Florida State House, Senate candidates in the 305 qualify - with a big yawn

Five incumbent state representatives in Miami-Dade — four Republicans, one Democrat — were re-elected more than two months before the primary Friday when nobody qualified to run against them.

State Reps. Tom Fabricio in District 110, David Borrero in 111, Alex Rizo in 112 and Daniel “Danny” Perez, the future Speaker of the House, in 116 can all relax for the next few months. They drew zero challengers in the primary and Democrats were unable or unwilling to throw anyone at them in November.

Democrat State Rep. Kevin Chambliss can also chill after nobody filed to run against him.

In the Senate, Democrat Jason Pizzo and Republican Ana Maria Rodriguez in Districts 37 and 40, respectively, are automatically ushered into another term with zero opposition. State Rep. Bryan Avila is also now a senator, replacing Manny Diaz Jr. in District 39 because nobody else wanted it.

The rest of the races are disappointingly boring. Thank Cachita for David Rivera saving the day with a House campaign. That’s really going to be the only fun in state elections this year, no thanks to State Rep. Michael Grieco, who dropped out of a senatorial bid. So much promise wasted!

In District 108, former Rep. Roy Hardemon, a glutton for punishment, is going for round three against Rep. Dottie Joseph, who has beat him twice. There are two other Democrat wannabes in that primary, but they don’t matter. This is a rematch between Hardemon, who has reported raising only $1,500 (which probably means his money is in a political action committee) and Joseph, who has raised a little more than $81,000. Yawn.

In District 109, Rep. James Bush has a challenge from Ashley Gantt, an attorney and Democrat activist who also serves on the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, a body that oversees the spending of the half cent tax approved by voters for the People’s Transportation Plan. Gantt has raised a respectable $53,561 against Bush’s $47,150. Eh.

District 113 is wide open and there are two Republicans and two Democrats competing for State Rep. Nick Duran‘s seat. On the red ballot: Political activist Vicky Lynn Lopez, who has raised $80,000 and loaned herself anothr $50K, and Venezuelan-American property manager Alberto Perosch, who is mostly self funding with a $150,000 loan (he also raised $14,000). On the blue ballot: Andres Althabe, president of the Biscayne Neighbors Association, who has raised $61,745 and loaned himself another $10K, and attorney Alessandro “A.J.” D’Amico, Duran’s hand-picked successor, who has raised the most, with $105,632 reported so far. This one could be interesting. Or not.

In District 114, Republican State Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera is trying to defend her freshman seat against former Miami-Dade prosecutor Adam Benna — who also worked as a legislative aide for Congresswoman Corrine Brown — while her husband, Kevin Cabrera, tries to get on the Miami-Dade Commission. The incumbent has raised $161,864 and Benna has raised $51,815, as of the last campaign finance reports. But this race won’t be on the August ballot as neither of them got a challenge within their party.

In the wide open District 115, let Ladra be among the first to congratulate veteran political operative and first-time candidate Alina Garcia on her win. The Republican gets to debut with no primary and will face Democrat Palmetto Bay resident Christie Cantin Davis in November, but who are we kidding? Davis filed at the last minute so we have no contributions to report, but Garcia has raised a whopping $361,902.

In District 118, State Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin faces two Republican challengers in the primary: Perennial candidate Daniel Sotelo, who has run twice, the first time as an NPA, and someone named Francisco Rodriguez. Sotelo, who has spent at least $75,000 of his own money in the last four years trying to get elected, has loaned himself another $50K to bolster the $106,000 he has raised for this year’s campaign. Rodriguez just filed this month so he hasn’t reported any contributions yet. Whoever wins the primary will face another perennial candidate, Democrat Johnny Farias, in November. Farias has lent himself $50,000 and collected another $116,000 in contributions, according to the latest campaign finance report.

In District 119, we may or may not have the pleasure of watching former Congressman David Rivera run in a crowded field for an open seat. He filed paperwork late Friday, but it seemed as of Saturday that he had not qualified. He was at an event when reached Saturday afternoon and said he would explain later. That would have been the best news of the cycle for a political blogger.

