The invitation is striking because of the number of names on the leadership committee: 23 electeds, members of the Hialeah, Miami Lakes and Hialeah Gardens hierarchy, have invited their friends and favorite lobbyists to a fundraiser Thursday for Miami-Dade Commissioner and mayoral 2020 candidate Esteban Bovo at — where else? — Hialeah Park Racing and Casino.
There are Miami-Dade County commissioners Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Rebeca Sosa and Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid and the entire city council, Hialeah Gardens Mayor Yioset de la Cruz and two of his council 
members, Miami Springs Mayor Zavier Garcia and almost everyone from Hialeah: Council members Oscar de la Rosa, Bovo’s stepson (so it would be weird if he wasn’t there), Jesus Tundidor, Carl Zogby, and Pablitiquito Hernandez as well as former Councilmembers Jose “Pepe” Yedra, Luis Gonzalez, who just lost his comeback, and Vivian Casals-Munoz, former Sen. Rene Garcia, who is running for Bovo’s District 13 seat, former State Rep. turned lobbyist Eddy Gonzalez, Hialeah Housing chief — and absentee ballot handler — Julio Ponce and Vice Chair of Community Council 5 Alex Rizo, a charter school executive who doesn’t care what Bovo does with community councils now that he’s running to replace State Rep. Jose Oliva in State House 110 (more on that later) and who may not know the kind of shark tank he is about to step into.
It’s an FBI agent’s smorgasbord. Ladra hopes someone is wearing a wire.
Even former Mayor Julio Robaina, whose onetime business partner Martin Caparros gave former county mayor and 2020 mayoral candidate Alex Penelas, the presumed frontrunner, at least $100,000 through his multiple companies. Was there a falling out? Was it after he lost his own mayoral race in which Caparros heavily invested?
Or are they splitting up to hedge bets and cover both bases?
Read related: Alex Penelas leads mayoral pack with $3 mil, but Xavier Suarez had best January
And it’s almost everyone from Hialeah, because the invitation is also striking because of who isn’t on there: Namely Hialeah 
Mayor Carlos Hernandez, who is already on the record supporting former Penelas. But also missing are all the women on the Seguro Que Yes Council: Katherine Cue-Fuente, Jacqueline Garcia-Roves and Monica Perez are all MIA. So are former Council Members Isis Garcia-Martinez and Lourdes Lozano — who probably follow Castro Hernandez anywhere — and none of the council members from Miami Springs. Not a single one.
Looks like Sosa and Casals-Munoz are the only girls invited to the boys club.
It’s strange that in Hialeah, where slate cards are de rigueur and political alliances are forged in crime, that there would be so many dissenters from the mayor’s direction. It’s refreshing, but it’s weird.
Also conspicuously absent: Current mayor Carlos Gimenez, who is now suddenly a Republican candidate for Congress. One would think he would endorse his successor eventually. And Bovo makes the most sense.
Read related: Esteban Bovo’s 2020 mayoral dreams doomed via Alex Penelas
Bovo is the only Republican running in the bipartisan mayoral race, that becomes partisan anyway. Penelas, and Commissioners 
Daniella Levine-Cava and Jean Monestime are Democrats. Commissioner Xavier Suarez is an independent.
Even before the congressional bid, Bovo and Grimenez have been best buds. Only in recent months, as Stevie has tried to separate himself from the county’s history of misusing the transportation funds from the half-penny sales tax, has he been more critical of Gimenez. But he voted with him last week — and against hundreds if not thousands of voters — to let Formula 1 racing at the HardRock Stadium in Miami Gardens (more on that later).
If you want to go and hobnob with this crazy cast of hoodlums and higher level criminals at the Turf Club on the 3rd floor of the racetrack, 2200 E. 4th Ave., call Esther Nuhfer — who used to raise funds for Congressman David Rivera — at 786-402-4822.
Or offer to be Pepe Diaz’s designated driver.
Todo Hialeah, except Carlos Hernandez, hosts mayoral event for Esteban Bovo added by Ladra on
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