Two Miami-Dade commission incumbents won last week with little oppositional pressure and/or much fanfare.
Commissioner Keon Hardemon fought back an attempt by former Commissioner Audrey Edmonson to grab her District 3 seat back, winning 61% of the vote. And Commissioner Roberto “Rob” Gonzalez — appointed by the governor to replace suspended Joe Martinez after his 2022 arrest on public corruption charges — beat back two challengers, including teacher Bryan Paz-Hernandez, who will hopefully run again — to finally be an elected on the dais, getting 57% of the vote.
But in the county’s District 7, incumbent Raquel Regalado failed by thismuch to win outright, and heads into a November rematch runoff against former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner. Some folks think this is a big defeat for Regalado, an incumbent who outspent Lerner about 4 to 1 and still couldn’t get 50% plus one. Someone noted that it looked like the 2016 mayoral race, when Regalado forced then-mayor Carlos Gimenez — an incumbent with lots of cash — into a runoff. Only this time, Regalado is the Gimenez.
Regalado got almost 49% of the vote and 2,370 more ballots cast in her favor than Lerner, who got 42% of the vote. Spoiler Richard Praschnik, who seems to be committing homestead exemption fraud with his house in Lee County, got 9.5%, or 3,206 votes. Those are going to be key in November.
A lot of those votes came from the Calusa neighborhood, where residents are angry at Regalado for her vote to allow the development of hundreds of homes on an abandoned golf course that has become a natural preserve with a rookery for protected birds. Praschnik reportedly lives in Calusa (as he rents his Cape Coral house) and has already endorsed Lerner (of course, he was her plantidate, after all).
Read related: Third candidate in Miami-Dade District 7 race could be another ghost plantidate
Anti-development voters are also mad at her deciding vote to override the mayoral veto on crossing over the Miami-Dade Urban Development Boundary for a an industrial park near Homestead that has since been nixed by a Miami-Dade judge, sending developers back to the drawing board.
These are voters that Regalado will likely not win over in November. “We can’t trust her,” said one Calusa resident. She’s going to have to make up for it elsewhere.
But an analysis of the votes show that she won the majority in all of Kendall. In fact, Regalado beat Lerner in every neighborhood except South Miami, where Mayor Javier Fernandez endorsed her; Pinecrest, where Lerner lives and served as mayor; and Coconut Grove, where Regalado has taken heat on her position to redevelop, rather than preserve, most of the Playhouse.
“Commissioner Regalado has been a great advocate for South Miami during her time on the commission,” Fernandez said. “With her help, we have started our first septic to sewer conversion project, seen our public housing revitalized and initiated efforts to have our public library modernized, among other accomplishments.
“Her work on our behalf merited my endorsement,” Mayor Fernandez told Political Cortadito. “Everything I want to do, she has been supportive. And her office has been engaged.”
She also has the support of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association and Pinecrest Mayor Joseph Corradino, United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernández-Mats, who ran with Charlie Crist for lieutenant governor, and The Miami Herald.
Supporters note her constant outreach efforts, the amount of legislation she’s passed — Ladra thinks it’s more than any sitting commissioner — how responsive she is, how much roadwork she’s had done in the district, and her ability to play in the same sandbox with others. While they may not agree on everything, Regalado has recently joined Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (or vice versa) on a number of initiatives, including the effort to evict the operator of the Miami Seaquarium, the rebuilding of the burned down incinerator and the Tenants’ Bill of Rights.
In July, they announced the approval of a $400 million cargo facility at Miami International Airport together. They stood together again last week at to celebrate the completion of the first refurbished ballfield at Chapman Field and the ground-breaking on two more Regalado said will be done by January, 2025. Levine Cava will probably lean on Regalado during the upcoming budget process (more on that later).
Meanwhile, Lerner — who does not have Levine Cava’s support machinery this time around — does not play nice with others. She is so famous for being dismissive and downright rude, that she started her campaign with a web video about her own shouting and screaming at public meetings, which was used against her in 2020. She tried to link it to being “sick and tired” of corrupt politicians, but she was yelling and screaming at her constituents, not any bad politicos.
She also grouped Regalado together with actual corrupt politicians like former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was arrested last September on 12 felony charges, including bribery and money laundering; Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is under investigation for taking $170,000 in “consulting fees” from a developer working in the city; Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who lost a civil lawsuit, that could cost the city millions, for violating the first amendments rights of two Little Havana businessmen who targeted for political retaliation; and Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, who was also renting a commercial space to the same developer paying Suarez.
Read related: Cindy Lerner makes it official vs Raquel Regalado in 2024 Miami-Dade race
Regalado is a lot of things — workaholic, know-it-all, nerd, helicopter mom and a recovering donut addict — but she’s never been accused of being corrupt. Those aforementioned politicians have nothing in common with her except one thing — they are all Cuban-American.
Because, why not mention former Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman, who was sentenced to 22 months for his pay-to-play shakedown scheme, or former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi , who was arrested but beat federal charges of bribery? Is it a coincidence that everybody in that video ad is Cuban? Also, those allegations against those four happened after Lerner screamed at her residents and colleagues. Bateman and Pizzi happened before.
That has led some people to accuse Lerner of being anti-Cuban and the ad of being a dog whistle. It reminds us of the 80s and 90s. And the Regalado campaign has jumped on the chance to call Lerner a bigot.
Political observers note, however, that it’s a whole other race in November with the presidential contest on the ballot and the turnout will surge from the abysmal 19% in the primary.
