Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, who was appointed to replace Mayor Daniella Levine Cava more than a year ago, submitted 500 signed petitions to qualify for the race in District 8 this year.
If she wants to do it by petition, she will have to collect another 971 petitions to make 1,471 in total — or 10% of the number of registered voters in D8. And if she wants to stay in office, she’ll have to get elected this time.
For the first time.
So far, she only has Alicia Arellano running against her. The Kendall activist and Vice-Chair for the Hammocks Citizens Advisory Committee has only raised $2,370 compared to the de facto incumbent’s haul of $391,631 — including a lot of development money — according to the most recent campaign finance reports through January. Her political consultant, Christian Ulvert, knew what he was doing when he made sure Cohen Higgins was appointed.
“I am proud to be running a grassroots campaign in South Dade and today’s initial batch of 500 petitions is a testament to our incredible supporters and volunteers who make this campaign what it is,” Cohen Higgins said in a statement released by Ulvert.
“I am truly grateful and humbled for their support and reaffirms that our campaign is not about me, it’s about the future of our community. I will continue to work hard everyday to earn the support of the South-Dade community and voters in District 8.”
Well, maybe not every community.
Read related: Danielle Cohen Higgins earns distrust with surprise revisit to 87th Ave bridge
Cohen Higgins has worked hard for the support of the Cutler Bay townies by pushing that 87th Avenue bridge across the canal at 163rd Street immediately after her appointment. But she has snubbed Palmetto Bay multiple times and is persona non-grata there, also because of the bridge that those villagers don’t want.
Alas, rumors that Palmetto Bay Mayor Karyn Cunningham would challenge the commissioner and bring on a real fight are unfounded. Cunningham filed last week to run for re-election.
The speculation came after Cunningham made a comment in January at the joint commission/council conflict resolution meeting on Palmetto Bay’s planned lawsuit against the county. That lawsuit claims that the bridge vote was put on the agenda illegally, using the COVID emergency order that allowed last minute items that related to the pandemic. The bridge does not relate to the pandemic in any way.
Cohen Higgins went on a strange stalker-like rampage against the village mayor, even showing photos of Cunningham exercising at a park when the item came before the county commission in February 2021. Cunningham, a teacher with Miami-Dade Public Schools and labor organizer with United Teachers of Dade, had said she couldn’t change her schedule on a dime.
“Unfortunately the tone and the temperature of this issue has been derailed,” Higgins Cohen said, “And it’s been derailed not by the citizens, although they are echoing the council. The tone and the temperature has stemmed from the village council.”
She said no Palmetto Bay elected went to County Hall at the Feb. 2, 2021 meeting to oppose the bridge, not even the mayor. “Instead, someone went exercising and went to a personal trainer that morning,” Cohen Higgins sniped, adding that the issue had been “weaponized.” She said there had been misinformation spread intentionally by Palmetto Bay electeds, who are too quick to turn to the courts.
Read related: County airs 87th Avenue bridge design, details, despite Palmetto Bay dispute
It was ugly and prompted Cunningham to say she was “saddened by the comments of my commissioner.
“If I ever decided to run for county commission, based on what I’ve seen today, I’ll really have to step it up,” she quipped. “We don’t usually engage in that kind of back and forth on our council.”
“It was a sideways comment,” Cunningham told Ladra Tuesday. “To say ‘Wow, this is really not appropriate.’
She chose to use her time rather than focus on the merits of the bridge to upbraid and try to belittle me,” Cunningham said.
The appointed commissioner also said that she had been silent on the issue until the January meeting because of the pending litigation. But the pending litigation came months after the village council cried foul about the process and she had multiple opportunities to meet with Palmetto Bay constituents. She chose not, too.
Cohen Higgins could have to answer about the merits of the bridge and her absence and rudeness to Palmetto Bay — on the campaign trail. She won’t have Commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz to run interference, like he did when he scolded a public speaker opposed to the bridge who criticized the appointed commissioner Jan. 21 for having ignored D8 residents.
And she’s going to have to explain, finally, why this bridge was a COVID emergency in the first place.
Miami-Dade’s Danielle Cohen Higgins files petitions to qualify for her first race added by Ladra on
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