Canine stand-in for candidate

Juan D'Arce (Rep), candidate for state rep in District 112, was too busy knocking on the doors of Broward voters to get to the state GOP's Victory office grand opening in West Kendall Saturday.

But he had two stand-ins: His wife Madelin and their dog, Cookie, a "Rat Pincher" that was given to him by one of his students about a year an a half ago.

And Cookie is no slouch when it comes to politics: The canine has her own facebook profile page with 164 fans (or "likes," as it were) as of today, including Arthur Arnau and Barbara Howard. Heck, that is more than some pols (like Richard Tapia (151 fans), who lost his second bid for city commission earlier this year or Ernie Martinez, a candidate for state rep in district 117 (112 fans), or Coral Gables Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, who has 137 friends, which is better than Mayor Don Slesnick, whose "We Love Don Slesnick" page has 55 fans (though, in all fairness, there has been no activity since last October so maybe the love is secret admiration?), and Pinecrest Councilman Joe Corradion who has 37 friends on his page (but he, too, has not signed in since last year and probably has hundreds of friend requests waiting... ahem, including one from me). State rep candidates John Patrick Julien (District 104) and Daphne Campbell (108) have 78 fans and 52, respectively. Hope they can get more votes at the polls.

They could all learn from the enthusiasm of young Enbar Cohen, an LGBT activist who is running for a commission seat in Aventura in November 2012 and started her fan page about a month ago. She already has 184 "likes" and is someone to watch. But to prove that social media is not just for politicians under 40 anymore, Eduardo Zayas-Bazan, a grandfather running for a school board seat (district 6) in this election has a whopping 345 people on his page.

And Ladra spends waaaay too much time on facebook.