Joe Sanchez gets too 'personal' with opponent's wife, and their tragic loss

When attorney Ignacio “Iggy” Alvarez decided to run for Miami-Dade County Sheriff in this historic election, he ran it by his wife, Ashley Airaghi. After all, the couple, together for eight years, had been trying to start a family. A campaign could stall that.

But when they got news that Airaghi was pregnant with their “miracle baby” through IVF, they proudly posted photos on social media about the expected bundle of joy.

Instead, they were slapped with tragedy. James Alexander was born May 15, more than three months early. He didn’t live long. He died in his mother’s arms. It was devastating. He was laid to rest on May 22 and Airaghi immediately withdrew into her grief.

The Iggy Alvarez campaign took a bump, but kept going. He didn’t miss a single forum. Most of the other candidates and their teams knew what happened, but nobody really mentioned it besides sharing brief, hushed condolences and inquiring about Airaghi’s well-being.

It took several weeks for Airaghi to share her story on Instagram.

“I’m still numb from all the pain and emotions but in this moment I know this… I’m healing each day, and though the journey is long, some things I’ll never forget,” she wrote. “I’ve never felt so loved while also being so sad at the same time.

“Navigating this new normal is something I’ll be figuring out for a while, but for now we remember James Alexander, we allow ourselves to feel our grief, and we slowly move forward. Our miracle baby and first born son will never be forgotten and neither will the love and support we’ve received.”

She’s received hundreds of messages, emails and phone calls from women who have gone through the same or who are also trying to get pregnant or who just wanted to be there for her. Airaghi says the nurturing and genuine sympathy she could feel from them has helped her heal. She wants to be there, in turn, for other women going through the same thing. There are more than she thought there were.

Airaghi is trying, every day, to go on with her life, which included posting support for her husband during his campaign for sheriff in the Republican primary Aug. 20. The recent comment was in response to an innocuous post on a CarlitoTV Instagram reel titled “A day in the life of Joe Sanchez.” The reel is silly and obviously mimicking a scene from Owning Manhattan — as if Sanchez was Ryan Serhant.

Airaghi posted a short, but bold, cheer: “@IgnacioAlvarezForSheriff has my vote. Trooper Joe’s gotta go.”

Sanchez replied, almost two weeks later: “I’m sorry to see this comment Mrs. Alvarez please know that my wife and I asked about you and always sent you the best of wishes.”

She was flabbergasted.

“I don’t know him. I never met him before this campaign. We don’t have a relationship. We’re not friends,” Airaghi told Political Cortadito. Notice that she does not use the name Alvarez.

The comment enraged her. “It felt like he was telling me to sit down and shut up and he was trying to make me feel guilty about losing my son.”

So she responded immediately: “Using my son James’ death as political capital… I expect nothing less. My son dying in my arms was the worst thing to ever happen to us. How dare you send ‘wishes’ and feel you can comment publicly on such a deeply personal tragedy?

“I’ve never heard your name before this race,” Airaghi wrote. “We’re not friends and I don’t know you. This is yet another reason why you should NOT be our sheriff. Not only are you unqualified, but you also believe that making pubic comments like this is acceptable.”

Sanchez did not immediately return calls and texts to his phone about this. I sent him a photo of the comment. He also failed to show up at a forum hosted by Univista TV shortly after he posted it. He probably didn’t want to face Iggy Alvarez, who might have had a thing or two to say. But only moments after Ladra called on Thursday, Sanchez posted on Airaghi’s comment on Carlucho’s page again.

“I had not seen this,” Sanchez said aabout Airaghi’s ‘how dare you?’ response.

“PLEASE know that is not what I referred to at all. Since the beginning of the campaign, I had been friendly with Iggy and always sent my regards and best wishes to you when we saw each other. That is all. I sent my condolences at that time, of course, and I am terribly sorry for what you went through. My apologies if my comment offended you.”

Neither Alvarez — a former Miami-Dade Police major who retired after 25 years — nor Airaghi believe the comment was innocent or that Sanchez had not seen her response to it, because he was tagged on it and several other responses to the comment would also have tagged him.

Sanchez, remember, was the pubic information officer for the Florida Highway Patrol for 15 years. He knows how social media works.

But he also was very busy with the campaign, his business and family obligations and swore to Ladra that he had not seen the response. And he felt his comment was totally misconstrued.

“I did not see her response until you pointed it out,” he told Ladra in a text. “That’s why I explained and apologized if she misunderstood. The loss of a newborn baby is such a terrible, private sensitive tragedy that I would never discuss it on social media or on a political blog.

“She obviously misunderstood my comment. I’m very sorry for their loss.”

Alvarez told Political Cortadito that he did not think it was a misunderstanding. He believes Sanchez was trying, through his first comment, to shame his wife into standing down.

“The death of our son, James, is a deeply private story that my wife privately shared to help others find strength in their own struggles,” Alvarez said. “Despite this, it does not grant anyone, including Trooper Joe, the right to exploit our pain for political advantage.

“This tragedy happened just 11 weeks ago, and my wife is still navigating her postpartum journey. To target her during such a vulnerable time is beyond atrocious. It leaves me angry and at a loss for words.

“I refuse to be like Trooper Joe, who will say or do anything out of desperation to become sheriff. This is not about politics — it’s about humanity and the way that we, as men, need to treat women,” Alvarez said.

Others have mentioned to Ladra how Sanchez can come off as un viejo Cubano with women — either complimenting them way too friendly-like or talking down to them.

Miami-Dade Police Assistant Director Rosanna Cordero-Stutz has been the brunt of some of Sanchez’s harshest attacks and one has to ask if he’d talk the same way about a male opponent. He hasn’t opened a website about Alvarez or Mario Knapp or Joe Martinez. Only about Cordero-Stutz. He seems to think she doesn’t belong in the race.

But that could also be because he sees her as his biggest threat.

“Ultimately, this is an election about the most important position in Miami-Dade County,” Cordero-Stutz told Ladra late Friday. “And our personal opinions in the personal lives of other candidates has no place and should speak to the character of the candidate. I wish Ashley and her husband the best.”

Ladra thought long and hard about posting this story about such a personal and tragic event. Both Iggy Alvarez and, more importantly, Ashley Airaghi — who is very candid about wanting to share her experience and help heal others — insisted that the truth come out.

Ignacio Alvarez, Joe Sanchez, Rosanna Cordero-Stutz, Sheriff's race

Joe Sanchez gets too ‘personal’ with opponent’s wife, and their tragic loss added by Ladra on August 2, 2024
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