There are seven candidates in the Miami-Dade mayor’s race, but, really, we only count four. Three of them are not viable and won’t make much of a dent in the first round Aug. 18. Of the four who are left, two have been coming out on the top of most polls and are expected to go into the runoff Nov. 3.
Those are former mayor Alex Penelas and Commissioner Xavier Suarez. But there’s still time, of 
course, and the other two — Commissioners Esteban “Steve” Bovo and Daniella Levine Cava — are working very hard to catch up.
Steve Bovo has gained ground, or maybe just momentum, in the last couple of weeks as he leans further to the right for that conservative vote. While this race is bipartisan, or used to be, the former Hialeah councilman and state rep is using his position as the only Republican candidate to get those red votes in an increasingly politically divided community. If you love Donald Trump, you almost have to vote for Bovo. But the reverse is also true. Nobody in the mostly Democratic Miami-Dade who hates Trump will go near Team Bovo.
Read related: Alex Penelas bashes Bovo, wins first Spanish-language mayoral debate
He also has that absentee ballot fraud uncovered in his district office in 2012, which Penelas reminded everyone about at the Spanish-language debate on Univision23 last week. While Bovo was never officially connected by law enforcement, he is one of the Hialeah political hoodlums tied to to the AB fraud machine that has churned out candidates in the City of Retrogress for decades. Ladra doesn’t 
believe his aide was receiving ballots from boleteros and stuffing them into the trunk of her car without his knowledge and consent. Law enforcement should watch Bovo — who has the endorsement of incumbent Mayor Carlos Gimenez — like a hawk this year because of how important ABs are in a COVID19 world.
Also, while his hard right turn might have been a path to victory in November, it’s not as likely in August, when Trump is not on the ticket. Abuelos who are definitely voting Nov. 3 against ese socialista Joe Biden aren’t as motivated to vote this time. Todos son unos sin verguenzas. And registered Democrat voters are outpacing Republicans in the requests for vote-by-mail absentee ballots.
Those Democrat votes are going to be split mostly between Levine Cava, who has a gabillion blue legislators and every progressive group endorsing her, and Alex Penelas, who is going to get fewer because what Dems remember most about him is that Al Gore called him “the single most treacherous and dishonest person” he dealt with during the disputed 2000 election. And because he surrounds himself with sketchy people.
Ladra likes Alex. He’s charming and well spoken, knows his shit and is right on a lot. He shone at the debate last week, but he’s a media trained snake oil salesman so he’s expected to perform well.
Penelas has never really been the problem. It’s the people around him, his entourage of special interests 
that so obviously have a real influence, the lobbyists and vendors that got rich from his days at County Hall that are so all-in on him getting back in control.
Penelas is still a player. How else would a non incumbent, who has been in the private sector for 16 years, amass a campaign war chest of $4.3 million, between his campaign and political action committee? Those are investments, people. The fat accounts are heavy with six figure bundles from special interests and known bad hombres like the mafiosi business partners of former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, a known loan shark who escaped tax evasion charges, and at least $15,000 from lobbyist Rodney Barreto and $10,000 from Bruce Greer, who last Ladra heard was involved in some multi-million housing fraud scheme for which his son Matthew pleaded guilty and was sentenced.
Read related: More than 20 new PACs prepare for 2019 and 2020 elections
In a way, voting for Alex Penelas would be like voting for Julio Robaina. You just have to be okay with white collar crime.
At one point, even gypsy con artist Vanessa Brito was associated with his campaign, which also counts with former Gimenez hacks Freddy Balsera and Brian Goldmeier.
The man is not only endorsed by Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez — another known loan shark and 
the most corrupt politician after Gimenez, only meaner and more apt to abuse his power — Penelas, whose PAC got at least $50,000 from Hernandez, thinks it’s a good idea to boast that and celebrate it with a press conference. He may have won votes in Hialeah, a few, but he lost more votes in Kendall with that stunt.
The other Democrat is really a carpetbagger millionaire elitist property magnate disguised as a compassionate, grassroots, granola crunching grandma with a superhero complex, a real “woman of the people.” Right.
