Braman gets equal time with LABA

Norman Braman, the man behind the effort to oust Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez from office, faced had a tough crowd at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables Wednesday night where he spoke to more than 100 business owners and executives at a Latin American Business Association meeting.

Light, polite applause was rare and mostly when Braman acknowledge that Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, who announced he would run for county mayor, was in the room and at the end of his speech, when he quoted Jose Marti. Even Marili Cancio, one of the original recall and a failed hopeful for the Republican box in the U.S. house race won by David Rivera, acknowledged that the crowd was not too receptive. "I was the one who started the clapping every time," she said.

Braman made the visit to the group for equal facetime (Alvarez was there in November) and went over the reasons why he had sought the recall: the tax hike, administrative salaries over $200,000, mismanagement at JMH, the Marlins stadium deal and the proposed port tunnel topped those. "I could go on and on," he said, and did, adding misinvestment of federal monies and foreclosure rates.

Then he went over a list of accomplishments the mayor had been cited for and one-by-one ridiculed them or diminished them. Electronic voting machines? "I applaud the mayor for that. I give him full credit," Braman said. "I expect them to work on March 15."

He talked about other resources and obscure initiatives and asked people who used or benefited from them to raise their hands. "One person. Oh, two."

The sarcasm was met with silence.

"I have mixed emotions," Raul Garcia told Ladra later, echoing many others who spoke on condition they not be quoted.

Barbara Howard, a government consultant who sits on the LABA board and does not support the mayor's recall, was the only person who asked a question publicly -- and her tone might have been mistaken for almost hostile.

"Was it not possible to wait until his term was up? He cannot run again," Howard said. "Is it worth what it's going to cost the county."

Braman had estimated the special election will cost the county $5 million. But he added that the mayor's term does not end for another two years. "That's two more budgets. I don't think we can afford to more budgets.

"And $5 million is a very inexpensive price to pay for a change in government," Braman said.

LABA Vice Chairman Rick Rodriguez Piña confirmed to Ladra that much of the group was still on the fence about the mayoral recall. "They're undecided," he said, although he thinks it will pass because the people who signed the petition will be more motivated to vote than those who didn't.

"This is a good group. It is a business organization. These are people who are impacted by this initiative," Rodriguez Piña said. "We heard Mayor Alvarez. It's important for our community to hear Mr. Braman's position. Now let us make our own decision."

LABA will likely have Robaina and Marcelo Lorens, another mayoral candidate, speak at the next meeting, Rodriguez Piña said.

"We want to educate our business community and let them hear from the candidates."

Gift to recall PAC may be illegal

Almost half of the money raised by the Miami Voice PAC in their effort to recall Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Seijas might be an illegal contribution.

As published earlier in this blog, the PAC -- which filed petitions last month to put Seijas on the same ballot as Mayor Carlos Alvarez -- reported almost $13,000 in contributions as of Dec. 31, including $5,000 from Myami Marketing, the firm owned by the PAC founder and chairwoman.

Because she admitted to Ladra that she made that contribution in proxy for a client, she may have committed a crime.

According to Florida Statutes, it is a first degree misdemeanor to knowingly and intentionally make a donation to a candidate or a PAC with somebody else's money. When someone does it twice, it becomes a felony, said Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Joseph Centorino, who heads the public corruption unit.

"It totally subverts the entire purpose of public disclosure laws if someone makes a contribution on behalf of someone else," Centorino said, using the term "laundering" and speaking only in general terms. He did say he would welcome information on anything like that. (Done.)

PAC Chairwoman Vanessa Brito -- who owns Myami Marketing and reactivated the corporation in Florida records on Dec. 15, two days before making the contribution -- would not return our calls. And two messages left with the PAC attorney, Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi, have not been answered.

But last week, Brito said she got the funds from a "client" who gave it to her for the recall effort (read: funnel). She would not disclose who that client was and said it was the true donor's "prerogative" to disclose that. (Well, apparently, not according to Florida statutes.)

So, I'm asking publicly, since she won't tell: Will the real contributor to the Miami Voice PAC please stand up?

Give Us The Facts, Recall PAC

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we gotta hear Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Seijas out.

(For relevance of this photo, keep reading).

