Candidate Renier Diaz de la Portilla doesn't meet judicial canon standards

And Circuit Court Judge Robert Watson needs to publicly distance himself

One of the things that judicial candidates can’t do, according to the very strict judicial rules in the state, is campaign or get too political.

It’s canon number 7 in the Florida Supreme Court’s Judicial Code of Conduct: A Judge or Candidate for Judicial Office Shall Refrain From Inappropriate Political Activity.

It’s hard to imagine that Renier Diaz de la Portilla — who has challenged Miami-Dade County Judge Fred Seraphin in a nonpartisan race — can do that.

An ultra conservative Republican, Diaz de la Portilla has served as a GOP legislator in Tallahassee and on the Miami-Dade School Board. In 2012, he was also elected state committeeman, but the Republican Party of Florida disqualified him after they said he failed to file a loyalty oath. Renier said that was not true.

“Paperwork was sent and I have proof that it was filled out in a timely manner,” he was quoted as saying at the time. “I hope to work with party officials to make sure that 30,000 Miami-Dade Republicans are not disenfranchised by this misunderstanding.”

He still has an active political action committee, Local Leadership for Miami-Dade, that collected $30,000 in the last three months. After more than a year of inactivity, the PAC has also spent more than $22,000 in April and May, including $12,000 for polling and $9,000 for political consulting. Another $1,250 was paid in wages to Julio Guillen, who is another one of ADLP’s ghost employees, getting paid by the city of Miami to work in his commission office. Ladra wonders if Guillen filed the required “outside job form” with the city (more on that later).

We know it doesn’t bother Renier to use his lackeys during taxpayer paid time. Remember, he had the O.G. ghost employee Jenny Nillo pick up and drop off checks for him during that county commission race in 2020.

The chairperson and treasurer of his PAC is officially Nancy Brown — the same treasurer of his judicial campaign account — but everyone knows this is Renier Diaz de la Portilla’s PAC. It’s the one he used for his county commission campaign. His brother, Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, has a PAC called Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade.

Nobody said they were creative.

These are the same brothers who supposedly live together — along with Renier’s wife and his young son — in a 967-square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit on the 18th floor of the Terrazas Riverpark Village Condo, 1861 NW South River Dr. Will the judicial candidate swear to this? It’s bad enough that he’s played along all this time so his brother could run and serve in District 1 instead of District 3.

Do we need a judge who is a liar?

This is the same guy who showed up to a radio station one late night to get into a parking lot fist fight with another legislator, leaving him with a bloody nose. This is the same guy who showed up drunk and belligerent to a virtual candidate’s forum two years ago. This is the same guy who, sources say, is under investigation for shaking down city of Miami interests for campaign contributions during his county commission campaign.

To be a judge, you really should have the utmost integrity. Everyone agrees on that. Ladra is not sure that Renier Diaz de la Portilla — sometimes a bully, sometimes a drunk, sometimes corrupt — fits that bill.

But what else is he gonna do? Renier is not a very good lawyer. That’s why he doesn’t last anywhere. It’s ridiculous to believe that he makes $100,000 a year on his own, as he states on his financial disclosure form. In fact, he runs for office as often as he can — this is his fourth time on the ballot in 10 years — to live off the campaign contributions. And he dabbles in political “consulting” now and then. It’s a family business.

Las malas lenguas say he was helping Judge Robert Watson before he qualified as a judicial candidate himself, but surely after he knew he was going to run, since it’s always been his “dream,” right?

Diaz de la Portilla is not on Watson’s financial campaign reports. But a lawyer named Yesenia Collazo got $7,500 around the time he was reportedly pounding the pavement for the judge. Her firm, Research Associates of Miami, was paid $5,000 in February and $2,500 in March for political consulting, according to Watson’s reports.

Collazo, who gave $1,000 to Renier’s judicial campaign, was also the chairperson of ADLP’s PAC until 2020, when Brown replaced her. It’s very possible that the payments to her were really payments to him.

So Baby X is not the only one with some ‘splaining to do. Watson should issue a statement saying when Renier Diaz de la Portilla worked for him, for how long, what he did, how much he was paid and when he stopped working for him.

And maybe Watson doesn’t meet the ethical standards, either. After all, he hired Baby DLP.

Alex Diaz de la Portilla, judicial races, Renier Diaz de la Portilla

Candidate Renier Diaz de la Portilla doesn’t meet judicial canon standards added by Ladra on June 21, 2022
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