'Anyone but Joe' is the mantra among Miami-Dade Sheriff GOP candidates

And, no, they don’t mean Joe Martinez

If one thing has become clear as we approach the primary in the historic election for Miami-Dade sheriff, it is that all the Republicans in the race but one share a common theme: Anyone But Joe.

No, that’s not about former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez, who was arrested for the public corruption charges of unlawful compensation and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation, suspended from the commission by the governor and qualified in the days before the election. Martinez keeps saying he is innocent and that the arrest was politically motivated to keep him from this office.

And he immediately moves to the top of the heap, even though he may have started late, simply because of his name rec.

But the ABJ mantra is for former Miami Commissioner Joe Sanchez, a former Florida Highway Patrol officer and spokesman who served for 11 years as the commissioner in the city’s District 1 and also worked for Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez as the “supervisor” of her dignitary protection. The other candidates keep pointing at the fact that he has never commanded a unit or patrolled a street.

Sanchez says he’s taking the heat because he’s leading the polls by 10 points. “I’m surprised I’m not on the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s guests in the Bahamas,” he told Ladra. (Watch us see that in a mailer, now).

Actually, the only poll Ladra has seen has him leading Martinez by less than five points, with less than 11% overall because 67% of the voters were undecided. This was a month ago.

But he is just not respected by his peers. He says he’s the only independent candidate, but las malas lenguas say he was recruited to run by Republican lobbyists in Tallahassee who want to have a way into the new sheriff’s office.

In private, some sheriff candidates might say who they could vote for if they weren’t running. Many like retired Miami-Dade Police Maj. Mario Knapp, the apolitical veteran. Others like former MDPD Major and attorney Ignacio Alvarez, for his real life experience. And some could see themselves voting for the current Miami-Dade Assistant Director Rosanna Cordero-Stutz, who had a nice bump in fundraising after the announcement of the Donald Trump endorsement in April, according to her last campaign finance report.

But everybody who spoke to Ladra is ABJ. Anybody but Joe (Sanchez).

Sanchez has been painted as a pansy. He’s a nice guy, alright — a good husband and father. “Good people,” is what almost everyone says about him. Someone you could share a beer with at a barbecue or want on your team in a pick-up softball game. But he’s a political failure, with the Marlins Stadium albatross around his neck. Sanchez cast the deciding 3-2 vote to support the 2009 bond plan to build the stadium, now estimated to cost taxpayers $2.6 billion to repay.

And he’s consistently dishonest about his 37 years in law enforcement.

First, you would have to subtract the 11 years he spent as a Miami Commissioner, during which he took a leave of absence. Sanchez says he was on the reserve program, where he had to be if he wanted to keep his law enforcement certification. He had to go through training, he said, and work two days a month. Two whole days!

So, 37 minus 11 equals 26 years.

But he has also spent the last 15 of those years as a public information officer, dealing with the media and giving interviews, becoming sort of an icon in his Smokey The Bear hat. One might argue that is not traditional law enforcement experience. It’s more like PR experience.

So, 26 minus 15 equals 11. He has 11 years experience in law enforcement. That’s far less than 37.

Sanchez will argue that his wide range of experience makes him more qualified for the sheriff’s job. But just because you’ve done a bunch of different things, doesn’t mean they are the right things to train you for this position. And how wide is his range of experience, really?

“They say a state trooper is not a cop, but I spent 18 years out there writing tickets and making arrests,” Sanchez said, coming down from 37 years, but not far enough. Oooooh, writing tickets and making arrests. Terrifying. He also proudly notes that he was appointed to the advisory board for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Gee. Whiz.

Sanchez has never hired or fired anybody, except as chairman of the Bayfront Park Trust and Downtown Development Authority when he was a city commissioner. “And the events required police participation and a plan of public safety that I put together with the police,” Sanchez said, grasping at straws.

He said he never held a rank, never took a promotional exam at FHP, because that would mean leaving Miami, he said. “And I never wanted to leave my family.”

He also probably didn’t want to leave his business, Badge Pros Consulting, which, allegedly, provides law enforcement agencies and private companies guidance on security matters and traffic control. It also serves as a middle man for off-duty police work at private properties or events. The address for the for profit business he’s had since 2014 is the address for the FHP’s Troop E off the Florida Turnpike. Sanchez told Ladra that he would no longer run the business if he was elected sheriff.

“I have made it very clear that once I get elected, my company will be inactive,” Sanchez said in a text. “Badge Pros consulting will become inactive as a business in the State of Florida and I will focus on the responsibilities of the sheriff’s office.”

Key words: State of Florida. Maybe he can register the company in Delaware.

