The runoff for the commission seat in Coral Gables is really a contest between a well-connected, super funded lobbyist with a semi-famous last name, and a relatively unknown business woman with no money and an unfortunate last name.
Guess who the establishment has chosen.
Ivette Arango O’Doski, whose mother owns the well-known Arango Interiors, has the endorsements from Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and the three sitting commissioners, as well as Miami-Dade Commissioner Kevin “Proud Boy Pal” Cabrera. According to the latest campaign reports, she has close to $223,0600 in her campaign account — much of it from real estate and developer sources — and dark money funders paying for negative attack text messages.
Melissa Castro has raised less than 10% of that, or just under $20K, mostly in small $100 or smaller checks, and has the endorsement of the anti-development Gables Neighbors United and Gables Insider publisher Ariel Fernandez, the other commission candidate, who won on April 11 with a 16-point margin.
A Castro win Tuesday would reveal two other truths: Money does not buy elections and people don’t like Mayor Lago as much as they used to.
Read related: For independence in Coral Gables, vote Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez
It could also be another rejection of the negative campaign that the Arango camp has been waging with mail and texts that have also tried to mislead voters. Even though it didn’t work against Fernandez.
One text says it is from Gables United, perhaps hoping people think that it is the Gables Neighbors United, a large resident group, endorsing her. The group’s president was forced to send out an email blast to let everyone know it wasn’t them.
“Deception alert. If you received a text about the upcoming Coral Gables runoff election referencing ‘paid for by Gables United,’ don’t be fooled,” the email states. “The other candidate and her PAC are slinging dirt, sending out deceiving mailers and texts and showing desperation.”
Another attacks Castro for not having voted in Gables elections. But the truth is that Arango O’Doski has missed more city elections than not, having voted in two of the last five Gables elections, according to records from the Miami-Dade Elections office. Her husband Rhett O’Doski, also a lobbyist who works closely with state government — he served as the legislative lobbyist for the Department of Insurance under two administrations — especially on insurance matters, has never voted in a city election.
Over the weekend, while 832 people voted early at the War Memorial Youth Center, the Republican Party of Florida also got involved to help out Rhett’s wife. According to the elections department 3,347 voters returned their ballots by mail as of Tuesday morning.
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