Since State Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez (R-Doral) switched earlier this month from the House District she won last year to the state senate seat currently occupied by termed-out Anitere Flores (R-Kendall), HD105 has become another coveted open state contest in 2020. 
So, it already has attracted not one, not two, but three failed state rep wannabes from last year.
The first to sign up was the Democrat who came within a few hundreds votes of victory in 2018.
Javier Estevez, who lost to Rodriguez by 417 votes on Nov. 6, filed paperwork to run 20 days later. He got 49% of the vote last year and first had to beat uber Dem and perennial candidate Ross Hancock in the primary.
And Estevez spent just over $15,000, compared to the $332,500 spent by the Rodriguez campaign. Certainly the Florida Democratic Party covered some costs, but so did the GOP. And it sure seems like that seat could flip with a little love and attention (read: more money).
“I was kind of looking forward to a rematch,” Estevez said Wednesday.
Read related: Angie Chirino, Anna Hockhammer first to jump in open SD 39 race
It won’t Rodriguez, but already there are two Republicans who opened accounts in the last few months to run against him. Neither seems like a real challenge. Pedro “Peter” Barrios filed in June and has not raised any funds, according to campaign reports. Daniel Enrique Sotelo filed in May and raised $4,200 last month.
Sotelo, who also loaned himself $2,000 so far, was an independent candidate, an NPA, when he ran in District 119 last year and got 4% of the vote, depsite spending more than $75,000, including $49,000 he loaned himself then. Boy, Sotelo really wants to be in office. Wonder if he’s tapped out yet.
The challenge came this week when attorney Bibiana “Bibi” Potestad, who ran for state rep in House District 119 last year, filed her paperwork as the apparent local GOP choice to succeed Rodriguez.
Potestad, 27, lost in the August Republican primary to Juan Fernandez-
Barquin (photo, right), who went on to win the general. She came in third out of four, with only 18% of the vote, after Analeen “Annie” Martinez, the daughter of Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez.
She raised a little over $50,000 and thinks she will be able to raise more now.
“I still have the drive to serve my community. I think I will have what was missing the last time, the backing I needed,” said Potestad, who says she moved out of her parents’ home and into Doral last month.
“A lot of people have expressed an interest in backing me. They saw how hard I worked the last time.”
Read related: Kendall forum features candidates from three state House races
Potestad — who worked with former State Rep. and County Commissioner Juan Zapata at both the state and county level — is expected to get more GOP support (read: money) this time around because the party wants to keep that seat. And because she’s not running against Joe Martinez’s daughter.
The district is bipolar, stretching from parts of West Kendall through 
Sweetwater, the Belen Jesuit School area and Doral into Miramar with a western arm that reaches into Naples, where Potestad happened to go to law school at the Ave Maria School of Law. According to Ballotpedia, there are more than 157,300 residents, 74% of which are of voting age. It is more than 67% Hispanic and 10% black.
Estevez has the edge right now because he already campaigned there last year — and he’s been at it again since December. Potestad is new to the neighborhood, so to speak.
“I have more name recognition than any other candidate,” said Estevez, a leasing agent who lives in Sweetwater, adding that his strategy is to turn up turnout.
“I already ran here. I haven’t run in other districts.”
House 105 open seat becomes second chance for three 2018 losers added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →