Now more than ever — after the Miami-Dade commissioners held off the District 8 appointment to open it up to more wannabes — voters countywide must demand a special election as the only way to maintain our trust.
The process of replacing Daniella Levine Cava, who was elected to mayor and left her commission seat vacant, has been so convoluted if not outright corrupted that only an election by the people will give the person representing that district the next two years any kind of credibility.
Everyone thought that commissioners said on Nov. 19 they would only consider the people who had filed paperwork to run for the seat in 2022. But on Tuesday, Acting Chair Rebeca Sosa said that was never the intention, and she opened it up to anyone who was interested and filed something to that affect by Thursday.
Why didn’t they do that on Nov. 19?
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Seems almost like an afterthought. Like, “Oooops. We didn’t get who we want so let’s just start over.” We saw this movie play at Miami Dade College last year.
Who is it that commissioners want?
A lot of people thought it was Danielle Cohen Higgins, an attorney who feels like the incumbent, having raised close to $350,000 from the same usual suspects. Several observers counted seven votes for her. She’s the one everybody has suspected would get it from the get-go, because she shares the same campaign consultant as the mayor and Commissoner Eileen Higgins. It smelled like a coalition.
But Higgins was one of the five commissioners who voted against an appointment. The others were Commissioners Sally Heyman, Joe Martinez, Jean Monestime and Javier Souto, who, for once, made more sense than others in explaining that voting is the only democratic way to do this.
“This is America. We believe in elections here,” he said.
Commissioner Rene Garcia, who fought the hardest for an election at the Nov. 19 meeting, tried again to win his colleagues’ sense of civic pride and call a special election in February. He pledged $50,000 from his commission account to pay for it and asked others to pitch in. Crickets.
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Which would have been the answer right? The whole excuse for not having a special election is the $1.2 million price tag. If commissioners gave $50,000 each that would make for $600,000 and, c’mon, you know they can find $400K in the time it takes one to sneeze.
And if they have the money to subsidize the Orange Bowl and related programs, to the the tune of $4 million, and a new Office of Policy and Budgetary Affairs, which is projected to cost nearly $1 million, they certainly can find the money to allow the voters of District 8 a chance to choose their representative.
Sosa didn’t let him push a revote on the appointment vs. an election. She said he was on the losing side of the Nov. 19 vote and only commissioners on the winning side can recall it for reconsideration.
Still, to keep the peace, Sosa allowed a show of hands and Garcia did not have the backing he needed.
Again the vote was 7-5 for an appointment, but this time Commissioner Rene Garcia jumped sides after he failed, again, to get support for a special election. He voted with Sosa, who seemed the most adamant against having an election, and Commissioners Oliver Gilbert, Keon Hardemon, Raquel Regalado, Kionne McGhee and Jose “Pepe” Diaz.
Remember those names. Because they deprived the residents of District 8 true representation so they could crown the next king or queen. This person won’t be accountable to the people because he or she will be beholden to the commissioners that got him or her there.
There is power in appointing someone. There is power in voting someone into office. The commissioners took the power away from the people because they could.
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Among the people who might be in the mix when the commission considers this again at a special meeting Monday are Key Biscayne Police Chief Charles Press, who had been thinking about running but rushed to file his candidate’s oath and bank account info on Monday in case the commission went ahead and appointed one of the candidates already on file.
Press is the son-in-law of Joe Martinez. And he apparently told the Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks that he would retire in a heartbeat if he were appointed. How awkward is that going to be at work if he’s not?
Former and disgraced Sen. Frank Artiles is also on the list, and that makes more sense, given the fact that he’s basically unemployed and struggling as a lobbyist. But Ladra can’t believe that’s anything but misdirection given his racist, misogynist, abusive and dishonest history and how his appointment would basically end with riots in the streets.
Another possibility that keeps coming up is former Police Director Juan Perez, who told Ladra he is interested in running in 2022 but had not thought about doing the job now. Last month, las malas lenguas said he is being pressured to pitch for it. On Monday night, Ladra got a call from a well-connected public servant who said Perez was back in the mix. Of course, I explained that the commission could only consider those people who had already filed papers to run.
And then Tuesday morning, suddenly, they aren’t.
Something fishy is going on here. We need a special election. It is the only way to get back some of our trust.
Miami-Dade Commission holds off D8 appointment to allow for more choices added by Ladra on
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