April Fool's joke? Nope. Renier Diaz de la Portilla runs for judge - again

It would have been the best April Fool’s joke ever. But, alas, it seems to be a worrisome reality.

On Wednesday, Renier Díaz de la Portilla filed to run for judge — again. You’d be forgiven for checking the calendar twice, since it was April 1.

Reached by text, and asked if it was real, Renier Diaz de la Portilla said “Why wouldn’t it be real?”

Well, Ladra answered, he could have waited a day. Because it’s natural to think that this is all an elaborate joke.

“Silly and irrelevant,” he answered.

Everybody knows Miami is the capital of political comebacks. Or maybe political habits, in some cases. Because Díaz de la Portilla’s repeated runs for the bench are starting to look less like ambition and more like ritual.

This is now his third attempt at becoming a judge.

What makes him think this time will be different? Ladra asked him. “Simple. I like serving the community that has given me so much. Best,” he texted. Which is not an answer to the question. He texted it again. Twice more.

Notably it’s also the second time Baby DLP — the youngest brother to former Sens. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, now a prominent lobbyist representing, among others, the American Dream Miami mega-mall, and Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was also a Miami city commissioner when he was arrested in 2023 for bribery and money laundering (charges which were later dropped) — is taking on a sitting Black judge.

That’s a detail that may not be the headline, but is definitely part of the conversation in a county where judicial races are never just about résumés.

This time, the target is Gordon Charles Murray Sr. And that’s where this gets interesting.

Because Murray isn’t just any judge. He’s a widely respected, deeply rooted figure in Miami-Dade’s legal and civic community. The kind of judge who didn’t parachute onto the bench through political maneuvering. Okay, he was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott. But he worked his way up through the system — prosecutor, private practice, magistrate, then appointment, then election.

He says on his website that he has supervised more than 1 million filings as administrative judge in the civil court division.

In 2023, the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism and the Standing Committee on Professionalism honored Murray with the William M. Hoeveler Judicial Professionalism Award. The award recognize an active judge who best exemplifies strength of character, service, and competence as a jurist, lawyer, and public servant.

“The Community Judge believes every person deserves to feel heard and respected in a courtroom,” he posted last month on his Facebook page. “Dignity is not optional. It is the standard.”

Last year, he was invited to speak at the Father Jean Gerard Community Center in Lake Worth, Florida, where he led a panel discussion focused on leadership, safety, and accountability in the justice system. The panel brought together a cross-section of community voices: faith leaders, legal professionals, and concerned citizens. All of them were committed to asking better questions about how justice really works in some neighborhoods.

All of this indicates that while there are dozens of incumbents without challenges on this year’s election cycle, Murray is probably not the one to target.

Most importantly, Murray has built something you can’t manufacture in a campaign cycle, and something the Diaz de la Portilla brand sorely lacks: trust. Really everywhere, but particularly in the Black community, where Murray’s ties run deep — including longstanding involvement with 93rd Street Community Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, one of the most influential faith institutions in South Florida.

That matters. A lot.

See? Judicial races in Miami-Dade may be technically nonpartisan, but they are anything but apolitical. They are fought in communities, in civic networks, in churches — and Murray is not a stranger walking into those rooms. In fact, he’s already inside them.

So what, exactly, is Díaz de la Portilla thinking?

That’s the question ricocheting through courthouse hallways and political group chats today.

On paper, he checks the boxes: lawyer, former legislator, longtime political name. Renier Diaz de la Portilla was elected twice to the Miami-Dade School Board and then to the state House. After that he worked two years in the public defender’s office, but he was in the domestic violence section so, basically, defending wife beaters. And he has worked as an independent attorney and mediator.

Oh, and professional losing candidate. He lost a 2012 bid to go back to the State House against Manny Diaz Jr., the county commission race against Eileen Higgins in 2020 (though he did force her into a runoff) and his two judicial campaigns — one in 2014 against Veronica Diaz and another in 2022 against Fred Seraphin.

That was an ugly race. Haitian leaders had to denounce attack mailers attacking the longtime Miami-Dade the first Haitian-American judge to be appointed in Miami-Dade, for spreading lies to mislead voters about his false arrest as a teenager. One of the lies was a fake press release from the fraternal order of police demanding that Seraphin, who was racially profiled, release his arrest records. It was ludicrous and the DLPs never backed off.

He lost that race, too. Maybe because Baby DLP does not meet judicial standards, including very strict judicial rules about getting too political. It’s canon number 7 in the Florida Supreme Court’s Judicial Code of Conduct: A Judge or Candidate for Judicial Office Shall Refrain From Inappropriate Political Activity.

Ladra thinks voters aren’t very eager to turn politicians into cosplay judges. That might be especially true when the opponent is a well-respected incumbent who already looks and acts like a real judge.

There’s one scenario that observers have mentioned a few times for the real reason that Renier is doing going for round 3: The family business. When he runs for office, money is raised for their political action committees y todos comen de eso. Literally. Just watch the campaign finance report expenses on food.

Also, his brother Alex Diaz de la Portilla gets paid as a consultant and a bunch of friends and family get “jobs.” Ladra fully expects Jenny Nillo — ADLP’s ghost employee at taxpayer expense in Miami — to work on the campaign. Like she did last time. On the city payroll. She works for the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections now, so she might have to take time off.

Strangely enough, ADLP told Political Cortadito he didn’t know anything about his brother filing for the judicial race.

“Wow,” he texted Ladra, saying that he was in LA visiting a nephew. “First time I see this.”

Ladra asked if he had spoken to his brother. “Not about this,” he said. But he will be supportive, even though Renier got immunity to testify in ADLP’s corruption case. “Family is family,” he said.

And then there’s the optics.

Running against a sitting judge is always a gamble. Running against a well-regarded incumbent is riskier. Running — again — against a sitting Black judge in a county where Black voters can and do mobilize in judicial races?

That’s not just a campaign.That’s a calculation. And what the DLPs are counting on are the Hispanic votes. They always do.

This could become a referendum on more than qualifications. Because if they run on community ties, credibility, and who actually belongs on the bench — then Díaz de la Portilla may find himself fighting on terrain that doesn’t favor him. So, we can count on him doing what they do best: attacking, deflecting, smearing.

Meanwhile, Murray doesn’t need to reinvent himself. He just needs to remind voters who he already is.

And in Miami politics, that’s often the most powerful position of all.

So, if, indeed, this race is real, then Miami-Dade may be about to witness one of those classic local showdowns: The political name
vs. the institutional judge. The campaign vs. the community.

And the outcome may say a lot about what voters in this county actually want when they walk into a voting booth and see the word “judge” next to two very different kinds of candidates.

Nobody else is covering the judicial races like Political Cortadito. This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. And more so every day. If you want to read ore about the judicial and other campaigns in 2026, please help with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Independent reporting is more important than ever. Ladra thanks everyone for their support.

April Fool’s joke? Nope. Renier Diaz de la Portilla runs for judge — again added by Ladra on April 2, 2026
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