One of the few contested Florida House primaries in Miami-Dade went, as expected, to the anointed heir of the seat vacated by termed out State 
Rep. Eddy “Here Comes Hialeah” Gonzalez, and with a comfortable lead (read: landslide) of 60% to 40%.
But it’s a five point game, not a whooping, if you only look at the early voting and Election Day ballots combined. The Aug. 24 winner, expected to coast in November in this GOP stronghold, is Republican Executive Committeeman Bryan Avila, who won by less than 200 votes. In fact, the other candidate, Alex Anthony, came 83 short in both early voting and day of, which is interesting. Exactly 83 apart in both categories.
Where Avila did the real trouncing is with the absentee ballots, where he got almost twice as many. In fact, Avila got 33 more ABs cast in his favor than Anthony had in total (2,619 to 2,586).
These are interesting numbers mainly because it is Hialeah, where there have been numerous allegations and investigati0ns on absentee ballot fraud for years, where Gonzalez has or once had a strong AB machinery in place. And, judging from his second place finish for Miami-Dade Property Appraiser in the primary, the only place he could have one. He’s gotta work on that for November.
Read related story: Que paso? Eddy Gonzalez heads into the runoff as numero dos
Avila loaned himself $25,000 and raised at least #137,000 — more from Tallahassee than from Hialeah — and spent $153,000 as of Aug. 29. A lot of it went to consultants David Custin and Katherine San Pedro, of Miami Springs, a new one to Ladra. He also paid several people for “campaign work” — which could be canvassing or phone banks or precinct workers, but why don’t they just say so? — thousands of dollars in amounts from $120 to $760.
Anthony spent almost $100,000 — most of it his own money — but seemed to keep up nicely for a newbie in early voting and Election Day. His consultant was Emiliano Antunez, also wondered what happened in absentee ballots.
“There were no attacks. There was no news on it that would sway voters from one fay to the next. It was a vanilla race,” Antunez said. “So there’s no reason for that statistical anomaly from absentees to everything else.
Hialeah State House heir trounces — with absentee ballots added by Ladra on
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