Banker and longtime community activist Damian Pardo, LGBTQ+ champion and founder of SAVE, announced his candidacy last week for city of Miami commissioner in District 2. As a first time candidate, Pardo said he wants to “shake things up” and return to prioritizing residents.
¡Ya tu sabes!
With more than 35 years of campaign and volunteering experience, as well as having a role on the other side of the dais — getting local and state funding for the war on AIDS, protecting historic resources, advocating for human rights in Cuba and in South Florida — Pardo will be a force to be reckoned with, even for Christian Ulvert, the uber consultant behind the incumbent.
Pardo will run against Commissioner Sabina Covo, who won a special election in February to replace Commissioner Ken Russell, who resigned to run unsuccessfully for Congress. She has already raised $175,000 as a de facto incumbent (more on that later). Others in the race, so far, include Downtown Neighbors Association President James Torres and marketing specialist Christi Reeves Tasker, who also ran in the special election with Covo, and real estate agent Gabriela Ariana Chirinos. None of them have reported raising any money yet.
Many more candidates are expected to run for this seat. Qualification doesn’t even begin until September.
Read related: Sabina Covo beats 12 others to win the special election in Miami’s District 2
If elected, Pardo, 59, would be the first openly gay commissioner in the city. Or, as he likes to say, a qualified candidate who “is really like everybody else and just happens to be gay.” He was chosen to swear in Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson, the first openly gay elected to the Florida House, when he was voted into the Miami Beach commission.
The principal founder in 1993 of SAVE–Safeguarding American Values for Everyone, Pardo also served as a two-term president of the largest AIDS Health Organization, CareResource (formerly known as Health Crisis Network). In 2015, he co-founded 4Ward Miami and its Gay8 Festival, an annual Hispanic street fair dedicated to LGBTQ+ art, music, dance, food and culture, which attracts more than 100,000 people from around South Florida. He’s also served on the Miami Dade Equal Opportunity Board for 12 years, the Board of Trustees of the Miami Foundation, the Celia Cruz Foundation, and various national and local non-profit boards. He is currently on the Board of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens and hosts a webcast talk show on the Community Newspapers YouTube channel.
Pardo already has a solid website, with the Miami Dolphins colors and a full blown platform of issues. The theme of his campaign, however, is about the city’s failings: “We can do better,” is the slogan.
“You get to a point where you are just so embarrassed that you just feel like you have to do something,” said Pardo, who was one of the community leaders at a rally Monday that called for the resignation of Commissioner Joe Carollo, found liable last week by a six-member jury of abusing his power to violate the first amendment rights of two Little Havana businessmen for political retaliation.
“We don’t have to look very far. I personally called organizations that should have been there. Advocacy organizations. None of them showed up. Nobody wants retaliation,” Pardo told Political Cortadito. “It’s that kind of fear that makes our democracy fragile.”
That same fear helps incumbents at election time.
Read related: Diverse group of Miami stakeholders call for Joe Carollo’s resignation
“We have to have the courage to run. And as donors, as citizens, we have to recognize those people with courage and support them. Otherwise, nothing is going to change,” Pardo said. “Lots of folks are very comfortable on the sidelines, almost like going to a show to see what happens. But they are not running, they are not giving to campaigns.
“This city belongs to its residents and that is not the way it looks right now.”
Pardo, who has lived in the city his whole life and currently owns a home in Morningside, said he is not going to run a negative campaign. “Residents and voters need to look at the qualifications of the candidates and come to decisions on their own,” Pardo told Ladra Thursday.
“I’m a grassroots activist. At the end of the day, it’s about knocking on doors, asking for support, raising money,” Pardo said. “At the end of the day, it’s about who works the hardest. And I have a track record of getting things done.
“District 2 needs somebody that is fair with an open door who gets things done. I mean the everyday basics — [bogus] alarm fines, flooding, permitting, better parks, feeling safe. That’s not what’s happening in my district,” Pardo said. “What kind of plans are we working on to address these things in a meaningful way? I don’t want to hear ‘Oh, yeah, we’re working on it.’ Who is working on it? Who has done it already elsewhere and done it well? What are we doing?”
He said that something as simple as sidewalks needs to be prioritized. “It’s very difficult to transit on our sidewalks. Nobody is thinking about the family with kids and a stroller and how dangerous it is for them.”
Pardo also brought up the incident last month where a Marine and former police officer walking his dog on the Miami River Walk was intentionally thrown over the seawall by a stranger running by. He said there needs to be increased lighting and law enforcement.
“Nobody is even meeting with residents on that. I know so many people that don’t feel represented or heard or seen,” Pardo said.
He is also concerned about gentrification of some of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods and over development. “Do we want Biscayne to be the next Manhattan?”
Read related: Who is Sabina Covo? What you need to know about Miami’s new commissioner
Pardo, more than most, realizes what it takes to run for office and wants to set an example. He says the lack of courage is not just at the local level.
“Look at what’s happening in our country at the highest level. When you look at the lack of quality candidates up and down the ballot, anyone can see that our democracy is in trouble. Part of that is that good people don’t run.
“I’m hoping that, with this candidacy, we start encouraging other good folks to take that leap.”
That would be nice.
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Longtime activist Damian Pardo joins Miami District 2 commission race added by Ladra on
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