Candidates qualify for 3 four-way commission races in Miami Beach

There won’t be a mayoral race but the three commission races in Miami Beach this November drew four candidates each for a total of 12 names on the ballot.

You just know there’s going to be at least two runoffs.

The only other incumbent is Group 5 Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who has drawn three solid candidates against him: PTA mom, soldier and small business owner Raquel Pacheco, healthcare nonprofit marketing guru Johnathan Welsh and luxury real estate investor Stephen Cohen, who announced last month.

None of them have raised any real money, however, but Cohen is expected to self fund his campaign and Arriola, who owns a call service company, has not been raising like an incumbent, with only about $59,000 in checks. He has had to loan himself another $100K to look strong. But like him, it’s all fake.

Arriola is so vulnerable, in fact, the runoff might be without him. Fingers crossed.

In Group 4, former Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez –– who was forced to resign when she ran (and lost) for Congress last year — is raising money more like an incumbent than Arriola. Rosen Gonzalez is running for her old seat, which Joy Malakoff was appointed to but is not running for.

Rosen Gonzalez has collected about $113,000 in contributions, according to the latest campaign reports filed with the city through the end of July.

The Miami Dade College professor’s biggest challenge comes from her biggest nemesis — Rafael Velasquez, a real estate broker who she accused of exposing himself to her in a car after a campaign dinner in 2017. While he has said the single mom and one-time yoga instructor made it up for publicity during the #metoo movement — like this is what a politically ambitious woman wants on the top of her first google page — two other women have come forward to say that they, too, felt harassed when he groped and spoke to them inappropriately. The guy is creepy.

Velasquez is now harassing Rosen Gonzalez in court — with a frivolous lawsuit, seeing as how others have confirmed his behavior — and on the campaign trail, where he has stalked her with his cellphone camera.

He should dedicate more time to fundraising. Because it looks like he’s only raised $13K or so, loaning himself another $135,000. He must really want this. Beware!

There are two other candidates running in that seat — real estate broker Michael Barrineau, a member of the city’s planning and zoning board who has raised more than $51,000 since February, and attorney Steven Meiner, who has raised $18,500 since December.

They’d be such viable candidates if all the air wasn’t being sucked out of the room by the sexual harassment drama.

Or… might voters be turned off by the whole he said/she said thing and vote for one of these guys? Ladra bets that is what they are counting on.

The Group 6 is also an open race since Commissioner John Elizabeth Aleman, a Philip Levine lackey, decided not to seek re-election. But some could argue that former State Rep. David Richardson, the only one of 12 candidates to qualify by petition instead of paying the fee, is the de facto incumbent.

Richardson, who also lost in the District 27 Congressional primary, has raised more than $95,000, as of the end of July. He also loaned his campaign $25K. And Ladra is certain he has a political action committee with money.

But that race also has what could be a dark horse: Adrian Gonzalez, the well-known owner of David’s Café on South Beach, has raised $41,000 and could mount a grass roots challenge to Richardson’s name rec. Also in the mix: Mohammed Rafiqul Islam, a property manager who has loaned himself $2,500 (and whose photo Ladra could not find), and small businessman Blake Young, who is self funding and has spent about $1,060 as of July.