Some Thoughts about the Downballot (Voters’ Guide Part I: County-Wide Elected Offices)

I assume that all readers of this blog have clear ideas about how to vote in the federal elections, and probably the state legislative elections as well. (If not, feel free to email me!) But much of the rest of our lengthy ballot can be murky even for generally well-informed people. So I offer you some I hope informed opinions, worth at least what you are paying for them.

This post will consider five County-wide elected offices.  My next post will discuss the judicial retention elections and the six proposed state constitutional amendments. If time permits I may tackle a few of the School Board and the County Commission races later.

I’ll take the ballot items in the order they appear….

Clerk of the Court.  This pits perennial candidate Annette Taddeo against Juan Fernandez-Barquin who Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to fill out long-time Clerk Harvey Rubin’s term. I like Annette, so I’m not unbiased here, but there are good reasons to be nervous about Fernandez-Barquin in these polarized times. The Clerk should be a neutral; Fernandez-Barquin, a former State Representative, likely got DeSantis’s attention by sponsoring H.B.1 the notorious 2021 “anti-riot” law designed to make public protests much riskier by apparently making everyone at a protest a criminal if anyone was. Ultimately the 11^th Circuit upheld the act, but only after Florida state courts issued a narrowing construction clarifying that – contrary to what its backers had seemed to want – the law would not criminalize attending a protest at which others engaged in violence. None of this, however, gives me much confidence in Fernandez-Barquin as a quasi-judicial officer. Annette Taddeo Line 71.

Sheriff.  I wrote about this the other day (see I Watched the Sheriff’s Debate).  My suggestion here is only based on what I saw, but I don’t want my Sheriff helping with mass roundups of my neighbors, so I suggest you vote for James Reys Line 73.

Property Appraiser.  If you think Tomás Regalado was a good Mayor of Miami, you might be happy with him as the Property Appraiser (but see this).  If you think relevant job experience matters, you might prefer Marisol Zenteno, who has ten years’ experience in the property appraiser’s office and is a certified property assessor to boot. As it happens I am not a great fan of the Regalado clan, nor of his tenure as Mayor, so even though I’m not awed by Zenteno, that’s the way I’m voting. Marisol Zenteno Line 75.

Tax Collector. This is one I do have a strong view about. I think David Richardson was a terrific state rep, who leveraged his accounting background to do important investigations when in the legislature. He’s not only a CPA but also was formerly an auditor at the department of defense. I consider Richardson one of the finer local elected officials. His opponent, Dariel Fernandez, has small-business private sector experience, but that’s of limited relevance.  This one is really a no-brainer: David Richardson Line 77.

Supervisor of Elections.  Tucked in the middle of the ballot is a race with potentially great consequences.  There is a national movement afoot to elect partisan election supervisors who will, if the opportunity presents (or in some cases even it does not!) impose MAGA restrictions on who can vote, how ballots are counted, and how the results are reported.

This race presents a stark choice between Juan Carlos “J.C.” Planas and State Rep. Alina Garcia.

Rep. Garcia is endorsed by no less than Donald Trump. For this sort of a job, that alone should be game over.  But wait! If ever there was a case for guilt by association then surely Garcia’s record as former chief of staff and senior policy adviser for Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo and former deputy chief of staff for Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo ought to raise multitudinous red flags.

Fortunately, we are not reduced to the least of two evils.  We have a genuinely qualified quality candidate in J.C. Planas (disclosure: I donated to his campaign).  Planas spent most of his career as a Republican, but left the party for obvious reasons. And Planas is an election law expert, who teaches it at St. Thomas University School of Law. I found him knowledgeable and charming in our one phone conversation, and other folks who know him better than I speak very highly of him. This one is not just a no-brainer but a potentially major race if we want to protect the integrity of the electoral system: Vote for “J.C” Planas line 79.

Part 2 is in progress…stay tuned.