Miami Beach commission election gets interesting already

One incumbent already decided not to run for re-election. An activist and would-be challenger withdrew from another race within days. A former commissioner who resigned to run for Congress wants her seat back and a former State Rep wants to run for another.

Oh, and then there’s the candidate who can’t keep it in his pants.

The Miami Beach elections are nine months away and talk about un parto. It’s already so interesting it might just beat Miami and Hialeah this year in terms of sheer entertainment.

Oh, it’s boring on paper. Mayor Dan Gelber is running basically unopposed. He has a challenger, but Ladra is not certain Konstantine Gus Manessis — who only has sustainable growth on his website as an issue and nothing about who he is — can whip up either the political machinery or grassroots support he would need to beat Sy Gelber‘s boy. Ladra thinks he’s vulnerable to the right challenger and hopes someone turns up between now and qualifying deadline in September, if only because debates and choices are good for the community.

The only real race, according to documents filed with the city clerk’s office, is in Group IV, where three candidates have declared: Michael David Barrineau, Steven Jay Meiner and Rafael Velasquez. If the last name sounds familiar, it could be because he ran for office before.

Or it could be because he was accused of exposing himself to a city commissioner.

Velasquez was a commission candidate and a friend and supporter of Kristen Rosen Gonzalez — the former commissioner that might jump back in the fire — when he reportedly unzipped his pants and exposed himself to her. It happened in her car after a campaign brainstorming dinner with wine. He then ran to the state attorney’s office to say she made the whole thing up but no woman would believe KRG would intentionally want to be known for that over anything else. Oh, and then there are the two other women who came forward to describe uncomfortable language and body rubbing.

It will be great to see Rosen Gonzalez get back into action. She was forced to resign her seat last year in the middle of the campaign for Congress after the state legislature changed the rules precisely to try to keep District 27 red. Not just because she is a true public servant and a voice for some of the city’s disenfranchised, but also because either way it’s going to be, um, interesting: She could file in her old group, against the guy who exposed himself to her — and wouldn’t that make for some awkward debates. Or she could file against Ricky Arriola, who needs someone to challenge him now that activist Monica Matteo-Salinas withdrew mysteriously just three days after filing to challenge the incumbent.

Did Arriola threaten her? Matteo-Salinas was tremendously vague in her Facebook post:

“Last week I made the decision to launch my campaign for the Miami Beach Commission Group 5 race. This decision was in pursuit of my dream of running for elected office and serving the community I love so deeply. My hope in entering the race was to build a campaign built on integrity and a burning desire to help make Miami Beach the absolute best it can be.

That said, in one short week it has become abundantly clear to me that the timing is not quite right for me. Therefore, I am ending my candidacy for Miami Beach Commissioner effective immediately. While this is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make, I know in my heart it is the right one.

Thank you so much for your understanding and support!”

Matteo-Salinas told Ladra it was “nothing nefarious,” but still wouldn’t go into details. “There are things I can discuss and things I won’t,” she said. A complete about-face from the day she filed when she said “I have a big mouth – and an even bigger brain. And I’m not afraid to use them!”

Arriola becomes the only incumbent other than the mayor, now that Commissioner John Elizabeth Aleman announced she would not run for re-election. (Are the rumors of an investigation into pay for play true?) But that seat is not likely to draw a lot of names. That’s because former State Rep. David Richardson — a little less ambitious after losing the Congressional primary to Donna Shalala — is basically a shoe in. Whoever Blake Young is, Ladra thinks he or she just hasn’t heard about Richardson’s announcement.

Ladra has also heard that Adrian Gonzalez, a restauranteur who has run for office before, is thinking about throwing his hat in. And certainly more of the several dozen people who applied for the KRG vacancy not knowing the fix was in for Malakoff — anyone of them could run.

The qualifying deadline isn’t until all the way in September. So it could get even more interesting before then.

Dan Gelber, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, Ricky Arriola

Miami Beach commission election gets interesting already added by Ladra on February 21, 2019
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