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 wallet and a carefully polished message about “civility,” “stability,” and “restoring decorum” at City Hall.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago tries, fails to censure nemesis Melissa Castro
Menendez, a lawyer who purchased a Riviera Drive house for nearly $1.3 million in 2021, was appointed last summer to the planning and zoning committee by Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and to the charter review committee — the same one the commission then ignored — by Commissioner Richard Lara. , basically to replace Tom Wells, who lost to Lara in last year’s election. Both Anderson and Lara are Lago’s lackeys, er, allies.
Menendez and Lago also share the same treasurer and deputy treasurer.
The political rookie filed initial paperwork in October and reported raising $30,500 in his very first fundraising quarter. Forty-two checks, all from Coral Gables donors, neatly wrapped in a bow, and features many of Lago’s friends and donors, including Tony Argiz, the charter school magnates Ignacio and Fernando Zulueta (four different checks for a total of $4,000) and Armando and Alex Bucelo, the onetime commission candidate that Lago also backed, but lost.
Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who is also up for re-election, beat him in 2023.
And it’s purely coincidence that the seat Menendez is targeting belongs to Castro, the commissioner who has spent the last two years locked in open political trench warfare with L’Ego.
Longtime readers of Political Cortadito don’t need a refresher. The Lago–Castro relationship has gone from frosty to nuclear. Meetings devolving into sparring matches, complete with censure attempts, misogynistic behavior and raised eyebrows — and not just the mayor’s. His obsession with her is becoming public fodder with every passing commission meeting.
Read related: Vince Lago’s not-so-silent night: A mean Christmas Carol for Melissa Castro
So, when a new candidate appears promising to “restore civility” and “put families first,” Ladra hears a familiar dog whistle: Someone would really like Melissa Castro gone. And that someone is not the candidate. Because the first one that would have to go in order to “restore civility” is Lyin’ Lago himself.
Menendez is an attorney at DiFalco Fernandez representing clients at both the state and federal level on complex commercial litigation and business disputes, as well as white-collar criminal matters, encompassing a number of substantive areas, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anticorruption regimes, anti-money laundering, and internal investigations. He is also a registered Republican — aligning neatly with the mayor’s political orbit — and has only recently established Coral Gables as his primary residence. But he’s already presenting himself as the antidote to the city’s “tensions spilling beyond the dais.”
Funny how those tensions always seem to spill in one particular direction.
Castro has not filed any paperwork, yet. The commissioner told Political Cortadito that she probably would, but Ladra doesn’t blame her for thinking about it twice. City Hall, and particularly the mayor, have not been good to her.
Interesting enough, she has spoken to Menendez once, she said. It was right before the 2025 elections, and he had asked about what the job was like. She thought he was going to run for the open seat vacated by former Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who resigned to run for mayor. And then lost.
The new Menendez — and Ladra doesn’t think his last name was picked by coincidence — did not return a call and text to his phone.
For now, Nestor Menendez has the field to himself in the Group 4 race. No other candidates filed yet. Plenty of time for fundraising. Plenty of time for alliances. Plenty of time for fingerprints to show more clearly.
Read related: Coral Gables voters to get sweeping charter changes ballot only by mail
And there’s another twist: Right now, that election is scheduled for April of 2027. But voters are set to decide this April, in a mail-in-only ballot, whether to move the 2027 city election to November 2026, syncing it with state and federal races. Higher turnout. Lower costs. And — not incidentally — a much larger electorate that could dilute the tight neighborhood base Castro has relied on and make it easier for well-funded candidates to get their message out.
Convenient, that.
Mayor Lago has been obsessed with changing the election year since Castro and Fernandez beat his hand-picked and better funded candidates in 2023.
So yes, Coral Gables has a new candidate for the next election, whenever it might be. But whether this is a grassroots call for harmony or simply the latest opening move in the mayor’s long-running campaign to reshape the commission in his favor… well.
Ladra will be watching.
If you like what you read on Political Cortadito, please consider making a contribution to support the independent, government watchdog journalism on this website. Thank you!
The post Mayor Vince Lago’s shadow looms large over early Gables commission wannabe appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Read MorePolitical Cortadito
