Just when you thought Coral Gables politics couldn’t get any more creative, along comes a brand-new political action committee with a very wholesome-sounding name: Good Government for Coral Gables. Awww. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Except Ladra has seen this movie before. And she knows who’s holding the camera. The PAC was formed earlier this month […]
It was only a matter of time before Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago found someone to run against his nemesis, Commissioner Melissa Castro, in her next election, which he is trying to move up by four months. A first-time candidate named Nestor Menendez has popped onto the Coral Gables political scene with an impressively padded […]
Critics say election question is too biased, persuasive If you live in Coral Gables, mark your calendar for April 21. Actually — don’t bother. You won’t be going anywhere. The city commission has decided that seven changes to the city charter — everything from when elections are held to how reserves are spent to how […]
Only in Florida can candidates raise real money for an election that hasn’t been called, for a seat that’s already empty, in a district that will go unrepresented when the Legislature gavels in this year. Welcome to House District 113 — where democracy is on layaway. Nearly two months after Rep. Vicki Lopez vacated the […]
There are gestures, and then there are kneelings. This week in Washington, María Corina Machado , the longtime face of the Venezuelan resistance to its authoritarian government, walked into the Oval Office and placed her Nobel Peace Prize medal into Donald Trump’s hands like a medieval supplicant offering tribute to a monarch. Around the world, […]
Long, chaotic commission meeting features bickering There are city commission meetings, and then there are Coral Gables city commission meetings under Mayor Vince Lago, which increasingly resemble a telenovela written by someone who hates everyone in the cast. Tuesday’s meeting was long. It was contentious. It was rude. It was chaotic. It was — depending […]
Some politicians ease into office. Bryan Calvo walked into Hialeah City Hall last week, raised his right hand, said “So help me God,” and immediately started unplugging things. At 28 years old — now officially the youngest mayor in Hialeah’s hundred-year history — Calvo didn’t waste his first afternoon taking ceremonial photos or handing out […]
After false starts, county approves petition form Back in December, the crew who wanted to recall Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava face-planted on a paperwork technicality. The Clerk of Courts sent them home to rewrite their homework. Many assumed the whole thing would quietly die on a laptop somewhere between a fundraising pitch and a […]
There was a time in America when criticizing an elected official on Facebook earned you an argument in the comments. Maybe a few unfollows. Now, in Miami Beach, it earns you a visit from the cops. On Monday, Raquel Pacheco — a military veteran, soccer mom, two-time candidate for city commission who also ran for […]
Donald Trump has discovered a sudden, passionate love for protesters. Specifically, Iranian protesters. In recent days, the president has floated the idea of U.S. military intervention to “rescue” demonstrators facing repression abroad. He’s warned Iran not to harm them. He’s promised America is “locked and loaded.” He has cast himself as the muscular guardian of […]