District 7 race heads to court

Early voters in South Miami, Pinecrest and Coral Gables who cast ballots already for a new Miami-Dade commissioner in District 7, may have wasted their time. A circuit court judge could cancel that race on Monday. Attorney Ricardo Corona, better known for a late-night TV show that dispenses legal advice to call-in viewers, filed a […]

Mayor Loco: The Recall Candidate

Former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez, running for county commission in District 7, doesn’t want to work with the current board of his would-be colleagues. In fact, he wants them recalled like former mayor Carlos Alvarez and former District 13 commissioner Natacha Seijas. “We’re going to get three, four, five more commissioners out in the next […]

Suarez runs away after low blow

Former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez came out swinging at Wednesday’s debate with former State Rep. Julio Robaina (Rep., District 117) and hit him right below the belt, making some in the audience of almost 30 people (minus campaign pros& reporters/bloggers) gasp. It would be easy for him, Suarez stressed, to “get along with the mayor […]

Ladra’s Candidates Cliff Notes

After seven (seems like 17) different forums and debates in the last couple of weeks, Ladra feels likes she gets the gist of the 11 mayoral candidates because, well, they sound like broken records. Granted, most voters only go to one or two forums and hear the carefully prepared “messages” with soundbites and buzz words […]

Candidate stumps for job, not seat

Looks like Gabrielle Redfern is giving up on the race for the Miami-Dade mayor’s seat and is going after a county job instead. In transit, what else? The Miami Beach single mom doesn’t want to be mayor anymore. She wants to fix the public transit system she says works badly for too few at too […]

Robaina gets roasted at forum

Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina is feeling no love from the other 10 candidates in the race to replace recalled Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez. At a forum Monday night presented by the NAAC, Robaina — who arrived late — got called “so close to” being a crook by Eddie Lewis, who ran for property appraiser in […]

Baby X stumps for Papa

Forget Norman Braman and his considerably anticlimactic endorsement (though maybe not his money). Former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez has another big advantage in his bid to become the next county commissioner in District 7: His son, Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez. The son is allegedly helping raise money for his father, whose giant warchest of $117,000 […]

Who’s real development darling?

There’s this great saying in Cuban — “como los pajaros tirandole a la escopeta,” which translates, really pitifully, into “that’s like the birds shooting at the rifles” but more literally into “the kettle calling the teapot black” (us Cubans have no teapots and the birds quote is more colorful). That’s how Ladra characterizes most of […]

The Brito Bounce burns Robaina

Looks like another candidate has borne the brunt of the Brito Bounce, which is what Ladra calls it when PAC chair and political operative Vanessa Brito shows her traitor opportunistic stripes and betrays another one. Burned this time: Former State Rep. Julio Robaina, running in the District 7 commission race to replace mayoral candidate Carlos […]

Robaina: "Ricky was robbed."

Attorney Ricardo Corona, denied entry into the race for commissioner in District 7, has at least one ally in his quest to delay the race so he can get on the ballot: Former State Rep. Julio Robaina, who did technically qualify. “What they did to Ricky is a travesty,” Robaina told Ladra Tuesday night in […]