Want to meet a candidate for office this year? You will have plenty of opportunities in the coming weeks before the Aug. 28 primary and practically simultaneous to the absentee ballots are about to rain on Miami-Dade voters. Get your calendars and your pencils out.
There are breakfasts with congressional hopefuls and meet and greets with incumbent state reps, potlucks with Democrat activists, town halls and candidate forums from Miami Gardens to Kendall.
But there may not be a single better opportunity to catch as many Democrats as possible in one place than Tuesday’s “Politico Palooza II” in Coral Gables, organized by RiseUp Florida. Confirmations are already in from:
- State Rep. Robert Asencio, District 118 incumbent
- Candidate Javier Estevez, State House, District 105
- State Rep. Javier Fernandez, District 114 incumbent
- Candidate Demetrius Grimes, Congressional District 26
- Candidate Matt Haggman, Congressional District 27
- Candidate Michael Hepburn, Congressional District 27
- Candidate Dotie Joseph, State House, District 108
- Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, Florida gubernatorial candidate
- Candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Congressional District 26
- Candidate Heath Rassner, State House, District 119
- Former State Rep. David Richardson, Congressional District 27
- Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, Congressional District 27
- Candidate James Linwood Schulman, State House, District 115
- Donna Shalala, US House of Representatives, District 27, candidate
- Candidate Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, State House, District 115
- State Sen. Annette Taddeo, District 40 incumbent
- Candidate Maryin Vargas, County Commission, District 6
Wait. Where’s Mary Barzee Flores? Or any of the three Dems running in Miami Beach’s open House seat? 
The Facebook invite says there are “more to confirm.”
And there will be representatives from the campaigns of the other four Democrat gubernatorial candidates — who seem to have given up Miami-Dade to Levine — and Sen. Bill Nelson‘s camp as well.
The palooza event begins at at 7 p.m. at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 DeSoto Boulevard, Coral Gables. Questions will be solicited from the audience and simultaneous Spanish interpretation will be provided.
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There’s a candidate forum on Thursday that is a lunch meeting of the Palmetto Bay Business Association. Even judicial candidates have been invited, but the Facebook event page doesn’t say who has confirmed.
Then, on Friday, there will be another group sighting of candidates in the north part of the county. Barzee Flores and the three Dems from Miami Beach — former Commissioners Michael Grieco and Deede Weithorn and newcomer nobody Kubs Lalchandani — have confirmed for that one. Hosted by The Democratic Women’s Club of Greater Miami-Dade and FL Democrats for 2018, the event is free with snacks and a cash bar (but a $10 donation will be appreciated). There will also be repeat appearances by Grimes and Mucarsel-Powell for the FL26 seat, Richardson and Shalala for FL27 and Schulman, Asencio and Rassner for House Districts 115, 118 and 119 respectively.
Other confirmed attendees so far include perennial Florida House candidates Ross Hancock, in District 115 this time, and Cindy Polo in District 103 and state Senate candidates Julian Santos and David Perez, who want to fight State Rep. Manny Diaz Jr. for the open seat in District 36, and Jason Pizzo in District 38.
This event is the only local meet and greet with cabinet candidates — Nikki Fried for Commissioner of Agriculture and Jeremy Ring for CFO — and it begins at 5 p.m. (ends at 8:30) at the Country Club of Miami Golf Course, 6801 NW 186th St.
Then on Monday, Aug. 6, there will be a judicial forum for candidates to the bench — and there are plenty — hosted 
by the Gwen Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association, the ACLU and the League of Women Voters. It begins at 6 p.m. at New Birth Baptist Church, 2300 NW 135th St.
There’s another judicial forum from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 13 at the law offices of Stearns Weaver Miller, which seems kinda odd. Like the fox inviting the hens to come over for a bite. This is hosted by a bunch of attorneys, actually: the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Caribbean Bar Association, the Haitian Lawyers Association, the Miami-Dade Chapter of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers, the South Asian Bar Association, and the Wilkie D Ferguson Bar Association. Admission is free (even for non lawyers) and light appetizers will be served at 150 West Flagler, Suite 2200. Haven’t you always wanted to see inside? Now’s your chance.
The Democrat candidates in one of the most hotly contested races, the Congressional 
contest in District 27 caused by the sudden retirement of U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, will also be available for perusal at a “community conversation” on Tuesday, Aug. 7, hosted by the League of Women Voters at Miami Dade College’s Kendall campus. Moderated by Miami Herald Editorial Page Editor Nancy Ancrum and WLRN public radio host Tom Hudson, the candidates will be speaking on issues like financial security, consumer interests, healthcare, veterans affairs, taxation, gun safety, immigration, energy, the environment and transportation, just for starters.
All the Miami-Dade School Board candidates have been invited to a forum on the same Aug. 7 night, unfortunately, at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus downtown. Hosted by the New Tropic, Catalyst Miami, the New Florida Majority, Miami Workers Center and a couple of other progressive groups. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with a candidate meet and greet and then goes into a forum moderated by WLRN reporter Nadege Green from 7 to 8 and then an audience Q&A period until 8:30 p.m., when there will be closing statements.
On Aug. 15, which seems a bit late since its two weeks after ABs drop, Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava — who lo and behold has a primary so why isn’t she at the palooza event? (I earlier thought she only had one challenger) — and State House candidate Cindy Polo, who has a fake primary to deal with in District 103 (Miami Lakes and Hialeah Gardens) will be at a Ruth’s List Miami Squad event for women candidates at Gramp’s, 176 NW 24th St., from 6 to 8 p.m.
Please feel free to list any other events in the comments below. The more people know about opportunities to talk to and/or hear from the candidates themselves, the better.
Political powwows proliferate aplenty as Aug. 28 primary approaches added by Ladra on
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