I know. I know. My friends’ mouths drop open, too, and my stomach is turning. But this does not mean I do not support a recall effort against the woman portrayed as the wicked witch of the Northwest. I will vehemently defend the voters’ right to recall any elected official deemed deserving of the dishonor.

Just maybe not this recall effort.

Not unless the founders and leaders of the Miami Voice PAC that filed the petitions for the commissioner’s recall – paid political campaign operatives who do not live in District 13, not citizen activists as they claim to be – come clean, or clear rather, about their hidden agenda, hidden campaign money and what is reportedly a huge number of serious and not-so-serious petition problems.

Not until they practice what they preach.

The PAC lost its bid Tuesday to block a lawsuit that challenges the petition process that put Seijas on the recall ballot. She will have her day in court. But why would the PAC want to deny her that if everything was done above board? At first, they argued the lawsuit was a delay tactic because it was to Seijas’ disadvantage (and, therefore, their advantage) to be on the same ballot as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, the target of a separate recall effort funded by millionaire auto dealer Norman Braman.

But now that’s a moot point. The county commission has already approved two recalls in one ballot. There is nothing to lose from a review that can take place while the Miami Voice PAC continues to campaign. Well, nothing to lose but a tiny piece of democracy.

PAC members clearly and far too adamantly do not want anyone to look at the petitions more closely or review the process, which may have been rushed in order to meet the deadline to get the two recalls on the same ballot. That’s smart, strategically speaking. Except that MAYBE, in the zeal to make it happen, corners were cut and shortcuts were taken and all the legal requirements were not met. I commend the chutzpah and the hard work of right-minded volunteers to try to meet that deadline. But, if someone -- anyone, I don't care who -- raises issues or concerns about the process, and shows cause, then it behooves us to get them clarified.

And there is cause. A circuit judge agreed on Tuesday, ruling against a PAC motion to suppress the deposition of petition takers (again, what do they fear these people might say? Now, I want to hear from them more.) and setting a hearing for the arguments Feb. 7.

We are not talking about a little “typo on a form,” as PAC founder and chairwoman Vanessa Brito said to the press outside the downtown courthouse. Seijas attorneys’ Stephen Cody and Kendall Coffey, well-respected members of the 305 legal community, say there are hundreds upon hundreds of questionable petitions. Perhaps as many as half of the 4,216 signatures could be invalid, Cody said. At least enough so that the PAC does not meet its required threshold to represent 4 percent of the elected voters.

“Once is an oversight. Over 120 times smells of conspiracy to commit election fraud,” Cody told me. And he was referring solely to the 121 signatures collected by a Marsellous Eaford that Cody will argue were not collected personally by her, also as required by law.

"Whoever spelled out that name on those certificates, spelled Marsellous with a C. And you may forget a lot of things, but the first thing you learn in kindergarten is how to spell your name," Cody said, adding that the misspelled certificates are written in five or six different handwritings.

In another instance, Cody alleges that about half of the 600 petitions collected by former Miami Lakes Councilman George Lopez (who would not comment on his role when I called him) were written out in a different handwriting than his. Miami Voice got a lot of support in Miami Lakes, which is square in Seijas' district, including pro-bono representation from the town Mayor Michael Pizzi, who spearheaded a failed 2006 recall against Seijas.

Pizzi, who was seen at events with the PAC leadership in the town collecting signatures, seemed to distance himself from the group when we spoke. "I am not part of the Miami Voice recall effort. I am assisting them as an attorney," Pizzi told me, adding that he had not had time to review all the petitions, but had gone over some.

"From what I've seen, I'm not aware of, I have no idea about anything inappropriate."

Maybe he isn’t as sure of his client's innocence as he was when he jumped in too quickly without looking and is now doing the backstroke. Some say it’s more nefarious than that. Rumors that he is behind the $5,000 donated to the PAC by the chairwoman’s own firm, Myami Marketing, even caused a buzz at town hall last week, online versions getting printed and handed over to the town manager to look into.

When Ladra asked him, Pizzi said Brito “volunteered” to help him get some Spanish media outlets at a check redistribution event. “But I did not know she wrote a press release, I did not approve a press release and she absolutely was not paid for it,” Pizzi told Ladra.

Well, maybe not a check cut by the city. I doubt a public records request of the city's expenses last month would turn up a payment. But she was paid by someone for something.