Now, instead, we may have to deal with another snoozefest: Miami-Dade Area 11 Community Council Vice Chair Ashley Alvarez, who has raised $3,400; personal injury attorney Roberto Gonzalez, has raised $98,000 and loaned himself $17,000; attorney and former legislative aide Juan Carlos Porras, who spent the last two years working for Rep. Rizo and has raised $44,378, according to the latest campaign report, hotelier Ricky Tsay — who would be the first Guatemalan-Tawainese-American elected to the state House — who has loaned himself $150,000 and raised $8,045 — and teacher Jose Soto has raised $2,375.

Two Democrats also qualified: James Cueva and Gabriel Gonzalez. But whoever wins the Republican Aug. 23 primary in this GOP stronghold is likely to be elected.

In District 120, we have two Republicans challenging incumbent State Rep. James Mooney Jr. in the primary. Marketing firm director Rhonda Rebman Lopez, who lost to Mooney by less than 150 votes in 2020, wants another chance and has raised $76,155 for it, and Robert Scott Allen of Big Pine Key, who has only raised $150.

There are also two Democrats vying for the chance to flip the seat blue. Key West Attorney Adam Gentle, has raised $74,414, and Daniel “Dan” Horton-Diaz, who was district chief of staff to former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, has raised almost $54,000 and loaned himself another $16,000. It’s Horton-Diaz’s third try after losing to Republican Rep. Holly Raschein (57%-43%) in 2016 and losing the Senate District 39 primary against Javier Fernández (59%-41%) in 2020.

The state Senate races are just as, er, uninspiring.

Aside from the three that already won without a debate or vote cast, we will most likely see the return of Sen. Ileana Garcia, who basically stole her seat in 2020 through the use of a third party plantidate. She was very vulnerable, but State Rep. Michael Grieco still dropped out of the District 36 race just days ago, saying he could not compete financially, blaming the party for being too busy on other priorities, and ruining what was going to be the best race of the cycle.

Las malas lenguas say he was blackmailed with some juicy personal shit. But either way, it was too late for anyone with any real chops or chance to jump in. So we have failed Miami Beach commission candidate Raquel Pacheco, instead. The Army vet and business owner just filed, so Pacheco has no campaign contributions to report. Garcia’s last report shows she has raised $217,654.

But we won’t see that contest until November. Ditto for the open District 38 race between LGBT activist and healthcare exec Janelle Perez is the Democrat facing Republican Alexis Maria Calatayud, who was a legislative aide and campaign manager for State Rep. Vance Aloupis, who has endorsed her. Perez, who switched over from the Congressional race in District 27, has raised $106,082 and spent almost $24,000. Calatayud raised $69,862 — all in May.

One of the more interesting races might be the Senate 35 battle between incumbent Sen. Lauren Book and former Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief, who lost a congressional bid last year and loaned herself half a million dollars for this election. Book, daughter of lobbyist Ron Book, has raised $430,178. She has spent $141,038, some of it on two early commercials that show she is taking Sharief’s challenge seriously.

Two Democrats have challenged incumbent Sen. Shevrin “Shev” Jones, Florida’s first openly gay Black legislator: Prison guard Pitchie Escarment and Miami Gardens Councilman Erhabor Ighodaro, who ran against Jones with a mostly homophobic campaign in 2020 and lost, still coming in second in a field of six with 18% of the vote — more than Daphne Campbell or Barbara Watson. Jones, who won with 39%, has raised $81,677, but has spent most of that, or $66,763, so he’s going to have to shake some trees.

Election Day is Aug. 23, but absentee or vote-by-mail ballots go out on July 22 so the campaigning is going to heat up very soon. Stay tuned to Political Cortadito for news about endorsements, polls, campaign financing, policy announcements and more.

Florida State House, Senate candidates in the 305 qualify — with a big yawn added by Ladra on June 18, 2022
View all posts by Ladra →