In race to be Doral’s second mayor there is no No. 1

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The second mayor in the city of Doral will be elected today. And the race, decided in an off election rather than a high turnout presidential ballot, is turning out to be a choice between two supporting male roles.

Neither Councilman Luigi Boria nor former School Board Member Frank Bolaños have the charisma nor apparent expertise to be a leading man. But the good people of Doral are going to end up with one of them anyway.

And it really could be up in the air.

The good money — the big money — says it will be Boria, a millionaire evangelical pastor who drives a Maserati and poured $400,000 (that we know of) into a campaign for a seat that pays $50,000 a year. But, while he did outstandingly well during the primary — beating Bolaños’ second-best by 11 points — he may not have the Obama factor this time around. That likely favored him quite a bit among new voters, who may not turn out in force today.

“It’s totally different,” Bolaños said hopefully some days ago. “In a presidential race, it’s hard to compete with that kind of money,” he added, noting that 30 seconds on TV cost $8,000 in the days leading up to Nov. 6.

But it also may not come to those who voted today, depending on how well Boria’s campaign dog, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador — who desperately needs a win this cycle to stay alive and might just, darn it, get it — did on the mail-in vote front. Boria had a slightly wider margin in Election Day voting than in ABs (is Sasha losing her touch?) in the Nov. 6 primary, where he beat Bolaños by less than 300 absentees and. And that could pose a problem again, especially if what Bolaños told Ladra — that he wasn’t waging any real absentee ballot drive — is true. This low turnout election may very well be decided by ABs. Of course, not everything everybody tells Ladra is true. I know that. You know that. Al Lorenzo, who is running Bolaños show and got implicated in the absentee ballot mess in Hialeah, knows that.

Not sure he knows much of anything else, since the Bolaños campaign has been sorta stagnant since the start. Here is a guy who, despite the negative Senate campaign he waged against former Sen. Alex Villalobos that backfired in 2006, should have had this in the bag against a man who had zero political stock two years ago. Bolaños — who seems to have forgotten how to go negative because he missed much legitimate opportunity — could still win if turnout is exceptionally low and he does exceptionally well on ABs. But it will be a squeaker if he does.

And if he doesn’t, it is because he relied too heavily on hope and a prayer. Hope: That more “high proficiency voters” — i.e., the Cuban abuelos and abuelas who vote every single election — will participate in the runoff and fewer new voters (read: Venezuelans, like Luigi) will bother now that Obama is a done deal. Prayer: Doral founding Mayor JC  Bermudez.

Given the absence of much of a real campaign, Bolaños has basically tried to usher in on the Bermudez bump. While he says he’s walked 3,000 doors and has lost the weight to show some tread — and there’s a lot to be said for that — Ladra thinks Bolaños, who was attacked as a beaurocrat (he wishes), had to define the opponent instead of defend and redefine himself. And instead of doing a barrage of robocalls calling Boria’s business dealings and family development plans into question, he banked on the Bermudez buck. Now, if he loses, he is not the only one whose stock falls. And while Bermudez has been the only mayor Doral has ever known, people know they aren’t voting for him. There’s going to be a change anyway. The endorsement — and constant reminders — could work against Bolaños, too. And he knows it.

“Every endorsement comes with it’s good and it’s bad,” he said. “It’s baggage,” I offered. “It’s baggage,” he agreed.

He may be speaking about the very reason why Councilman Pete Cabrera, a Bermudez foe on the dais who took almost as many votes as Bolaños, has surprisingly endorsed Boria after both he and Bolaños were attacked in mailers by the computer mogul’s PAC. Bolaños said they had agreed to give the other the endorsement, no matter who was in the runoff against Boria. But maybe it’s not so surprisingly, given Cabrera’s aversion to anything Bermudez. Bolaños says Cabrera did not endorse him because he would not agree to terms the councilman required, including the firing of the city manager and police chief. Boria told Ladra last week that he made no deal with Cabrera and said it was simply because of Bermudez.

Well, he didn’t say it. Former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, a fellow church member who is supporting Boria’s run for free, he says, kind of spoke for him. You know how Joe loves the sound of his own booming voice.

“Did Pete say he wanted a deal? No. Just because Frank says it doesn’t make it true,” Carollo said when Ladra ran into the two at the county swearing in of the mayor and commissioners. And Cabrera declined to return my phone calls.

When Boria did speak it was in accented (read: sexy) English despite the Bolaños mailers — and Ladra can’t believe this was Bolaños best shot at Boria, in a community full of English-as-a-second language speakers and — and he told me that he was running because he loves Doral and wanted the best for the community where he has lived for 23 years.

“I’m not spending my money. I have my money, I sweat my money and I like to give it back to the city,” he said in broken English, indeed, as delightful as it is and pleasant to the ear. “I don’t have a problem to give this money to the right people.”

He did not tell me about his children owning properties in Doral and forming development companies. He did not tell me about how he failed to disclose this during a council meeting that rezoned land nearby for a charter school, increasing the value of the property. He did not tell me about Sasha and former State Rep. Ralph Arza working on his campaign, which is a bad sign because you just know they want something. He did not tell me to look into some tiny lobbying contract that Bolaños has that once went before the city (Carollo told me about that).

He did tell me that Bolaños took more issue with a mailer against Cabrera — that used a likeness of Pete’s wife — than the target himself.

“They victimized themselves,” Boria said, yes, using plural and citing some case he said was before the Florida League of Cities — since when do they investigate anything ? — even though Cabrera seems to be equal opportunity abusive, having also has had problems with the male police chief.

So this is what it comes to? Cabrera should not have endorsed anyone.

And maybe one of the women who ran for council and each got more votes than any of the mayoral candidates — Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, who won with more than 50 percent in the first round, and, today’s favorites, Christi Fraga (45%) and former Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz (49%) — should have given these wingmen wannabes a run for their money.