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good thing for Israel. Good luck with that.
There are two explanations here: One is that he feels threatened by three-time 
loser Annette Taddeo, who he will likely face in the general election next year. Because even though Taddeo has lost her three last tries to get into elected office — any elected office, the last of which was LG to former Gov. Charlie Crist’s failed comeback — she will have the money to reach voters in a bell weather district, which, by the way, she and Crist won in 2014 and which, also, has flipped three times already in the last three consecutive elections and which, on top of that, could be redrawn to favor a Democrat candidate.
Read related story: Dear Carlos Curbelo: You have two years, then bye-bye
So, yeah, it’s a real race. A hotly-contested, closely-watched, anybody-can-win-it contest on the national radar. And Curbelo could be pandering already to those middle-of the-road votes and the third of the voters who are independent. You know… hedging his bets.
The second explanation is that he’s really a Democrat at heart. Remember, he cut his teeth on the campaigns of his political godfathers, Lincoln and Mario Diaz Balart, who were once Democrats, too, and reportedly changed parties so they could win.
And all that huffing and puffing about Donald Trump being a Democratic plant is for cover.
“There was never any doubt from the beginning that Carlos Curbelo was not a conservative Republican. He supported Common Core, while the Republican Party was against it,” said former Cutler Bay Ed “Mac” MacDougall, one of four other primary candidates — including former Congressman David Rivera, who had lost to Joe Garcia two years prior.
MacDougall thinks its reason number two.
Former Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Joe Martinez thinks Curbelo seems more Dem cbeause of reason number one.
“He’s just trying to stay elected,” Martinez told Ladra.
“That’s what happens to some people when they get into office, they just try to stay in power and forget their principles.”
Either way, man is Curbelo ripe for another primary.
MacDougall said his wife would kill him. “I have the will. But my wife isn’t going to allow me 
to spend another two years away from home and a good fortune on it.”
Martinez is leaning more toward another mayoral run against Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. He won’t announce anything until next year.
But all a relatively decent candidate would need is a mailer with a photo of Curbelo and Obama sipping martinis on Air Force One and the fact that he begged to fly with the president twice and flew down with him weeks after Obama shook hands with Raul Castro. Oh, use that photo, too. And mail it only to the over 65 Cuban voters in Westchester and Kendall.
Sources tell me that there could be a primary opponent. That someone is thinking of doing it just on principle, so that Curbelo doesn’t get a free ride. And they hope that the anti-establishment fever whipped up by Donald Trump will trickle down to the trenches.
He or she should be taking notes and saving photos.
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