While everyone is watching anxiously to see the results of the special election in Miami’s District 2, Miguel Gabela is already thinking ahead to November and District 1. A perennial candidate, it would be his fourth run.
And his second rematch.
Gabela, a real estate investor and auto parts business owner, last lost in 2019 to Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla. He lost twice before to the former commissioner, Willy Gort — once in 2010 and again in 2015.
The Dean last beat him in a runoff, 61% to 39%, which is not really that huge a victory when one considers that Diaz de la Portilla spent $1.65 million between his campaign fund and his political action committee — $820,800 in the general and $824,820 in the runoff — against Gabela’s 216K, according to the 2019 campaign finance reports.
“It’s important for people to know that he basically bought the election,” Gabela said.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is investigated on ghost city employee at Omni CRA
ADLP needed $1.6 million because he could not afford to lose to a relatively unknown candidate after he had lost three races since 2012 — one for state house against Jose Javier Rodriguez, one for state senate primary against Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz and one for county commissioner against Eileen Higgins.
Diaz de la Portilla is more vulnerable this year. He’s done nothing but abuse his office for personal gain and make the city look bad with his bullish behavior and his drunken tirades. In addition to the fact that he doesn’t really live in District 1, voters will be reminded about how:
- He was caught partying and pushing a code enforcement officer around at an illegal nightclub in his district that he attended with his staff.
- He then got that code enforcement supervisor fired.
- His favorite lackey, Jenny Nillo, was caught drinking beer out of cans and doing the commissioner’s personal errands — booze shopping, dry clean drop-offing — while she was paid for a no-show, $45,000-a-year job at the Omni area Community Redevelopment Agency.
- He rehired her after she was fired. She still ‘works’ for his district office.
- He then fired all the people who were really working at the Omni CRA.
- An ethics investigation found he had abused the city car that Nillo used.
- He has a police Sergeant at Arms drive him around everywhere — even all over the state — at a cost to taxpayers.
- He asked police to keep his and his lady friend’s name out of an accident report after his sergeant at arms slammed into a car in Little Havana.
- He still can’t account for hundreds of thousands in COVID relief gift cards that he was supposed to give to residents.
- He had his staff work on his baby brother’s commission and judicial campaigns.
- He had illegal work done on his house without permits.
“How many things do we need to see here before we stop it,” Gabela, who opened a bank account and filed paperwork Feb. 9, told Political Cortadito. Gabela, who was a member of the planning and zoning board from 2001 to 2009, says he has also seen conditions depreciate in Allapattah, the main neighborhood of District 1, and that ADLP is not invested in the community.
“It’s not personal, but I really do live in the district, unlike him, and I see what’s going on,” Gabela said. “He hasn’t been seen at Antonio Maceo Park since the election.”
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla got caught at an illegal bar, confronted code officer
It’s common knowledge that Alex Diaz de la Portilla does not live in District 1. The address he uses is his brother’s home, where Renier Diaz de la Portilla lives or lived with his wife and son. Alex Diaz de la Portilla has lived at the residential East Miami hotel in Brickell City Center or at his childhood house in Little Havana, which has been under foreclosure proceedings for years.
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But he had to run in District 1 because there are 27 senior housing centers where he could more easily manipulate the voters with absentee or mail-in ballots. This is the only place he can win.
Diaz de la Portilla has yet filed any paperwork with the city. And he hasn’t raised any funds for his Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade County PAC in months. Does he have another one we don’t know about?
Meanwhile, he is sending holiday and birthday cards to voters in other districts from his commission office, and most likely with commission district funds (there is no disclaimer), which is another abuse of his office and taxpayer dollars.
Miguel Gabela wants a rematch vs Alex Diaz de la Portilla in Miami’s District 1 added by Ladra on
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