Before Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago hand-picked attorney Richard Lara to run for city commission, in an effort to try to get his majority back with a third guaranteed vote, Lara was not at all involved in city politics. He hasn’t served on any boards. He never spoke before the commission, until he announced his run for office last year in a tacky move.
He hasn’t even voted in a single Coral Gables election since 1999.
Lara is asking for Gables residents to vote for him in this April 8 election, paints himself as a lifelong resident who cares deeply about the city. Yet he hasn’t cast a ballot in the City Beautiful in more than two decades. That’s because he lived in Westchester for a 17-year stint between calling Coral Gables home.
According to public records obtained from the Miami-Dade Elections Department, Lara has voted almost exclusively in national and state elections. He voted absentee in November, but did not vote in the primary last year. Ladra can’t help but wonder if Lago knows that Lara didn’t vote in the 2023 election, where the mayor’s two other handpicked candidates lost to commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez. Lara voted in the general election in 2022, but not in the city elections in 2021.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Richard Lara campaigns in public comments — again
That’s because he was not eligible, or not registered to vote in the Gables election until June of 2021. Lara, who has repeatedly said he has lived in Coral Gables all his life, lived in Westchester for a spell. Miami-Dade property records show he purchased a home on Cadagua in 1998 and sold it in 2003. That could explain why he voted in the city in 1999.
But Lara hasn’t voted once since then. Not even 2001. Or after he moved back in 2021, when, county records show, he and his wife Bertha — who were married in 1997, according to the county clerk’s records — purchased their home on Coral Way for $1.5 million. Before that, Lara was registered from 2003 to 2021 to vote at a house near 97th Avenue and 30th Street owned by Bertha Canales, which is his wife’s maiden name. So, her house or her mom’s.
Lara, taking a page from his master’s book, did not return calls, texts and emails from Political Cortadito.
Attorney Thomas “Tom” Wells, who is running in the open seat against Lara (and transit lobbyist and onetime commission candidate Claudia Miro, too), is making this an issue. It’s smart. It is yet more evidence that Lara is just a Johnny Come Lately, and at the behest of the mayor for no other reason than to be a pocket vote on the commission dais.
At a recent forum hosted by the Gables Good Government group, Lara — whose entire campaign mirrors the issues that are hammered by Mayor Lago — tried to backtrack on the lies about living in the Gables his whole life saying that he has “always considered” Coral Gables home even though he technically lived out of the city. “His response prompted laughter from the audience,” says a story in the Coral Gables Gazette that provides a snapshot of the event.
Read related: School-based PTA forum for Coral Gables candidates has no big surprises
Strangely enough, Wells — who is endorsed by the active resident group Coral Gables Neighbors Association — also pulled the data for Lara’s wife, who did vote in the Gables elections of 2001 and 2005, which seems to indicate that she and Richard Lara were not living in the same house. Or that she committed voter fraud. Either, or. Ladra would ask the newly elected Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia to look into it, but she was at Lago’s town hall Thursday, so she may be biased.
Maybe Wells did it because he wanted to tout his wife’s own voting record, which is perfect. Dianne Wells has voted in every city election back to 1999. That’s 15 times, while Tom Wells, the candidate, has voted 10 times. He could not tell Ladra why he did not vote those years he was a no-show. “Maybe I was traveling,” he told Ladra.
But the local vote is important, he says.
“It shows commitment and passion to the city. It just shows you care,” Wells told Political Cortadito.
Records indicate that Miro, a former planning and zoning board member who ran for commission in 2021 and lost in a crowded race (Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson won in a runoff), is close behind with only one less vote in the city recorded. But she also has lived there 10 fewer years. She was endorsed by The Miami Herald this week and is basically seen as an independent candidate. Lara is on an intentional slate with Lago and Anderson. Wells is on a defacto slate with Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who is running for mayor, and architect Felix Pardo, who is running against Anderson.
The next day, Community Newspapers — which endorsed Lara’s master, Mayor Lago, earlier — endorsed Lara, without even questioning the other candidates. Tsk, tsk. Ladra expects an endorsement for Anderson next.
Most longtime political observers believe this race (more on it later) is heading into a runoff because none of the three candidates will pull 50% plus one of the April 8 vote. That would be proof that every vote counts.