Don’t let the hippie image and the “only social worker” candidate in the race fool ya. Daniella Levine Cava, who also has a campaign war chest of $3.3 million, has a personal net worth of $6.2 million, which is twice what she was worth when she first ran for office in 2014 when she was making a little more than $100,000 a year, according to then and now financial disclosures. Today, she makes more than $400K a year as a part owner of multiple family businesses that bought a bunch of foreclosure properties that she didn’t have any disclosed financial interest in before she was elected (more on that later).
Maybe that’s why she doesn’t mind being called a communist. It gives her cover for being a King Pin landlady.
Interestingly enough, las malas lenguas say Levine Cava — who added her Italian husband’s Cava to her name only so she could sound Hispanic when she ran for office — moved out of her longtime home in District 7 and into Palmetto Bay to run against former commissioner Lynda Bell in District 8 because polling showed she couldn’t beat Suarez. N
ow, after six years on the commission, she thinks she can?
Is it because she’s a woman?
Levine Cava keeps hammering on that single angle, more than on any of the important issues, to the point of sending an ugly “white guy” mailer last week (ugly mailer, not ugly white guy, though the confusion is understandable) that encourages voting on gender lines. “In 2014, Daniella became only the third person in history to unseat an incumbent county commissioner. Now, let’s help her make history again by becoming Miami-Dade’s first woman mayor,” it says.
Read related: Daniella Levine Cava timed resignation to force special election in Miami-Dade
Making the historic gender move one side message in the campaign is one thing. Making it basically the entire campaign is pandering. Most of the other women Ladra knows are sort of offended, too.
It would have been a much better idea for her to resign in time for this election to happen concurrently instead of holding out so that she can be appointed or run for the seat if she loses here.
That leaves us with Xavier Suarez, who may not be the best candidate for some unimportant reasons but is the only candidate for the most important reasons of all.
X likes to talk too much, goes off on tangents, inadvertently making people feel stupid when he quotes 
some 14th century philosopher or talks about papal history as if it was the stuff of regular chit chat. He keeps leaning hard on his son, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who must have very good numbers but was a real disappointment pre COVID19. Papi doesn’t realize it gives people the heebee jeebees to have father and son mayors of the county and city concurrently. But what Ladra tells people who are creeped out by it is that we only have to tolerate that for one year. Baby X looks like a one-term mayor.
The senior Suarez, who was the first Cuban born mayor of Miami, is a statesman who has made too many public criticisms of how the county is run to get away with not making real, meaningful changes. He is an old fashioned gentleman and old school pol who is constantly evolving and a rabid learner. He has a lot of good plans for economic development and transit and he can finally expand his jobs for youth program, but he doesn’t have any self interest. Ladra can’t say that for the others.
Suarez sometimes isn’t as quick with the comebacks as Penelas or Bovo, but he owns his negative attacks and doesn’t hide behind mysterious dark money like Levine Cava.
And you know who he is because he has always been the same guy.
X has a blind side for his son, but he is honest about himself and county business. The absentee ballot fraud that took him out of office in 1997 was perpetuated by Humbertico Hernandez, a commission candidate who later did time for mortgage fraud, not Suarez. Yet, Suarez has had to carry the cross of being the only U.S. mayor to be unseated because of AB fraud — and he’s done it with style and aplomb.
He’s not in this for his financial gain or that of his children or his besties. He’s in it for the legacy. He wants to go down as a hero in the history books. He wants people to quote him in their political campaigns. That’s a good thing. It’s aspirational. It’ll keep him honest.
He hasn’t raised as much money as the other three ($1.6 between his account and his PAC), but he is the only one who can win it coming from behind with the cash.
Oh, and he doesn’t owe anybody anything.
Each of the other candidates in the mayor’s race has something to offer their special little niche of 
interests.
Penelas has the shadow bank industry of Hialeah’s corrupt politicians and his airport millionaires. Bovo has the latin builders and developers eager to get juicy transportation projects. Levine Cava has the progressive agenda she’ll need to protect to keep growing her net worth and the mystery benefactors behind the dark money attacks.
Suarez has his history books.
While it may seem moot, because most political observers and polls have the runoff between Penelas and Suarez anyway, and the bulk of 332,000 absentee ballots sent Thursday are already in the hands of voters, those are the reasons why Ladra is voting for Suarez.
It’s about time we had a mayor who isn’t in it for their friends and family or their bank account and predator real estate portfolio.
For Miami-Dade mayor, Xavier Suarez offers real change, no strings attached added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