Sanchez has blasted many of the other candidates for not taking a leave of absence to campaign. “They’re campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime, a lo descarado,” Sanchez said about the current MDPD staffers in the race. “Who’s running the department?”

Among the candidates who are Miami-Dade Police officers — and Ladra believes they all took a leave of absence once they qualified — include Chief of Public Safety James Reyes, a Democrat who is likely to win the blue primary, Midwest Station Major Jose Aragu, Officer Ernie Martinez, of the Agricultural and Environmental Crimes unit, and Assistant Chief Cordero-Stutz, the highest ranking candidate, who Sanchez went toe-to-toe with in a pair of dueling videos. He says Cordero-Stutz used her Miami-Dade County Police vehicle to get to political events. If he’s elected, she’s likely out of a job.

Last week, Sanchez — who also likes to say he is the only veteran in the race — launched a website called RinoRosie.com, questioning Cordero-Stutz’s Republican credentials and reminding voters that she lives in Broward.

“Rino Rosie Cordero-Stutz claims to be a true Republican,” it says in a 37-second web video, going on to report that she missed voting for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the primary for Donald Trump and gave a campaign contribution to Democrat Charlie Crist when he was running for governor.

“Actions speak louder than words. Do not fall for Rino Rosie’s tricks,” the AI voiceover says.

But why would someone who is 10 points ahead need to attack the only woman in the GOP primary? Because he’s not.

He’s zoned in on Cordero-Stutz, but he says everybody else is equally unqualified. “None of them have the experience to deal with the political bureaucracy that exists.”

Sanchez was 33 years old when he accepted a challenge to run for city commission in 1998, he says. At the time, the city had a $68 million deficit and the state was threatening to take over. “People said ‘You’re crazy.’ I told them ‘This is an opportunity for me to learn. And I did. I’m very proud of my service to this community.”

Is he proud of the Marlins deal that is going to cost the taxpayers billions and became the model for what not to do with a publicly-funded stadium?

“I’ve never been indicted. I’ve never been investigated,” Sanchez said. “I went back to the Patrol that welcomed me with open arms.”

According to a report about the candidates disciplinary records by WLRN, he did get a written reprimand at FHP after it was learned that he had asked companies that clean up accident scenes to help him raise money to help “underprivileged children” — but what organization was unclear. It was considered a conflict of interest because those companies were directly regulated by the FHP.

And he’s gotten a little heat on social media for photos posted of him at an event attended by members of the far-right, neo-fascist Proud Boys, a militant organization that promotes and engages in political violence and whose members are among those jailed for the January 6th insurrection.

“I will take pictures with people out there. I don’t even know who this guy is,” Sanchez told Ladra. “I get invited to these events and next they’re saying I’m with a Proud Boy.” It is unknown at the time of this post if this particular Proud Boy is a members of the Miami-Dade Republican Committee. Is it the same guy who posed with Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart in 2018 at a Nicaraguan community protest?

He has scrubbed his Instagram of the Proud Boy photo but not the picture he took with former Hialeah Councilwoman Angelica Pacheco, who was arrested last month on healthcare fraud charges.

Sanchez has been leading the GOP wing of the sheriff clown car in fundraising with $130,072 in his campaign account and $394,320 in his political action committee, Law and Order, which is a strange name when you see that it includes $10,000 from Sergio Pino, whose home and office were raided last week by the FBI in a case involving threats against the life of the developer’s estranged wife.

It includes $4,000 from Jesse Manzano, his campaign manager — and also a real estate developer wannabe — and his partner Ralph Garcia Toledo, $10,000 from lobbyist Brian May, $10,000 from attorney Richard Cole — who specializes in personal injury defense law, medical, legal and professional malpractice — and $7,000 from the Latin Builder Assocation’s Bernie Navarro.

But he has spent a boatload, too, according to his most recent reports, leaving him with less than $100K as of June 14. That includes more than $264,000 paid combined to his six different consultants, including Manzano, who billed the bulk of that, Alex Miranda, Daniel Bustamante and Nicole Arango doing senior outreach. A lot of that went to media outreach and phone banking.

Las malas lenguas say Sanchez is fundraising to run for mayor for Miami when he loses the sheriff’s race. “Are you out of your mind? I want nothing to do with that city,” Sanchez told Political Cortadito.

And he doesn’t want anyone to call him a career politician, either. “I haven’t held public office in 15 years,” he said.

The ABJ crowd would ask “Why end a good thing?”

‘Anyone but Joe’ is the mantra among Miami-Dade Sheriff GOP candidates added by Ladra on July 6, 2024
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