In State House 118, a Dem primary to face Frank Artiles

Not one, but two Democrat candidates have filed to run against State Rep. Frank Artiles for the seat in District 118 in what is expected to be a heavy blue 2016 electoral cycle.

Omar Rivero (far right in photo), who challenged Artiles (far left) last year but fell short 58-42, filed paperwork for a rematch in December, a month after his loss. But now he’s going to have to beat a fellow Dem first: Miami-Dade Schools Police Lt. Robert Asencio (center), a public employee advocate for years, is finally following his dream of running for state office. He filed March 23 and had his kick-off fundraiser Thursday.

Both he and Rivero, who hasn’t reported raising a dime, better get on that fundraising drive. Artiles already has $34,000, including almost $30,000 which was contributed in February alone. And that doesn’t count his PAC or PACs. He has had to take a break from raising money until the session closes, but that’s in less than a month.

Asencio is also founder and director of Florida Public Employees and that could translate into a lot of financial support from unions across Florida. If they are smart. Remember, Artiles hates firefighters and thinks public employees have it easy. This is an opportunity for organized labor across the state to take out one of it’s biggest enemies in the legislature.

Ladra just hopes that the Democrats don’t damage each other duking it out.

Annette Taddeo, Democrats — Snow White introduces the Seven Dwarfs, also known as the Fat Chance Crew

Rivero is very serious about his candidacy. He didn’t wait more than a month to file to run again after his loss. He is not joking around about this and should not be confused with the most of the other Snow White dwarfs — the Democratic candidates Ladra likes to call the “Fat Chance Crew” that were thrown, by an ambitious pre-LG run Annette Taddeo, into every single House race in the “No Free Rides” campaign. It didn’t work out so good.

But for someone out of nowhere to get 42% against the heavily financed machinery that Artiles pulls is quite extraordinary.

Asencio has the public service experience as a cop and the labor money to make him a very viable candidate.

I like both these guys, but they are gonna have to meet and decide who is going to back down and support the other. That is the way to take out Artiles.

Or maybe it’s somebody else.

There have been rumors for months that Artiles is going to switch gears and run for something else — most likely a county commission seat against his nemesis, Commissioner Juan Zapata. Ladra, frankly, would love to see another match between Magilla Gorilla and El Zorro.

But it’s also just as possible that Artiles, whose claim to fame will be that hateful “bathroom bill” (more on that later), leaves early so he can spend the required two years out of office before he can start lobbying buddy State Rep. Jose “The Cigar Czar” Oliva becomes speaker, and then he can lobby him. That’s where the money is.

Anyway, former Congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera, last time we heard from him before he disappeared again, was collecting petitions to qualify for that seat. He wouldn’t run against Artiles, and maybe it’s all just a gimmick to keep the feds away because he’s a “political candidate” — whether that is viable or not — but maybe he knows something we don’t know.