The most interesting thing about the latest poll released last week by Democrat consultant extraordinaire Christian Ulvert is that he predicts two Republican winners in the Aug. 20 primary.
The poll pits Dariel Fernandez against former state rep and city of Miami Beach commissioner David Richardson in the November general election, and, more interestingly, it has Miami-Dace Police Assistant Chief Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz beating the presumptuous Trooper Joe Sanchez, a former Miami commissioner, for the race against Democrat James Reyes, currently the county’s chief of public safety who has been campaigning with a side arm (more on that later).
Read related: New poll: Miami-Dade sheriff GOP race has Sanchez, Cordero-Stutz on top
Why didn’t Ulvert choose to pit Richardson against Hialeah Councilman Bryan Calvo? Was it the endorsement from Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo, which will help him in that GOP heavy city?
“It’s just because of what I’ve seen myself in the community,” Ulvert said Friday on the morning radio show on Actualidad Miami 1240 AM. “I don’t know Bryan Calvo. I’ve never seen him. But Dariel Fernandez? In the last two weeks, I’ve seen him seven times.”
In every November race in his poll, Ulvert’s Democratic candidates win. The mayoral race was not included because he and the campaign team behind incumbent Alcaldesa Daniella Levine Cava believe she will win outright in the first round that ends Aug. 20.
It also shows Vice President Kamala Harris with a 14-point lead over Donald Trump, and a 23-point lead among independent voters.
“With 90 days until Election Day, the Vice President’s lead in the largest Hispanic majority county in the state of Florida affirms the coalition of voters who are excited to look ahead rather than go backwards,” Ulvert said in a statement.
Reyes allegedly has a 10-point lead over Cordero-Stutz — its 42% to 32% with 26% undecided. Cordero-Stutz has the Donald Trump endorsement and she is promoting it on signs everywhere, which she might have to walk back for the general but has definitely helped her numbers climb since the first poll, which had her in third place months ago. Meanwhile, it looks like Sanchez has reached his ceiling.
And while Dariel Fernandez is predicted to beat Calvo in the GOP primary for tax collector, he only got 33% to Richardson’s 41.5% in the poll, with 25.5% undecided.
Read related: Annette Taddeo for Miami-Dade clerk fills out Christian Ulvert’s dance card
Former Sen. Annette Taddeo is challenging the incumbent Miami-Dade Clerk and Comptroller, former State Rep. Juan Alfonso Fernandez Barquin, who was appointed to the job last summer by Gov. Ron DeSantis after longtime clerk Harvey Ruvin died. The Culvert poll has Taddeo with 45% of the vote compared to 35.5% for Fernandez-Barquin. Another 19% said they were undecided, so it could still go either way. But Taddeo’s 10-point lead should make her feel comfortable.
In the Supervisor of Elections race, the poll pits JC Planas, the presumed winner of the Democratic primary, against Sen. Alina Garcia, who resigned from her seat to run for this one. And Planas reportedly has a 7-point lead, with 42% against 35% for Garcia, and 23% undecided.
On the radio show, Ulvert said voters are choosing Planas because of his experience with election law and indicated what the campaign against Garcia might look like: “She worked with David Rivera,” he said about the former congressman who is the original Miami GOP Bad Boy and was sued in 2020 by a U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan regime-owned petroleum enterprise for breach of contract on $50 million deal to purportedly grease the wheels for the company (read: government) in D.C.
“Donald Trump attacks democracy and the systems in place to ensure it,” Ulvert said, regarding the former president’s fight to block the election results.
“That’s what makes us different from Venezuela and JC defends it.”