Video ties Regalado to recently tainted politicos
For months there have been rumors that former Pinecrest Mayor and State Rep. Cindy Lerner would run for Miami-Dade commission in District 7 again. But Thursday, the rematch with Commissioner Raquel Regalado became official when Lerner filed bank account paperwork for the 2024 county election.
Lerner and/or her campaign team also released a video on YouTube that puts Regalado in the company of all the scummy politicos who have been in the news lately for their lack of ethics and other shenanigans: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who was slapped with a $63 million judgement in his First Amendment violation case, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who was paid $170,000 by a developer who was pulling permits from the city, suspended Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, arrested in a pay-for-play scheme to give away a public park and charged with bribery and money laundering, and Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, who has a bunch of shady side gigs and conflicts of interests.
Que tenga cuidado, ’cause they’re gonna call her a racist.
“Corruption, influence peddling, self-dealing, selling out the Everglades to big developers, breaking promises and betraying our communities,” Lerner says in the 2-minute video, and the last three items must be how she ropes in Regalado. “I am angry and I’m fed up. We all should be. That’s why I’m running for Miami Dade County Commission. We can stand up to Raquel Regalado and the whole corrupt Miami system and tell them ‘you’re out of order’.”
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago has business with accused money launderer
That’s the phrase used against her in 2020 from the same meeting that she now opens her own video with. Except she wasn’t talking to the whole corrupt Miami system in that clip where she says “You’re out of order.” She was talking to residents. To constituents.
“Yep, that’s me, Cindy Lerner,” she says. “I was mayor of Pinecrest for eight years. As mayor, I organized and led dozens of Miami cities to address sea level rise and climate change. I took on FP&L — and won. And I made sure residents had an outsized voice in their local government creating citizen boards to guide Pinecrest’s future instead of leaving all the decisions to politicians.
“And in eight years, over hundreds of hours of public meetings, there were heated debates,” Lerner says into the camera. “And at times, I did lose my cool. But these days, I don’t know about you, but I can’t read the news without getting angry.”
It’s quite a stretch to lump Regalado in with these very obvious crooks. But this is also a preview of what could happen to every single local incumbent next year: They will be painted as part of the broken, corrupt system that needs a total overhaul. They will be guilty by association. It’s cheap and an easy out of needing to have a real campaign or platform.
Read related: Cindy Lerner had a pattern of verbal abuse, not just one single incident
Regalado is vulnerable, no doubt. She only beat Lerner by 1,300 votes in 2020. A 50.62% win is not a landslide mandate. And she has disappointed a bunch of people since.
People who voted for her who say they won’t again. Calusa people upset at her vote to allow massive development on the abandoned golf course that has become a rookery for endangered birds. Coconut Grove Playhouse people upset that she changed her position on full restoration after she was elected. Everglades people upset about her swing vote to approve the construction of a warehouse complex across the Urban Development Line.
But she is also a workaholic — her constituents have gotten their money’s worth on that one.– and has no hair on her tongue about keeping the mayor and other commissioners accountable in public.
Regalado is practically beloved in Key Biscayne and Coral Gables, areas she also served as a Miami-Dade School Board member. She is an incumbent now, which means it will be harder for Lerner to get full and public support from the mayor and other commissioners. Or the unions.
Read related: On fourth try, Miami-Dade Commission approves huge project beyond the UDB
And for all of Lerner’s protests and powwows about climate change, Regalado has probably done more in one term to move the county forward on the septic to sewer transition than everybody else combined has done in two decades.
Plus, she is really nothing like Carollo or ADLP.
Currently, she is the main opponent — okay, second to Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill — to the Miami Wilds theme park planned for a strip of disappearing pine rocklands that is home to some unique and imperiled species of wildlife and she’s fighting Commissioner Kionne McGhee on his intense drive to turn the Redland into a Wynwood West.
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Reached late on Monday, Regalado — who had curated and hosted an event Thursday called MIAbility to create a dialogue on the inclusion of the disabled in the workplace — didn’t want to talk about a race so far away.
“I’m running for re-election. Whoever wants to sign up, can. I’m running on my record.”
Which, as far as we can tell, has nothing to do with the politicos in the headlines.
Cindy Lerner makes it official vs Raquel Regalado in 2024 Miami-Dade race added by Ladra on
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Super Karen Lunatic Cindy? The one that uses profanity & screams from dais? Only in Miami!
