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 and is chaired by Raul Diaz, a name familiar to anyone who has followed the tight inner circle surrounding Mayor Vince Lago. And the treasurer and deputy treasurer for this shiny new committee are — surprise! — the same financial gatekeepers used by Lago’s own political committee and those of his handpicked pocket votes.
What a coincidence.
According to its filings, Good Government for Coral Gables exists to support or oppose candidates or ballot issues for just about every level of government imaginable — statewide, countywide, municipal, you name it. But in a city where the biggest looming political event is a mail-in-only referendum that could rewrite major pieces of the city charter, well, Ladra would bet her last cafecito that this PAC wasn’t created to worry about gubernatorial races in Tallahassee.
No, no. This looks custom-built for something much closer to home.
Read related: Coral Gables voters to get sweeping charter changes ballot only by mail
Remember those charter amendments Lago has been pushing? The ones that would move city elections to November of even-numbered years, conveniently syncing them with higher-turnout state and federal races? The ones that critics say are less about “good government” and more about giving the sitting mayor a structural advantage?
Those very same amendments will go before voters — by mail only — in April. And here’s the catch: thanks to a recent change in state law, PACs now only have to file quarterly finance reports. That means the public won’t know who’s bankrolling this new committee — or how much they’re spending — until just days before mail ballots are due.
By then, the glossy mailers will already be in voters’ hands. Mission accomplished.
Meanwhile, Lago’s existing PAC reported raising a grand total of $3,000 in the three months ending December 31.
And the only donor? The company that owns Somerset Academy.
Yes. That Somerset Academy. The charter school network that, according to persistent malas lenguas, has long eyed expansion of its Coral Gables campus into the War Memorial Youth Center property — or using the property to county for outdoor space. Yes, the very same Youth Center that has found itself in the crosshairs of a relentless political and administrative campaign led by Mayor Lago.
Read related: Battle over Coral Gables War Memorial Youth Center is political retaliation
Ladra has already written about that war on the Youth Center, a conflict many believe is less about fiscal responsibility and more about clearing the runway for Somerset’s ambitions while at the same time slapping former Commissioner Kirk Menendez — who dared to run against Lago last year — where it hurts the most. And longtime Political Cortadito readers will also remember our coverage of Lago’s near-obsession with moving the election date.
So now we have a mayor obsessed with restructuring elections, a referendum coming by mail only, a brand-new PAC able to raise and spend money with minimal immediate disclosure, the same political players. Meanwhile, the only recent donor to the mayor’s existing PAC is an institution widely rumored to benefit from his other ongoing political battles
And we’re all supposed to believe this is just about “Good Government”?
Sure. And Ladra is getting the next Nobel Peace Prize.
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