Recall effort vs Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is now on track

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It’s been a while since we had a good recall, right?

Temporarily stalled by a “technicality,” an alleged attempt to boot Mayor Daniella Levine Cava from office was revived this week faster than you can say caravana anticomunista.

The increasingly noisy effort is led by none other than Alex Otaola, the YouTube firestarter who sees communists the way some people see potholes: everywhere, and all the county’s fault. He also lost a mayoral bid against Levine Cava last August, getting in third place with almost 12% of the vote, which seems like a lot. Until you count ’em and realize 250,000 people voted against him.

Is this just sour grapes?

Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava crushes challengers in re-election

The planned recall, which hasn’t really technically begun, briefly hit a speed bump last week. Supervisor of Elections Alina García took to social media to announce that the county clerk couldn’t accept the recall petition as submitted because her office couldn’t provide the format.

“Residents recently attempted to file a petition to recall the Miami-Dade County mayor but the Clerk’s office cannot approve the form of the petition because the county code still requires the petition to be in a format determined by the former Elections Department — an office that no longer exists,” Garcia wrote, trying to be cheeky.

“While our office is now an independent constitutional office, the county code has not yet been updated to reflect this change, through no fault of our own,” she wrote. “Since taking office in January, we have been working with the county to resolve this issue so citizens have a clear and lawful way to petition their government.”

She said that her office had already provided the same form that the old Elections Department. Which, like, seems logical. The process didn’t change. Just the person in charge. But she said that she needed a “formal agreement with the county that authorizes our office to carry out these duties.”

She thanked Chairman Anthony Rodriguez for putting it on the Dec. 2 commission agenda. “We are hopeful that this will finally resolve the issue so voters can fully exercise their rights without interruption,” Garcia wrote.

Except it wasn’t on the agenda yet. Ladra looked. It was later added to the agenda in the form of a resolution sponsored by Commissioner Oliver Gilbert to “clarify” that the elections supervisor is, in fact, allowed to do the job she already thought she was doing.

And like that — poof — the problem evaporated. Unanimous vote. Crisis averted. The petition lives to fight another day.

Barby Rodriguez, the chief of staff for County Clerk Juan Fernandez-Barquin, — and daughter-in-law to Congressman Carlos Gimenez — said the office would get back to the petitioner “with a response shortly as to whether the petition is approved or not as to the form.” Once it is approved, Otaola — who formed a political action committee called Recall Cava in October — has to collect about 61,000 signatures.

Read related: Mayoral wannabe Alex Otaola wants to bring McCarthyism to Miami-Dade

The ballot question is simple: “Should Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava be recalled?” To the point, but unnecessarily brief.  State law limits the number of words in a recall ballot question to 15 for the title and 75 for the text. This petition question has left 66 words on the table.

State law also does not require a reason for a municipal mayoral recall. Remember when former Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Alvarez in 2011? There was no reason stated then either.

That recall effort against Alvarez — and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Natasha Seijas — began in September 2010 after the county passed a budget that raised property taxes by as much as 14% and increased the salaries of county employees by a total of $132 million. A whopping 88% of the voters unseated them.

This recall feature the same budget complaints after Levine Cava closed a $400 million hold in the county coffers during budget season.

One almost wonders if the little detour was performative. After all, wouldn’t all the former elections department functions automatically become part of the SOE’s purview? Is there anything else we haven’t thought of? The only two speakers at Tuesday’s meeting were there to urge commissioners to approve the measure. And the effort got more ink in the past few days than it ever had before. Nobody outside Otaola’ echo chamber knew there was a recall effort.

And the petition filed Nov. 21 by attorney Ricci Carabeo of VPP Law Firm, on “behalf of his client” just happens to be in the right form. How did that happen if the elections supervisor couldn’t provide him with the form before Tuesday?

The change.org petition was started by Mercy Perez, who was also one of the speakers Tuesday, more than seven month ago. It’s got more than 4,600 signatures — totally symbolic because they have to sign on paper and some are not even Miami-Dade voters.  But make no mistake: this show belongs to Otaola, who opened a political action committee in October named Recall Cava.

Otaola may have finished third in last year’s mayoral race, but he didn’t exactly fade into obscurity. Why would he? He’s got 475,000 YouTube subscribers — more than 19,000 people watching live on a random weeknight — and a very engaged base that treats “Hola Ota-Ola” like it’s the gospel according to San Alex.

And now those followers are being told it’s their civic duty to remove La Alcaldesa from office before the communist apocalypse arrives. Or before Eileen Higgins becomes mayor of Miami. Otaola, who helped push Bryan Calvo to mayoral victory in Hialeah, is backing former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez in the Miami runoff and had one of his famous caravans to support Gonzalez Saturday.

Or before Afghan refugees storm Coral Gables. Because Otaola took the tragic shooting in D.C. involving an Afghan man and somehow used it to attack Levine Cava for welcoming Afghan refugees to Miami-Dade three years ago.

Read related: Bryan Calvo breaks the Hialeah machine, wins mayor’s race outright

Local Democratic strategist Christian Ulvert, Levine Cava’s longtime campaign consultant, wasted no time reminding everyone that Otaola was “rejected by 88 percent of voters” in the 2024 election. According to Ulvert, this is all a “deeply flawed and miscalculated political stunt” by someone who is “not a serious leader.”

He also called Levine Cava “a popular leader” with “deep love and respect” from voters, which is probably why she won her re-election with a solid 58% of the vote in the first round. But its also exactly the kind of thing political advisors say right before the panic texts begin.

Ladra’s not saying Otaola is right. Let’s be clear: his politics are a spicy stew of fearmongering, Trump cult identity, and the kind of Cold-War-era communist hunting that would make McCarthy blush.

But he isn’t irrelevant. Not even close.

This is a man who can snap his fingers and send dozens of flag-waving SUVs clogging up intersections. He can turn an unfounded rumor into a talking point. He can drive 20,000 people into a livestream on a Wednesday night. There are elected officials — plural — who take him seriously. Commissioner Senator Rene Garcia was quoted in the media hinting he might be supportive of the recall.

“I too, have had some issues in reference to some of the park funding that we see, and I have been asking for information, that we are yet to receive that,” Garcia told NBC6 Miami. “So if I am one Commissioner that is struggling, there may be others that are doing the same.”

Of course, everybody says he wants her office. There are at least three other current commissioners looking at it, too. You know who you are.

Otaola and his team must get signatures from 4% of the registered voters in Miami-Dade County, about 61,000 signatures. They have 120 days to collect them, according to the Supervisor of Elections office. Once they are submitted and verified, a recall election must be held within 90 days.

The petition is almost certainly going to be cleared for takeoff by our Republican Supervisor of Elections, who some say was elected to stop all Democrats from moving forward in Miami-Dade.

Whether Otaola gets the signatures is another matter. Sixty-thousand-plus verified voter John Hancocks is no joke. Ladra doubts that half he has that many registered voters in his subscriber list.

But what’s undeniable is this: Alex Otaola has built a real political machine out of a YouTube show, and county hall is paying attention — even if they pretend they aren’t.

The recall may be a stunt. But the movement behind it? Not as easy to dismiss as some Democrats would like.