican Chamber of Commerce and its vice president, Maribel Betancourt, told Ladra that Bovo, Levine Cava, Monestime, Penelas, Suarez and Zapata are confirmed, as is Monique Barley (photo, right), a newcomer who got zero time on the push poll, probably because she is a long shot who has raised just over $1,000. There are two other candidates who filed paperwork indicating they opened bank accounts. But they have not raised any funds and are not going to the debate on Tuesday.

Which, by the way, is in Spanish. Ladra was told that English speaking candidates will have translators provided by MegaTV, which will likely air at least some of it. So there may not be time for a lot of exploration of issues.

But this might be the first time all the front runners are on the same stage.

Maybe Penelas should poll again afterwards.

Alex Penelas, Daniella Levine Cava, Esteban Bovo, Miami-Dade Mayor 2020, Xavier Suarez

Miami-Dade mayoral push poll precedes first 2020 debate Tuesday added by Ladra on January 14, 2020
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