Seijas 'roid rage by gimleteye

Natacha Seijas, the vindictive, mean-spirited county commissioner from Hialeah, would not let the insult of her recall election rest. The Miami Herald reports today that in a mailer sent to residents of Miami Lakes, part of her district that attempted a grass-roots rebellion, she directly attacked Michael Pizzi, the attorney who had the guts to try to roust her from the Hialeah stronghold.

With a pile of cash raised from powerful developers burning a hole in her pocket, Seijas could not resist doing what comes naturally: lashing out. It was only $9,000 to do the mailing. Win the election, destroy your enemies.

But there is something more: Seijas' behavior is like steroid-fueled rage.

It could only happen in metropolis of 2.3 million people, where an individual county commissioner —supported by massive infusions of campaign cash by big developers—is protected by a single member district system.

We have thirteen county commissioners who rule Miami-Dade County with singular dysfunction, because each have carved out fiefdoms, like Seijas, that are impregnable fortresses.

Seijas’ retribution sends a signal to her allies on the county commission who worry about citizens like Pizzi. Like Joe Martinez, who received thousands of individually signed letters from his constituents in 2006, urging him not to vote to move the Urban Development Boundary.

One of those letter writers, who Martinez ignored to vote for his developer friends, might be the next Michael Pizzi.

No executive mayor (which we will have after the county-wide vote in late January, 2007) could act with such arrogance and impunity against citizens, because in a county-wide election these personalized attacks would not stand with voters from outside the district.

We have yet to hear a single argument to persuade us otherwise.

Seijas, a friend of the union members? You must be kidding. What Seijas is a friend of, is institutionalized power. Those who continue to support Seijas remind us of gullible citizens who time after time vote for candidates against their best interests.

Seijas and her majority of the county commissioners continue to make the best case for an executive mayor in Miami Dade County.