Will the real communist please stand up?
No, it’s not 1983, but, right on cue, the campaign for Renier Diaz de la Portilla is calling Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who he wants to replace on the dais, a communist.
A week or so before absentee ballots arrive, a TV video ad is making its way around social media, calling Higgins a radical socialist and basically tying her to the vandalism and looting that occurred during 
some of the Black Lives Matter protests.
“Companera Higgins is not on our side,” it says at the end, along with a photo-shopped image of La Gringa donning a black beret with a red star, ala Che Guevara, in a Castro pose.
We saw that coming, right? But what happened next was a surprise.
Not to be outdone, a mailer landed in mailboxes this week tying Diaz de la Portilla to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro atraves de former Congressman David Rivera, who was sued recently for breach of contract after allegedly taking $15 million to lobby on the government’s behalf in D.C. and Tallahassee.
“Taking cash from Nicolas Maduro’s disgraced errand boy,” says the mailer. “Don’t let the Maduro Regime influence our county commission.”
As if.
Also in the picture with Rivera are county Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, who is running for mayor, and Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is running Renier’s campaign.
This is the second negative mailer on Baby DLP, the first photo-shopping his face onto a zombie body — because he keeps coming back from the dead. Zombie is not too far from the truth, actually. Or the second mailer that Ladra has seen. I’m at the mercy of friends and strangers who live in District 5 so please keep them coming. And remember to send me the disclaimer side, too. Ladra is not too sure who paid for this Maduro piece, but the first Halloween-y piece was paid for by People Powered Politics, a very mysterious PAC with a hidden money trail that leads way, way back to traditionally GOP money.
Read related: Renier Diaz de la Portilla and brothers get hit with negative mystery attack mailer
The video against Higgins was paid for out of the candidate’s own campaign account, even though he’s 
got a political action committee of his own (sorta on his own, and more on that later). It is the second negative attack Ladra has seen on the incumbent from the DLP camp. The first was a mailer paid for by Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade, the political action committee run by big brother Alex Diaz de la Portilla, and it criticizes a $25 million program to assist small businesses who have not gotten any federal aid with maximum $30,000 micro loans that have to be paid back but at very comfy terms. If anything, $25 mil might not be enough.
What’s nice about the piece is the headline: C’mon Eileen! Which is the name of the a song by Dexys Midnight Runners that Renier Diaz de la Portilla reportedly blasts every morning, says a neighbor. Perhaps to psyche himself out? Go ahead. Play the song in the background. Don’t miss the dirty thoughts part.
But the communist piece is part of the Dean’s trusty ol’ playbook. He used the tactic against Zoraida 
Barreiro when he ran for that seat in 2018. Remember that? Wasn’t that long ago
But it didn’t work then. Barreiro, wife of former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro — who had left his seat to run for Congress and failed (now he’s running for state rep, but more on that later) — beat ADLP anyway for second place and then lost in the runoff to Higgins. Even after he tied her to Maduro atraves de Miami’s Venezuelan fuel czar, Max Alvarez, who gave to her campaign.
Funny enough, someone on ADLP’s campaign once filled-up at a Citgo. It’s on his campaign reports. But Ladra digresses.
If this ancient manipulative angle didn’t work for the Dean what makes him think it will for the far less charismatic and almost menacing Fredo? One would think Alex could get more clever than that. It’s old and tired already. Ladra is disappointed.
Likewise, it’s hard to fathom that anyone would believe that any Diaz de la Portilla is a communist or even communist-tolerant. That is one thing that Ladra would not accuse any brother of. Rivera is an old friend who is also not communist-tolerant. Opportunist? Maybe. But they likely didn’t talk about the Venezuelan business. Higgins and her consultant, Christian Ulvert, would do better to stick with the angle on their first attack, that Renier is just an appendage of his big brother Alex, who likes to break the rules and bully people around, and who would really be in charge. In other word, a zombie puppet.
Because this communist crap is aimed at old Cuban voters and they’re not going to buy it. Con La Gringa, maybe, but not with Baby DLP.
That’s why he is also going after her on a COVID-related vote. 
The newest piece, which Ladra calls the chancletera piece, has Higgins’ mug on a pair of flip flops, because she switched her vote on the bad BayLink deal that Renier Diaz de la Portilla himself has been critical of. She voted for it originally then called for a reconsideration after a scathing investigative report from the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust said the deal stunk to high heaven because it had been cooked months earlier — on burner phones, no less — in the trip to China and Japan with lobbyists and original G-men Ralph Garcia-Toledo and Jesse Manzano.
Read related: Corrupt Carlos Gimenez is caught by ethics commission covering his tracks
The mailer only works, maybe, because voters have short memories. Sure, she should have voted no the first time but Ladra didn’t see Renier making any public comments.
Also, it’s un insulto to all true and proud chancleteras.
Actually, these negative attacks — which started more than a week before absentee ballots drop, which bodes for a very ugly campaign — aren’t designed to turn votes. Nobody who was all in for Higgins will 
suddenly vote for RDLP because she’s a communist and he’s not. And vice versa. They are simply meant to repress votes by getting people so confused and/or disgusted in their choice that they’ll just skip it entirely. That, in turn, might guarantee a runoff where before there might have been a victory Aug. 18.
And, no, we are not talking about Renier here.
A third candidate, gadfly activist Miguel Soliman — a general contractor who ran for city commission and lost in 2017 — may end up gaining from these attacks. Because nobody is calling him a communist.
Of course, we can call him a friend of Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo — because he and his wife are considered Crazy Joe’s allies.
And that could be worse.
In dirty Miami-Dade District 5 race, front runners are both ‘communists’ added by Ladra on
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