According to campaign finance disclosure records filed earlier this month, Miami Voice raised almost $13,000 as of Dec. 31, including $5,000 from Braman (it is in his best interest to have her on the ballot, too) and another $5,000 from the slightly less affluent Brito, through her Myami Marketing firm, an inactive Florida corporation until reactivated two days before the contribution to the PAC Dec. 17.

In fact, Brito admitted to Ladra that Myami Marketing got the $5,000 from one of her clients, a consulting company, specifically for the campaign. (Is that even legal? Commission on Ethics please?) But she refused to disclose the name of the “client” (which I will just guess maybe she didn’t have before the recall effort because she had no company prior to Dec. 15).

"We have nothing to hide,” Brito said. Well, um, not exactly. You are hiding the identity of the source of funding.

“If my client wants to come forward, that’s their prerogative.”

Really? Isn’t that the definition of special interest? Who is the puppeteer here? How can we follow the money if the trail is hidden behind phony contributors? When she is subpoenaed, will Brito, a medal-worthy question-dodger and spin doctor, continue to sidestep the issue of who is truly funding her “grassroots citizen effort” that included public notaries (the two who approved 85 percent of the petitions will be among those deposed) “up until the wee hours of the night, two and three o’clock in the morning, notarizing forms and petitions.”

Really? Three in the morning? With the petition collectors present, of course!

Brito won’t call me back now. The last time we spoke on the phone she repeatedly refused to disclose the source of her funneled $5,000 gift to the PAC. She also said it was inappropriate for me to ask questions and write about this because I have a personal axe to grind. I never carry an axe. They are too heavy and I have binoculars and a magnifying glass and public records request forms and other tools that I am much better with than an axe.

Here is my full disclosure: Brito and I once worked together when, briefly during a temporary episode of complete lunacy, I dabbled in political media consulting. That ended after several strange "boundary-challenged" incidents for which she had/has a stream of excuses and what I consider a difference in ethical standards that centered mostly around the creation of her first PAC, the TaxPayer Coalition, which would be a front to support the candidates she was working for. (Photo above are the PAC board, Brito and Carlos Alvarez, then campaign manager for state house candidate Johnny Farias, and another Farias volunteer, at a Doral event for the PAC in November 2009).

But, while my doubts on this PAC may be supported by history and inside knowledge, my concern is not personal.

Ladra is not barking because of my professional/personal history with Brito or other PACkers. But they would have me silenced because of it? That’s just as bad as being baited by it, isn’t it?

No, Ladra is barking because she smells something. Maybe someone's bacon?

And here is the best part: If the process was not corrupted, the legal challenge will fail and the recall campaign is that much stronger for its transparency. Yay! But that makes the question louder: Why is the PAC fighting that so hard?

Again, to be clear: I am not saying the commissioner should stay in office, I vehemently defend the right of voters to recall any elected official they deem fit and I also believe the current requirements need reform because they seem too burdensome. But that does not mean a small group of politically-connected insiders with a hidden agenda (I almost want them to succeed so we can see who runs for office and who runs the campaign…) can take little shortcuts in the law here and there so they can make their deadline and get onto a ballot that gives them a political marketing advantage just because we agree with them. The end does not justify the means.

I mean, what if it were the LBA or a new PAC called You're Welcome David Rivera. See? We have to apply the same scrutiny and expectation of transparency across the board. We cannot demand public disclosure from some and not from others. Is this the kind of campaign we can expect from the candidate the PAC will bring forward to replace Seijas? (My guess is that the lucky winner is already hand-picked and in training).

There is no delay tactic. Seijas is already on the ballot. Why doesn’t Miami Voice let the court review the process while they continue to raise funds for the recall campaign (but this time, let us know where the money comes from).

It seems they would not waste resources in this court battle if they did not know already that they don’t have the required 4 percent of the signatures needed.

And they say they are the voice of the people? What people? Prove it.

Invisible candidates for Congress?

Several times, Congressional candidate Joe Garcia (Dem) has singled out State Rep. David Rivera (Rep) as his only opponent in the race to replace U.S. House Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (District 25), who wants to be Senator.

