It’s been more than two years since almost half a million Miami-Dade voters approved a referendum that would fund a no-kill animal services climate and program at the county. Now the advocates who took that initiative to the ballot are pushing for statewide legislation that would force the county to respect that November 2012 vote […]
Former Congressman Joe Garcia is out of politics — at least for now. Garcia has seemed to kick his habit — running for office — and gone for the private sector. He is now senior vice president of QueensFort Capital, a Miami Beach-based merchant and investment bank where he apparently will use his experience and […]
As we learn more and more about billionaire Donald Trump‘s proposal to run the Crandon Golf Course on Key Biscayne for the next 99 years, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe either The Donald or his biggest county champion, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez. Let’s start with Trump, not because it’s any easier to […]
Qualification ended at noon Friday for the April Coral Gables elections that nobody really knows about and all three seats on the ballot became contests with a last minute entry against Commissioner Frank Quesada and a free-for-all of six candidates in the open seat vacated by termed-out Commissioner William “Billy” Kerdyk. Activist Enrique Lopez, who […]
There was a little, bloodless political battle at the MPO meeting Thursday when the body of electeds that plan regional infrastructure and transit improvements elected its new chair and vice chair. It wasn’t over the chair. The new Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Jean Monestime was unanimously and quickly elected to replace former chair of both, Commissioner […]
Lubby Navarro, the bureaucrat-turned-lobbyist who was appointed this week to the Miami-Dade School Board by Gov. Rick Scott will be sworn in this afternoon. But already, she’s got a challenge if for the 2016 election from teacher Carolina Blanco, who has spent the last eight years in a classroom teaching special needs students. Blanco had […]
How pervasive are campaign shenanigans in South Florida? A former Miami mayoral candidate who we never heard of before and who never stood a chance of being elected pled guilty Thursday to three counts of violating state campaign finance laws. Jeffrey Benjamin, who lost big to Mayor Tomás Regalado in 2013, was sentenced to a […]
Call it the year of the Missus. Following Hillary Clinton‘s ambitions for presidency and, at the local level, Teresa Sarnoff‘s desire to replace her hubby on the Miami city commission, Coral Gables realtor and former first lady Jeannett Slesnick has filed to run for the commission seat vacated by Vice Mayor Billy Kerdyk. Slesnick filed […]
Another tell tale sign that Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine is looking to run for statewide office: He hired noted Tallahassee lobbyist Fátima Perez — who represents the city of Miami Beach — as his new chief of staff. Alex Miranda, who has been by Levine’s side since the 2013 mayoral campaign and then was […]
Two of the original G-Men are together again: Jesse Manzano-Plaza, who ran the immediate 2012 re-election campaign for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, has joined the consulting firm headed by Alex Heckler and former State Rep. Marcelo Llorente, who came in third in the 2011 recall mayoral race and then endorsed Gimenez. Manzano and Ben Pollara, […]