“The electorate is going to be so much different in the general,” said Ben Pollara, a consultant working with Team Lerner. Pollara said at least 70% turnout is expected.
While the D7 race is not officially partisan, there’s almost no such thing in Miami-Dade anymore. Lerner will no doubt count on the Kamala Harris wave as well as the single issue voters who come out for legal marijuana use and the abortion rights amendments.
But Republicans are gaining on Democrats in the number of registered voters and are trying desperately to turn Miami-Dade red. And while the race may be a referendum on Donald Trump, Democrats also over performed in 2020, and Regalado still won. Will Harris do better than Joe Biden four years ago?
Lerner, 71, is a known Democrat who served as a state rep in Tallahassee and is endorsed by a number of organizations that lean blue, like Ruth’s List, the Sierra Club and SAVE. She has also been endorsed by the Kendall Federation of Homeowners’ political action committee and Gables Neighbors United. But she doesn’t have a single endorsement from a current or former elected.
Regalado, 50, is Republican, but just barely. Hardcore Republicans think she’s a RINO. She has only served in non-partisan seats on the Miami-Dade School Board and the county commission and she has a slew of Democrats supporting her.
What might not be different this time around is the negative tone of the campaign. Ladra fully expects the heat to continue or be turned up.
Lerner, who drew first blood with that corrupt politicians video, has made Regalado an anti-environment development darling and flip-flopper who has broken promises made to voters.
“Raquel Regalado promised voters she would protect Miami-Dade’s Urban Development Boundary (UDB) and safeguard our environment. But she broke that promise,” the text says. “Raquel cast the deciding vote to build warehouses in the Everglades — lands meant to protect us from flooding.
“When Mayor Levine Cava VETOED the project, Raquel DOUBLED DOWN, leading the charge to overturn the veto. Why did Raquel flip? Follow the money she was rewarded with $17,500 in donations from the lobbyists. Miami-Dade residents lost. Developers won.”
But Lerner herself is cast as a developer in one of the Regalado PAC ads because her family owns several multi-million properties in the county, especially in Wynwood. This is mysteriously missing in the “meet Cindy” section of her website (https://www.cindylerner.com/meet-cindy).
Regalado has not one, not two, but three political action committees churning mailers and text messages on her behalf that cast Cindy as unhinged and, surprise, a developer. Her family owns several multi-million dollar properties in Wynwood.
“Don’t let Cindy Lerner fool you into believing she is anti-development! Developer Cindy Lerner admits that she will bring in ‘private developers’ and ‘up-zoning along the corridor’ which will lead to more congestion and traffic in our community,” said one text, paid for by one of three (maybe four) political action committees working on Regalado’s behalf.
“Cindy Lerner claims to be anti-development, but her family business is a real estate company financing millions of dollars in development projects throughout the county.
“Developer Cindy Lerner has a track record of raising taxes, promoting development and being disrespectful to residents. Now, she is trying to deceive us by saying she is anti-development,” the text reads, including a link to lernerfamilyproperties.com which shows the Lerner portfolio.
While it’s true that the family owns multiple properties, Lerner said it was taken out of context.
“It is disgusting that Raquel Regalado keeps putting out bold faced lies about me and my record through shady PACs and dark money committees putting out false texts and mail pieces,” she said in a social media post. “Lerner Family Properties are warehouses in Wynwood that were built and purchased in the 1960s by my father-in-law, who was a Holocaust survivor. He was a self-made immigrant when Wynwood was a garment district.
“The family kept them and made improvements to them through what is known as adaptive reuse, keeping them single story, and have been converted to retail, restaurants and galleries, thereby improving the economic viability of the neighborhood,” Lerner posted. “Keeping property in the family for over 50 years and never selling out to developers protects the community.”
Again, it is conspicuously missing from her biographical information. Doesn’t sound like she’s too proud.
Regalado’s PACs are heavily financed by heavy lifters in the real estate, development and construction industry. Some of the biggest recent donors are
Of 11 pro-Regalado mailers still in Ladra’s D7 house — and that might not be all of them — eight are attacks on Lerner. Some are paid for Defending Democracy in Miami-Dade, which has only reported one $10,000 contribution from Master Construction of South Florida through Aug. 15. Others are paid for by another relatively new PAC called Fighting for Miami-Dade that is filed at the state level, not the county. But not really.
Read related: Mailer drops in Miami-Dade District 7 race — a hit on Cindy Lerner’s temper
Because the campaign finance reports filed for Fighting for Miami-Dade shows it got $184,915 in in-kind donations for direct mail from two sources, Economic Improvement Fund and Florida Courage, that are both linked to Willam Stafford Jones, a Republican operative and former chair of the Alachua County GOP who is infamous for his dark money and deceptive attack ads. Google him.
Or watch the video posted by Dani Rivera, a local activist who has been crunching campaign finance reports and connecting the dots for Miami-Dade voters on a number of races (copy and paste YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmGXwtA9GGI).
Regalado’s fundraising is impressive. When you add the two PACs together with the $1.3 million she has raised since 2021 in her own PAC, Citizens for Excellence in Miami-Dade County Government, and her own account’s $424K, it is more than $2.1 million for her re-election effort.
Lerner, meanwhile, has just over $400,000 in her account and her PAC, Protect Our Future, combined.
Both should have more money injected into their campaigns by their respective bases between now and when absentee or mail-in ballots drop the third week in September.
The post Cindy Lerner gets rematch runoff vs Raquel Regalado in Miami-Dade D7 appeared first on Political Cortadito.
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