The four Miami-Dade Commission races provide voters with the first opportunity in decades to redefine the dynamics on the board with at least three newcomers.
And, hopefully, not all four.
As folks get ready for early voting to start on Monday — filling out absentee ballots over the weekend to take with us — Ladra announces the following endorsements in three of the four races:
Let’s start with the one where there’s an incumbent we want to keep: District 5’s contest between Commissioner Eileen Higgins and former Miami-Dade School Board Member and onetime State Rep. Renier Diaz de la Portilla, who has made his campaign all about his heritage.
That’s because, despite his “experience,” he has nothing else to offer.
Renier, younger brother of Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla and former State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, has centered his campaign on one thing: He’s Hispanic and from here, she’s not.
“She’s not one of us,” he keeps saying, pointing to a 1992 court ordered redistricting plan to ensure minority representation. He says that because more than 70% of the voters are Hispanic, they should have a Hispanic commissioner. The problem with that argument is that those Hispanic voters chose Higgins in a special election against two Hispanics, including big brother Alex DLP. The 1992 ruling ensured districts, it doesn’t mandate Hispanics to vote for Hispanics.
Read related: In dirty Miami-Dade District 5 race, front-runners are both ‘communists’
It’s 2020 and we’re no longer a minority, nor are we under represented anywhere in local government.
Renier embarrasses us more inclusive, open-minded Cubans by using that tired and divisive rhetoric — and casting Higgins as a communist — as if it were still 1983. The ethnic-baiting is disgusting and we should send a message to him and all other candidates that it doesn’t work anymore.
Additionally, he’s angry all the time and he’s a liar, as proven by his attacks on Ladra on Twitter, where he keeps his profile private. He turns to defamation when he can’t defend himself.
And he has spent more money than Higgins has raised. Ladra has to take a closer look at his campaign finance reports but he’s got $700,000 before you even look at big brother’s Alex’s Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade PAC, which has raised $464,000 since May. That’s a total of $1.2 million invested in Frodo.
What economic crisis? People have money to throw away.
Ladra doesn’t love Higgins. All you have to type her name in the search box to know that’s true. But she’s waaaaaay better than RDLP, who absolutely won’t represent everyone.
Besides, one Diaz de la Portilla at the public trough at a time is enough.
In District 3, we may not know very much about longtime community activist Gepsie Metellus, but all we really have to know is that she’s not Miami Commissioner Keon “Pay-to-Play” Hardemon.
Okay, that’s not fair. Metellus stands on her own merits. A former public schools administrator and aide to former county Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler, she has served for the last nine years as executive director of the Saint La Haitian Neighborhood Center in Little Haiti. She knows the diverse community’s needs and wants and can speak for them.
Hardemon knows what his lobbyist aunt and uncle want and will speak for them and the more than $1 million they’ve collected in two separate political action committees, according to the latest campaign finance reports. That’s in addition to $577,280 raised by Hardemon in his campaign account. He could arguably spend around $2 million to get this seat, vacated by Audrey Edmonson after 16 years.
That’s a lot of investors he’s going to have to answer to (more on that later).
Read related: Keon Hardemon’s PAC collects mucho money from Mas and soccer partners
Metellus — who has raised only $250,000 as of Oct 2 — is a fresh voice for the people, not the special interests. But she is the underdog. In addition to more money, Hardemon also has the fact that he almost won outright in August but got less than 50% of the vote.
Gepsie Metellus would also be just the second Haitian American elected to the commission, which will become more important after Commissioner Jean Monestime is termed out in 2022.
In District 7, it’s another no-contest contest between former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado and former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy “Pottymouth” Lerner, who has hopefully gotten anger management since her mayoral days. By now, everyone has seen the video montage of her verbal outbursts and abuse of residents at council meetings. There’s a shorter version making rounds on TV.
That’s a good reason, but not the only reason, not to vote for Lerner. Apparently she plays willy nilly with Florida Government in the Sunshine laws and let her cousin use Pinecrest Gardens for free for an art auction event. She also pushed that special tax in Pinecrest for residents to pay for septic to sewer connections that the county should be on the line for. Voters rejected her then.
More recently, Lerner, who does not speak Spanish, has offended the Cuban and Hispanic community with a radio spot that rolls the Rs exaggeratedly, calling Rrrrrraquelita a fake Rrrrrepublicana in a non partisan race. It’s in a mocking tone. And it’s more than a bit two-faced. Lerner tells her anglo Democrat voters that Regalado is a Republican but she tells the Hispanic mostly GOP voters that she’s not Republican enough.
We don’t need her yelling her doublespeak on the commission dais.
Read related: Video montage reminds District 7 voters of Cindy Lerner’s temper, rudeness
Meanwhile, there are so many reasons to vote for Regalado, who has been studying and practicing for this practically her whole life and, more intensely, in the past four or five years since she ran unsuccessfully for Miami-Dade mayor. Regalado knows more about county operations and the county budget than some sitting commissioners do. Lerner would have to set up a committee. All voters have to do is watch and listen to them both at one of several virtual forums posted online, like this one by the Urban Core Community Coalition. Or this one by the Miami Foundation. Or this one by Community Newspapers.
She’s a visionary, having spoken about septic to sewer and connecting rail to Broward — two things that leaders are hot about now — in 2016. And she would be the only single working mom on the commission — a voice that’s been sorely missing, which has become especially evident during the COVID19 pandemic and the re-opening of schools.
In District 9, it’s a close one between State Rep. Kionne McGhee and former Homestead Councilman Elvis Maldonado. Ladra likes them both and hasn’t decided who or whether she will endorse. We don’t know enough about the race.
As former House minority leader, McGhee has more of the legislative experience and Tallahassee connections we’re going to need in the immediate future to get out of our COVID19 economic hole.
Also, as an early defender of rail to South Dade, he is more likely to keep a fire under everyone’s butt about it.
The only thing Ladra doesn’t like about Kionne is that he has the backing of Commissioner Dennis Moss, who is now running for the school board. But that’s not enough to turn me off completely.
Maldonado is a nice guy and he would make a good elected, although Ladra always thought he’d run for state office.
But he had to move to qualify for this seat, which is always a bad sign.
Who to vote for in three Miami-Dade County Commission races and why added by Ladra on
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