New KFHA candidate forums: Miami-Dade District 7, school board, clerk

June 27, 2024 admin Florida, Government, Local News, Miami, Politics

Round 2 mayoral group has incumbent Daniella Levine Cava confirmed

Absent from the first mayoral forum presented by the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations last week, incumbent Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has confirmed that she will speak at a follow-up event next week. So will Alex Otaola, the actor and podcaster who is running on an anti communist platform, probably with a translator like he took to CBS4 this weekend (more on that later).

But first, the candidates in four other Miami-Dade County races — two school board races, the county clerk contest and the commission District 7 race — have confirmed they’ll be at a forum this Thursday.

Incumbent Miami-Dade Clerk and Comptroller Juan Fernandez-Barquin, who DeSantis appointed last Summer after the death of Harvey Ruvin, will face former Democratic Sen. Annette Taddeo.

This is an important race. Key word: comptroller. This post is not just ministerial. The clerk and comptroller is not just the official county records custodian, which is heady enough. This person’s duties include supervision of information management and financial administration for county government offices and agencies that service the 2.7 million county residents of Miami-Dade when it comes to traffic fines, parking tickets, marriage licenses, divorces, civil complaints, mortgage foreclosures, property tax deeds, child support, alimony and so much more it will make your head spin.

Oh, and the county courts. The Miami-Dade clerk and comptroller, which can be a necessary checks and balances on our tax dollars, manages the largest and highest volume of court filings and official records in the State of Florida — and the fourth largest judicial circuit in the U.S.

And these two people want to do it.

Before being appointed to the position last June, Fernandez-Barquin was a state rep, having been elected with 53% in 2018 to represent District 119, before the district maps were redrawn, to replace Jeanette Nuñez, who became the lieutenant governor. In 2020, he had a barely there Democrat opponent named Imtiaz Ahmad Mohammad who got half the votes the state rep got, winning 65% to 35%. In 2022, he defended two Republican challengers in the primary before beating the Democrat perennial and community councilman Johnny Farias with 68% of the vote.

His claim to fame in Tallahassee is sponsoring the anti-protest bill in 2021, a heavy-handed response to the George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests that established new limitations for demonstrators and increasing penalties.

Taddeo is nothing if not a fighter. She became the first Latina Democrat to serve in the Florida Senate when she won a special election in 2017, finally, after years of losing in other races. She was re-elected to a full four-year term in 2018 and and then left the seat to run for congress Maria Elvira Salazar, who trounced her with 57% of the vote. Last year, Taddeo lost a race for Florida Democratic Party chair to Nikki Fried.

But the Republican has outraised the Democrat and has more than twice as much cash on hand, as of the last campaign reports, with $342,734 between his campaign account and PAC, Floridians United. Taddeo, meanwhile, has $153,860 between her campaign account and her Accountable Miami-Dade PAC.

In one of three contested county commission races, incumbent District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado will face two candidates running to unseat her, former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner — who wants a rematch after a narrow loss in 2020 — and public schools police officer and community council member Richard Praschnik. All three have confirmed they will be at the forum.

But this is really a rematch between Regalado, a former school board member who once ran for mayor, and Lerner — a former state rep who served in the House 119 from 1998 to 2000 and two terms as Pinecrest mayor from 2008 to 2016 — who lost the district commission race by only 1,300 votes in 2020.

And it is probably the most competitive of the three county commission races this year.

According to the latest campaign finance reports, Regalado has more than $1 million in hand as of June 14, between her campaign account and her political action committee, Citizens for Excellence in Miami-Dade Government. Of that, $427,000 has come in contributions just this year. The new big donors include developer Masoud Shojaee ($10,000) and lobbyist Les Pantin ($15K).

In comparison, Lerner has only $153,232 between her campaign account and her PAC, Protect Our Future, which has only raised $22,000 for this race.

For the two school board races in the Kendall area, incumbent Miami-Dade School Board Member Luisa Santos will attend Thursday’s forum with her challenger, Kimberly Beltran, a legal claims processor. But School Board Member Mary Blanco, who was appointed to the District 7 seat by DeSantis in January of 2023, is the only incumbent who has not confirmed for Thursday and has turned down alternate dates, so she ain’t going. Which is a real disrespect for someone seeking votes for the first time ever.

Her challengers, former South Dade Senior High Principal Javier Perez and teacher-turned-tech exec Max Tuchman will be there.

Tuchman, who had her kickoff at the Superwheels Skating Center last year, is leading the incumbent in fundraising, with $275,671 raised in 965 separate contributions. She has spent $98,428 so she has more than $177,000 in hand as of June 14. Blanco has raised $160,370 in 275 checks, including 32 from PACs and at lest 25 from lobbyists. Perez is going to have a hard time reaching voters so Thursday’s forum is more important for him. He’s spent almost all the $46,000 he raised, having $9,339 in hand.

Next week, KFHA will present the candidates for supervisor of elections. Only the Democrat candidates have a primary. They are former state Rep. Juan Carlos “J.C.” Planas, political operative Willis Howard and digital media entrepreneur Arnie Weiss. But Republican State Rep Alina Garcia said she would also be there to present her ideas to voters.

And this is going to be a contest between Planas and Garcia. Everyone knows it.

That same day, incumbent Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava will be there to defend her seat against a number of challengers, most of whom were already at a mayoral forum last week. Cuban-American actor and podcaster Alex Otaola, who hardly speaks English and has a cult-like following for his anti-communist platform, has also confirmed.

Political Cortadito will write separately about those races before next week’s forum.