The first mayoral forum for the candidates in Doral Tuesday seemed to indicate an early frontrunner in what Ladra suspects will become one of the most hotly-contested (read: ugly and negative) races of this bloated year.
Former School Board member Frank Bolaños — whose last bid for office was characterized by negative campaigning that backfired when he lost to former State Senator Alex Villalobos in 2006 — came out of the gate faster. He actually looks relaxed and confident, like he already landed the part, and had the best answers to the secret, sealed questions that had been reportedly stored in a vault. They turned out rather soft and predictable so why seal ’em? Seems rather theatrical. And Bolaños got easy lobs about the most pressing issues to the city and gave standard answers — traffic, infrastructure, business development. But they were coherent and not rambling and seemed polished and elegant and researched. In other words, he seemed to know what he was talking about.
The other two candidates, sitting Councilmen Pete Cabrera and Luigi Boria, seemed like they were the newbies.
Cabrera got harder questions, though, so he gets points for difficulty. He had what everybody called a “Rick Perry moment,” referring to the November televised presidential candidate debate where the Texas Gov had a brain freeze in the middle of explaining his platform. But Cabrera, who kept going back to his role in the founding of Doral, never answered the question, which was “should a charter school be allowed to deny a special needs student to keep an A rating.” Instead, he went on a voter-friendly tangent about overcrowded classrooms and floated the idea yet again of city-run charter schools in Doral. “If the school board cannot provide what we need in our area, we need to do it ourselves…” and I guess he really didn’t have any place to go from there, since the question is long forgotten. “I lost my train of thought for a second,” Cabrera said.
Ladra thinks it was more than a second.
Boria basically echoed his pitch from his first race 16 months ago, which basically means he bragged about his business acumen, how his annual business revenues is bigger than the city budget, and uttered a series of slogans that sound good to the “rah rah” crowd but mean nothing. “Doral is a special place. I want to keep it that way,” he said, sounding very much like a travel “Come to Doral” commercial. “Every decision I make will be in the best interest of the city. I will not accept any contribution from people doing business with the city. If you want honesty and integrity in government and transparency, I am your candidate. If you want somebody who speaks in a pretty way, I am not your candidate,” said the Venezuelan-born who speaks with a thick (read: sexy) accent.
“Every decision I will make as a mayor will be to protect this community and protect what we have done together, even Frank Bolaños, Pete Cabrera and JC Bermudez,” Boria said, even though moments earlier he had taken a dug at the mayor when he said he could do a better job, after less than half a term, than the founding mayor and one-time county mayoral candidate who has been there for a decade. “It will give me a chance to do more for the city than the actual mayor has done.”
Of course, he did not say what he would actually do. Other than cut spending and change the “tax structure, both taxes coming in and how to appropriate them.” It was all the usual campaign fodder and slogans, I tell you. “I do not have any political aspirations beyond the city of Doral. People before politics,” he said, and you could almost imagine him punching his fist into the air.
They are not going to want to hear this but it is what it is. They looked like two nervous, nerdy girls at the prom.
Bolaños seemed to sense the weakness and capitalized on it. He bested Boria’s my-budget-is-bigger-than-your-budget hat trick, reminding voters he oversaw a $5 billion budget at the school board, and almost chided him for speaking a little too Gloria Rae-like.
“It’s easy to talk about cutting taxes. That’s a no brainer. That’s like American flags and apple pie,” Bolaños said, like he was having a conversation in his living room. “But it’s totally different to run a city than it is a private company…I came from the private sector. I’ve learned it’s not the same.”
And then he called them nervous, nerdy girls at the prom.
“Sometimes my friends say I’m a little too serious. But that’s what we need,” Bolaños said. “If you want on the job training, go somewhere else. Not in Doral. Not on our time.”
So, Ladra’s analysis is that Bolaños is going to be the candidate to beat, not just because the other two divide a certain incumbent voting block, but because he talks prettier.
But it’s not just formidable opinion this time. This is the cumulative conjecture of the dozen or so people I spoke to about it — and you know who you are. Even the two council members not running for mayor and Mayor JC Bermudez, who las malas lenguas say is not running for anything right now (more on that later), are already behind Bolaños. That’s probably why Bolaños mentioned the founding mayor a dozen times or so at the meet and greet at the Intercontinental Hotel on NW 25th Street, which was hosted by the Doral Business Council.
Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez is on the record as supporting the one candidate who is not her colleague. Councilman Michael DiPietro, who said he chose to not run so he could spend time with family and on business, is not as adamant about it but Ladra can tell.
Looks like there is some dissent at City Hall. Ladra expects the meetings to get even longer until Election Day.
Doral horse race starts with clear lead added by Ladra on
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