Someone better tell Lara.
Coral Gables candidate Richard Lara has not voted in the city since 1999 added by Ladra on
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Thank you
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Thank you for this report about the falsehoods (let’s call it like it is: LIES) by Richard Lara!
If he’s lied about living in the city since the age of 14, and has lied about contributing to an Anti-Crime board (does anyone else see the irony in that?), he’ll lie about most anything!
Running for elected office should motivate candidates to be honest, because sooner or later liars get caught. If you always tell the truth you never have to remember what lie you made up.
Most insulting is a candidate asking for residents to trust him with their vote, when he himself hasn’t voted in our city elections in 25 years…in the city he wants to represent on our commission! There is absolutely no trust to be given to a lying non-voter. None. Nada. Never.
PullingtheWool just reminded me that Ms. Castro had just registered to vote and only voted for the first time. She was very transparent about her voting record. Never did she say she was a LONGTERM resident of Coral Gables or that she served on a Board. A lie is a lie, is a lie! We have now mentioned TWO lies; will we uncover any more? Can we ever trust a liar again? Facts are facts, Ms. Castro beat one of the candidates endorsed by Vince Lago, the rest of the Commission and even the City Manager and the Police Chief. Her opponent had tons of money, and political connections, but she LOST. (Their other endorsed candidate was also defeated!) The voters’ message was loud and clear!
Only COWARDS hide behind fake names! What are you afraid of?
Most disturbing is that Alina Garcia, the Supervisor of Elections, was at a Lago event. Before being elected, but while a candidate for Supervisor, Ms. Garcia disrupted an event for Democratic Senate candidate Debbie Powell, who was running against Republican Rick Scott, by repeatedly calling the candidate “socialista” (kind of like Commissioner and soon-to-be Ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino-Cabrera joining the Proud Boys to bang on then-representative Donna Shalala’s door when Nancy Pelosi was visiting; “fine people on both sides,” yes).
Ms. Garcia should have known better in both instances. She absolutely has the right to protest, attend events and the like, but doing so is like a referee socializing with one team over the other. She is creating an appearance of bias. Judges, which is basically what she is as Elections Supervisor, cannot campaign or attend events for anyone running for elective office, even other judges, because it causes us to question their impartiality.
How can we have faith Ms. Garcia will fairly and faithfully execute all voting laws if she attends partisan or candidate-specific events? How can we trust she will honestly certify election results if the Republican candidate loses? The answer is that we really cannot, and the Supervisor simply becomes less trustworthy. Ms. Garcia has again shown very, very poor judgment and caused further damage to the Supervisor’s Office. Hopefully the people of Dade County will hold her accountable at the polls the next time around, and hopefully we can have faith that Ms. Garcia will honestly report the results of that and all other elections. I, however, have my doubts.
From April 19, 2023 FloridaPolitics.com : “Melissa Castro, a candidate for the Coral Gables Commission, registered to vote and cast her first ballot this year. Despite her late entry into the electoral process, she secured 39% of the vote in the biennial election and will face Ivette Arango O’Doski in a runoff on April 25. Questions have also been raised about Castro’s residency in the city.
Her opponent has voted about 40 times in the last half-century.
The first time Coral Gables Commission candidate Melissa Castro ever voted, it was likely for herself.
That’s according to Miami-Dade Elections Department records, which shows Castro, 38, had not been registered to vote in the county until this year.
<a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/604443-coral-gables-commission-candidate-melissa-castro-never-voted-until-last-week/
You are absolutely right; Lara “hasn’t served on any boards.” At the February 27, 2024, when he announced his candidacy he stated “and currently serve on the Anti-Crime Committee for Coral Gables….” As you can see he is not great at telling the truth. He forgot or perhaps never found out since he didn’t attend any meetings, that the City Commission (Resolution NO. 2022-216) directed “that the City-Wide Anti-Crime Committee be dissolved as of the adoption of this resolution….” The resolution was passed and adopted September 13, 2022 unanimously by the Commission.
Facts are the facts. Anyone who has difficulty believing should place a PUBLIC RECORDS Request from the City Clerk to verify the facts as stated.