While the Republican primary campaign has taken a nasty turn with accusations (mostly undocumented or backed up and aimed at Rivera) about abuse of power, misstating controversial business alliances, taking money from special interests and a 16-year-old domestic violence case that was dismissed after the alleged victim -- who, again, told Ladra herself that it was not the politician in question -- the Democratic frontrunner has repeatedly ignored Paul Crespo (Rep) and Marili Cancio (Rep) as potential opponents in November. He did it months ago at a DFAM meeting in Coral Gables and again Monday night when he spoke for only a few minutes at the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Association's candidate forum.

"My opponent is going to raise more money," he said, not naming names.

One woman raised her hand and interrupted the Obama appointment to the department of energy, who resigned to run for the seat he lost two years ago.

"Excuse me. Who is your opponent? Because I thought there were two other Republicans in the race," said Roxana Chavarriaga, a Broward woman supporting Cancio. Garcia said he believes that he will be facing David Rivera come November.

Chavarriaga later told Ladra she was growing tired of the "lack of respect for the other two candidates." She is not alone in her complaint. Cancio thanked her on her facebook page:"Thank you to my supporter at the KFHA meeting that caled out Joe Garcia, who along with many others is taking the GOP primary for granted. Cancio Can 2010 has the common people on her side and will continue to campaign to win the primary in the next three weeks."

But it's not a GOP thing. Local Dems have come under fire for silently (sorta) supporting Sandra Ruiz against Johnny Farias, in the race for state house district 112, Congressional candidate Kendrick Meek against Maurice Ferre (a fact that the Ferre campaign has made bitter reference to on several ocassions) and the very Garcia, against Luis Meurice, in the District 25 run.

Ric Herrero, executive director of the Miami-Dade Dems, said at a recent Latin American Democratic Club meeting in South Miami that the party had the same resources available to every Democrat candidate and that it was every member's right to support whomever. But, he did concede that there was more support for some candidates because they were seen as the most viable against the Republican name on the ballot and they want to win as many seats as possible. That's the same thing JC Hernandez, head of the local Republicans, and Javi Correoso, a party loyalist, Rivera staffer and now campaign manager, says about Rivera vs. Garcia.

Just one more way the two different parties are the same and one more reason why Ladra is registered independent (less campaign hate mail is another really good reason).

A Tale of Two Seats (so far)

Candidates in two Miami-Dade County Commission races have been spewing, sometimes reading, their rehearsed speeches in front of groups all over: Chamber South, (last week), Kendall Federation of Homeowners Association (Monday), and Christ Congregational Church in Palmetto Bay (Tuesday and for the District 8 candidates). Not everyone goes to all of them but Ladra (who has to) can tell you the candidates sound like broken records -- all of them.

Still, in the two races we've watched (districts 8 and 10), there really hasn't been much said.

While there are stark differences in personality and style between incumbent statesman Javier Souto, 71, and export company employee and single mom Miriam Mimi Planas, 43, in district 10, neither said much that was new at the KFHA meeting, where there were more campaign volunteers and consultants than candidates. Planas (who scores points with a frequent flyer proposal for transit toll payers) keeps harping on the Marlins stadium deal and acting like a cheerleader for term limits (we suppose those are issues, along with the budget, that challengers need to use). Souto, who has been in office for almost two decades, said he stood by his record (huh?) and almost refused to answer one question about the money for the Marlins stadium, telling the man in the audience to check the minutes of the meetings. (Perhaps he couldn't remember, which would have been a better answer.). He was also stiff and seemed uncomfortable and he did not even attend the Chamber forum. Whereas Planas is lively and social and funny and moves around (she has a friend who is a stand up comic and we wonder if she got tips) as she tries to connect with everyone in the audience.

The candidates in the district 10 race, to replace an exiting Katy Sorenson, are much more alike. They themselves say -- over and over again -- how cordial the campaigns have been and how much they respect and admire each other.

"We feel more like co-candidates than opponents," said banker Obdulio Piedra, a Pinecrest resident and former chairman of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce's Hispanic Business Group.

"We are lucky in District 8 to have so many good candidates," said Annette Taddeo, who has owned a translation business for 15 years and lost her first bid for elected office when she ran for Congress against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in 2008.

"I would have a hard time voting for one of us," said Albert Harum-Alvarez, who owns a software and computer consulting business and has been an active PTA member and community activist for more than 10 years.

(In private, though, they all say much less nice things about each other. Ladra knows. They say them to her).