Regalado voted to kill Calusa. Her father lived, maybe still lives, in a sleazy developers apartment building maybe rent free?
I won’t be voting for any Trump-supporting election deniers. We live in a democracy. That is an extremely important issue for me. If you are part of the Trump cult or too cowardly to state that President Biden won the 2020 presidential election fair and square, you are not getting my vote. Enough of the big lie and of being a silent accomplice to it!
Cindy Lerner was the worst Mayor of the Village of Pinecrest. As a State Representative she was even worst with her antics and disrespect. Thank God that she has not been of the ballot lately. She is a rethread that brings no leadership or vision to the county commission seat.
Sharon S,
Great link , thanks .
Hope all voters see ii .
Looks to me like ANOTHER no win election for the voter .
Regalado sided with developers and for me that eliminates her as a choice and watching the video no way would support Lerner .
I am not in that district but if was would vote on amendments , other offices but not either one of those two. Would vote in person so no one fills in a name .
I’m in Doral where EVERY politician is owned by developers .
Sad what most elections in Miami are as far as choices .Real sad
Here’s the link to the real Cindy Lerner! https://youtu.be/HG6s8ZYXBe8?si=Mmht6TYwbUf19Q54
”Hispanics haven’t cornered the market on corruption by any stretch ”
As you know everything takes forever here in Miami , we are simply waiting for the patent to be approved .
If she has said anything negative about Miami’s Hispanic politicos , she is the best thing that could happen to Hispanics here in Miami because Hispanic politicos son parasitos .
Not beloved by this Coral Gables resident. Hasn’t answered a single email from me and definitely too cozy with Lago, to the point that I’m advised not to even bother with her because she will defer to Lago.
Dear Ms DeValle:
The SHADOW clouding:
Ms Regalado
Ms Lerner, and
YOU
is that CITIZENS UNITED HAS ALLOWED DEVELOPERS TO BUY COUNTY HALL — in the sense that developer PACS now donate more than 4 times as much as all voters combined, to City and County Election races.
Respectfully, Ms DeValle, why are you covering this up?
Please respond,
Jackson Rip Holmes
We all have our issues. Regalado pushed through the elimination of single-family zoning in unincorporated areas. Quality of life has been steadily deteriorating for decades as the BCC refused to enforce its own zoning laws. So the solution? Make the illegal out-buildings and rental apartments legal, but only out in the sticks–not in the cities. Then you say, but the County Commission can’t control zoning rules in a city. Not true, because when it comes to the SMART Program they make an exception because of the traffic crisis. But isn’t the housing crisis county wide? So I say either go back to single family rules in RU-1 neighborhoods (and enforce the rules) or let the whole county suffer equally and force the cities, like Palmetto Bay and Coral Gables, to allow Granny Flats, too.
Once again, Cindy Lerner has distorted the truth and tried to downplay her unacceptable out of control behavior (Please see YouTube video Meet Cindy Lerner). Do not be fooled; this is how she treats people, both inside and outside of Commission meetings.
Thanks GOD for The Broward State Attorney (SAO) for Coming to Miami Dade To CLEAR all the Manipulations of OUR SAO , Let Get Transparency into GOVERMENT! FIRE THE COE Commission on Ethics, The OIG Office of Inspector General and The CSD Consumer Protection Department Lets GET A FRESH START !
Voting to approve a massive development on the Calusa golf course site is a HUGE problem for Regalado. Plus, her father, Tomas Regaldo, allegedly lived for years rent free in a sleazy developers luxury rental building. The dude probably still lives there he did so many favors for that developer. Now, Christine King, lobbyist Marc Sarnoff and Joe Carollo plan to install LED billboards on the Rickenbacker Causeway heading into and out of Key Biscayne. Raquel Regalado has never objected to that scam.
Regalado has been quite the disappointment. Once she sold her soul to developers and voted to move the UDB, she became the architect of the out of control development. She has also pulled a bait and switch on the Grove Playhouse. She is a master at bait and switch. By the way Raquelita, development doesn’t necessarily equate to progress. Go Cindy!
Hispanics haven’t cornered the market on corruption by any stretch but Ms. Lerner is making it clear how she views them in her world.
She’s not beloved by this Coral Gables resident. Her switch on the UDB issue and the lack of any response to two emails to her office will lead this voter to switch his vote in 2024.