In the Gables: Hoping for a new checks and balances

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Well, the results in Coral Gables tonight were not surprising for many.

While I don’t know how voters could tell the difference between the two, longtime activist Pat Keon, who lost her first bid for office in 1997, beat out longtime activist Mary Young to replace the termed-out Commissioner Maria Anderson.

Oddly enough, that sleeper race — which attracted the least campaign attention — ended up being the closest, with a 13 point spread (Keon got 49 percent to Young’s 36). “Closest” is a relative term in the Gables, where all three winners scored double digit victories with wide, comfortable margins.

Incumbent Mayor Jim “The Ambassador” Cason lied and misdirected his way to another befuddling victory over Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, who is his own best enemy but would have made a great mayor.

This spread was huge. At 71 percent to 29, perhaps mammoth is a better word. It could very well meet the prediction of Brad Rosenblatt, a one-time candidate and downtown business owner who, embittered, campaigned against Cabrera and forecast that the commissioner, who once won by the largest margin in city history, would lose by the largest margin in city history.

(Pst, Brad. Gimme the next Lotto numbers, will ya?)

Ralph took it hard, but more for his children than himself. He consoled his son — as well as some very defeated supporters, including retired and still working city employees. But he, himself, seemed kind of peeved and relieved at the same time. Just look at that smile in the photo! Doesn’t that look like someone who has had a great weight lifted?

Asked what words of encouragement he could provide to the young newby that follows him, the 12-year commissioner ended his political life with a classic Cabreraism: “I don’t have any advice for those knuckleheads,” he laughed.

Cabrera’s place on the commission dais will now feature the fresh face of the sure-thing candidate, Commissioner Vince Lago, with another mandate, having won with 53 percent of the vote compared to 31 percent to No. 2, which was Marlin Ebbert, not Ross Hancock. Hancock did much better against State Rep. Erik Fresen (R-Coral Gables) last November, albeit riding Obama’s coattails, than he did Tuesday, with a very poor 16 percent.

The Democratic Party might start thinking about spending its precious resources elsewhere.

Lago was besieged by well-wishers Tuesday night at The Globe, the place where all the young Cuban politicos go to celebrate whatever. Among his toasters: Friend and Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez, who showed up with his dad, Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier “Mayor Sir” Suarez, former Gables Mayor Dorothy Thomson, Gables Commissioner Frank Quesada and Ralph Rosado, who is running for Miami Commission to replace Suarez (who is running for mayor), Barby Rodriguez Gimenez, the county mayor’s daughter-in-law (who may very well run for office herself one day, it is so in her blood already) and a few G-Men of old, as well as Al Maloof, from that powerful lawfirm downtown. Ladra got to finally meet him. And he said he has nothing to do with the recall effort in Doral (more on that later).

But Lago told Ladra that all his political friends have not encouraged him as much as his deceased grandfather. He said Tuesday that it was his calling and his legacy to run for office in the shoes of Cuban Congressman Vicente Lago Pereda. Sandwiched between two panes of framed glass, Lago showed Ladra his campaign literature next to his abuelo’s — a focal point touchstone he has been looking at for a year and a half as he ran his race.

“This is why I do it,” Lago told Ladra. “My name means a lot more to me than a lot of things.”

Okay. So, here’s a challenge to the new commissioner: Be like Cabrera. Ask uncomfortable questions. Debate the issues. Become the new checks and balances on the dais.

Yes, be difficult. Because, really, that is your job. We don’t need soft and cudly electeds to get along with everyone. We need bulldogs.

“Of course,” he told me after I asked him to remember who was just in that seat and what it represents.

And I want to believe him. So much. This guy’s potential is huge. Almost as big as the mayoral race margin.

So I will. For now.

But I can also watch. And be another checks and balances in the absence of our veteran one.

So, you may have won today, Mayor Cason. And congratulations. But you may find that victory bittersweet. Things are different now.

Because while Cabrera keeps telling everyone that he’s done with politics, Ladra is not.

See you around.