Mayor Eugene Flinn, however, publicly hit Annette Taddeo with a zinger on Monday night when she was a no-show at the KFHA forum (she later said she had three other events and could not make it). "I know there are other things you can be doing," Flinn said, thanking the public for attending and even his opponents -- well, almost all of them. "I'm thankful for those who respected you enough to show up tonight," he told the audience.

Ouch.

Flinn did not fire the same kind of cannon at former Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell or Rabbi Danny Marmorstein, neither of who showed up at the church forum Tuesday. Marmorstein had supporter Ira Gordon go and read the same sermon, er, I mean opening remarks, from Monday night's forum. (Gordon was a lot less animated.) (And I guess Flinn knows who his real competition is.)

But there are very few clear cut differences other than the distinction banker Obdulio Piedra (who is backed by the LBA) made Tuesday night about being open to moving the UDB if and when the time comes. (Itals are mine, but it's how Ladra heard it). "I see no foreseeable reason to change the urban boundary line, but we also have to understand" how it affects our economy, Piedra said. "If the time did come when we need to do it... we take all the lessons from the past."

You gotta admire his honesty.

The other candidates, save for Lynda Bell, whose view was not heard Tuesday -- are all against moving the UDB, which is the westernmost boundary for development on the edge of the Everglades. (Taddeo maybe got the most dramatic about it: "When we no longer need to save our precious resource, water, in our Everglades. When we no longer need to save the little animals... that is when we move the line." Though Marmostein gets a supporting role nomination for holding up what we can only assume is a crumpled $20 bill as he reminds people that Election Day is on the anniversary of Hurricane Andrew's passing through much of the district 18 years ago and talks about "our current Andrew crisis." TV writers can get some material here!).

Other than that, it is almost like an echo chamber in this race. All six candidates are for term limits; all think more budget cuts can be made at the top rather than the bottom; all want to save the Airforce base in Homestead; all want the county to work with the school system to improve education; all say Jackson Health is a priority, all embrace green initiatives and most, if not all, support a hybrid commission with some seats elected at large.

All of them say the county still needs a professional day-to-day manager, no matter what the title is, but questioned the salaries at the top. "Why do we have a manager that makes twice as much as the chief of staff of the President of the United States," Taddeo asked.

Okay. There are some unique pitches:

• Piedra suggests that all unincorporated areas are given a certain amount of time to either incorporate or annex into adjacent municipalities, letting smaller governments take care of services like zoning, giving the county more time to deal with the larger issues of transportation, the airport and seaport, health care and economic development. He also thinks the five housing agencies and different economic development agencies in the county could be consolidated. "Where is the money going? How many jobs have been created?"
  
• Flinn proposes a 3-year plan for the budget. "It's going to take that long," he said. "There's a lot of shoes that need to be dropped. A lot of town meetings need to be held."
• Taddeo wants to cut the international travel junkets and program she said is duplicated with another government office in Coral Gables and says her contacts in DC can help bring more federal funds to the county.
• Albert Harum-Alvarez, who spent something like seven years building a green house in Continental Park where he gets $20 FPL bills, proposes a "building department concierge" service where developers who want to build in infill areas that need projects (areas he says have been neglected because it is easier to build elsewhere) are given red carpet treatment.
• Bell says she helped get six parks built in Homestead in two years "on time and on budget" and wants to do the same thing at the county.
  
• Marmorstein, who in addition to being the founding rabbi of Kendall synagogue Ahavat Olam (Hebrew for "Love of the World") runs his family's "multimillion dollar real estate business," drives a 1998 Toyota Camry with 157,000 miles on it. "If something works, I believe in using it. If not, recycle." But his education was in music and he has a conducting degree from UM. A musician in LA in the 70s (can we say hippie candidate?), Danny For Miami sang with The Carpenters. "Ironicaly, now being a rabbi, the only album I recorded with them was their Christmas album."
  

"You folks in District 8 have a tough decision to make," said WLRN's Ted Eldridge, who moderated the forum Tuesday. (It was recorded for later airing).

Christ Congregation Pastor Steve Hudder said it was the first time the church had a forum for the commission race, probably because the congregation has supported Sorenson for the last 16 years. But it was important to know who was vying to replace her, he told Ladra.

"This congregation is very politically engaged, a lot of the members are," Hudder said, even though there were less than a dozen there to hear the candidates. "We have people working for various campaigns and they appreciate the opportunity to have their candidates heard."

His wife Diane said she could tell a lot about the candidates from "who actually focused on the questions" and that it was very helpful. But she was only able to narrow it down to three possibles for her vote.

Jim Ketzel, a retired comptroller from FIU, said he was "delighted" to hear first hand from the different hopefuls and that he had narrowed it down to two: Flinn or Taddeo.

"I'm going to have to do more research," said Ketzel, who provided the question on if the candidates would move and when they might move the UDB line and whose wife Cindy took more notes than Ladra.

"We're going to go home now and sit down and go over them and compare our opinions. Let's see if we can agree on who to vote for or if we are going to support two different people."

There is yet another forum (this one hosted by a bevy of local Democrat Party clubs of different ethnic and national denominations) Thursday night in Pinecrest. (Can we get a debate somewhere instead? What happened to those?) Ladra is not holding her breath for anything different even if only because this is a table-top, expo-like "tradeshow" (their word, not mine. Truth is better than fiction) for Democrats only at the Bet Shira Congregation, 7500 SW 120th St. With this long list of candidates, it is hard to know how much we can learn in the 7 to 9 p.m. scheduled time. Invitees include US Senate candidates Kendrick Meek, Jeff Green and Maurice Ferre, US House hopefuls Joe Garcia and Luis Meurice, gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink, CFO wannabe Lorraine Ausley, Attorney General candidates Dan Gelber and Dave Aronberg, Secretary of Agriculture candidate Scott Maddox, Florida House candidates Luis R. Garcia, Sandra Ruiz, Johnny Farias Millie Herrera, Robert Blanco, Jeff Solomon, Lisa Lesperance, Dwight Bullard, and Katie A. Edwards. While the county commission race is non partisan, noted Democrats Eugene Flinn and Annette Taddeo (District 8 race) and Jean Monastime (District 2) have also been asked to come. One candidate for community council, Patricia Davis.

"Tables will be set up for the candidates who will bring their 'wares,' campaign materials, volunteer sign-up sheets, signs, and the like," said the facebook event invitation from the Democratic Power Club in conjunction with the Coral Gables Area Democratic Club, Democrats of South Dade, Haitian American Democratic Club, Latin American Democratic Club and the Ron Brown South Dade Democratic Caucus.

"Voters will mill around, visiting candidate tables at their leisure, allowing for more personal conversations," the invitation reads.

And Ladra will mill around, eavesdropping on those conversations for your benefit, dear readers.

Candidate could be off the ballot

Doral Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz was busy putting up campaign signs Wednesday, only hours after a Miami-Dade county court judge ruled the candidate for state rep (District 112) be removed from the Aug. 24 ballot because she failed to comply with the state's "resign to run" law.

That's because the judge also granted a stay until her attorneys have an opportunity to appeal the decision. They were set to file that appeal with the 3rd Disctrict Court of Appeals today (even as her primary election opponent made calls to leading local Dems trying to snatch endorsements as the only Dem on the ballot).

The ruling from Judge Jerald Bagley about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning came after more than half day of testimony last Friday in the lawsuit against Ruiz (Dem) filed by two opponents in the race, Johnny Farias (Dem) and Jeanette Nuñez (Rep). Their attorneys -- William Peña Wells and J.C. Planas, respectively -- argued that Ruiz had violated the statute, which requires candidates who are already electeds to resign from any seat where there could be overlap, because she did not file the document by the qualifying day deadline. Ruiz attorneys Joe Geller and Ben Kuehne argue that she was not required to resign because she is termed-out and another council member will be elected at the same time that voters elect a state rep, and will be in that seat.

It's a technicality, for sure. And Ladra believes that Ruiz is such a strong candidate that the opponents took advantage of the semantics here to interpret the law in a way that was not the intended purpose, which is to prevent a "back-door" opening for sitting elected candidates to fall back on if they lose a race to another office. Which is not the case here, obviously.

"I stand by what I did," Ruiz told me early this afternoon in a telephone interview. "I am term limited. Come Nov. 3, there will be a new council member in Doral. C'mon. Common sense tells you that my last day as a council member is Nov. 2.

"I'm not losing this election unless on a technicality on an overlap of a second," Ruiz added. "As they say, 'A stop is a stop.'" But you need to use wisdom in interpreting the law. What can you accomplish in a period of a couple of hours?

"I think it's an abuse of the system to strip the right of the voters to choose," she said of the lawsuit. "If this is the type of tactics they are going to implement, what can we expect from them in Tallahassee?"

She is not the only one who feels that way. Local DEC leaders and loyalists, along with high-profile electeds, think the lawsuit move was ugly.

"This is such a tricky, tacky move," said State Rep. Luis Garcia (D).

"The way to win an election is at the ballot box, not at the courthouse," said Garcia, who confirmed he had received a call from someone in Farias' campaign from the courthouse to announce the verdict - and presumably request Garcia transfer his support from Ruiz.

"I cut them off and said that I was going to wait for the appeal. And, I don't mean to say that I would support a Republican, but it is very hard for me as a Democrat to stomach the actions of Mr. Farias," Garcia told me, adding that other Dems were also disappointed.

"What kind of loyalty can we expect from him? What does he think the Democratic Party is going to like this? It leaves us with a bad taste in our mouths."

But Farias, an electrician, told Ladra several times that he only filed the lawsuit after he heard -- through what means, we don't know -- that Nuñez would file one after the primary if Ruiz (widely seen as the frontrunner) won Aug. 24. Nuñez, VP of exterior affairs for Kendall Regional Medical Center and Aventura Hospital and a former lobbyist for Jackson Health (who also worked for almost a decade as chief legislative aide to Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla), filed her injunction eight days after Farias did in June.

"If she would have won, they would have done this and look at what the outcome would have been," Farias said, adding that his attorney had "specific orders to sit back and let them do what they needed to do."

Ladra thinks almost any judge would not have been so amenable to hearing the arguments more than two months after the alleged violation and perhaps even see through the delay tactic. (Note to legislature: We would do wise by putting a deadline on motions like this).

But Farias said it was not something he wanted to leave to fate.

"That's not a chance I am willing to take. We have to be unselfish. Did we want a democrat in the general election, yes or no? If she had been removed we would have had no democrat in the race. Whats better to have a Democrat or no Democrat?"

Well, that depends on what your definition of a Democrat is. Because at the end of the day, if Farias succeeds in court, he gets a free ride to the November ballot at the 11th hour, depriving voters who are registered as Democrats the right to decide who they want to pit against the Rep primary winner in what most Dems believe is one of the most winnable 2010 seats now held by the other side (Rep. David Rivera, running for Congress).

Farias knows Ruiz is the frontrunner with experience and endorsements from the PBA, UTD, AFL-CIO, Jackson nurses and the Miami Herald and is seen as the most viable candidate against any of the primary Reps in a seat that Dems count on winning this year. This is his best chance at being on the November ballot (Some would say only. I say his best).

Forum tonight in Kendall

The Kendall Federation of Homeowners Association has invited a bunch of candidates to their monthly meeting tonight for an informal forum where their members could get to know them.

Invites went out to candidates for Miami-Dade Commission in districts 8 and 10, School Board districts 6 and 7 and Community Councils 11 and 12. But as of Sunday, KFHA President Miles Moss said only the candidates in the school board district 7 race and the county commission district 10 race had RSVPd. (But there is another forum solely for District 8 candidates Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Christ Congregational Church 14920 SW 67th Ave.

For tonight's event, Moss said both incumbent Javier Souto and challenger Mimi Planas had confirmed their attendance at the meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. at the Kendall Village Center 8625 SW 124 Ave. But he had not heard from any of the six candidates in the district 8 race to replace Katy Sorenson, who announced she would not seek reelection.

All five of the District 7 School Board race -- Nathasha Alvarez, Eddy Barea, Carlos Curbelo, Libby Perez and Juliana Velez -- told Miles they would come.

He also hopes to discuss some of the charter amendments "if time permits," Miles said.

But we can't see how. An hour has been set aside for the forum and each candidate is getting five minutes to introduce themselves before they take questions from the audience, according to the organizations email.

We are happy that there is this opportunity for voters to have access to the candidates but wonder how much they can really learn. Ladra hopes the hopefuls stick around after to answer questions and rub elbows with their intended masses.