Miami Dade mayoral election, by gimleteye

The Miami Herald reports today of the significant financial support garnered on behalf of incumbent Mayor Carlos Alvarez, by former opponents.

If the status quo worried that Mayor Alvarez would 'clean up' county government in a way that fundamentally changed the relationships governing the management of county departments, the term of the incumbent has proven otherwise.

In respects, Mayor Alvarez has been a calming influence. As a matter of outward appearances, this is a good thing. From the inside, the incumbent has steadfastly remained a "team player", especially in relation to the county manager, George Burgess.

County commissioners remain committed to diluting the influence of mayoral authority at every turn. They, and the campaign supporters of the unreformable majority, must nevertheless be pleased with the arrangements. (As many faults as one may find with Burgess, he is a palpable relief from the embarrassing, earlier lapses of Steve Shiver as county manager.)

A big point of contention--and the focus of the most publicized of mayoral vetoes--with campaign contributors like Pino et al, is in respect to moving the Urban Development Boundary. (eyeonmiami, in its archive, has catalogued the UDB issue more thoroughly than anywhere else. See UDB, production home builders, housing crash).

In respect to the UDB, it is hard to say what the calculation is, from the part of contributors like Pino et al to Mayor Alvarez' campaign.

Many would enthusiastically support Marco Rubio, to run against Alvarez. But Alvarez is popular, and he has shown the ability to mobilize grass roots Hispanic voters. Also, he is close to Governor Charlie Crist and Crist is close to John McCain. If you are a betting man, or a land speculator, under these circumstances you want to be careful lining up with Rubio-- especially since the balance of these relationships portend the eclipse of Bush political fortunes with which Rubio is allied.

Someday, the Urban Development Boundary may be moved, thereby increasing the value of land held by speculators. For the time being, interest payments are piling up like winter snowdrifts in Buffalo.

Nevertheless, the State of Florida has issued serious objections to the three applications to move the UDB that the county commission will vote on, next week.

Mayor Alvarez has pledged, as he has in the past, to veto these applications. But, at a time of crashing housing and real estate markets, the stakes in moving the UDB now are not quite as high as they seemed to be in 2005, when the Latin Builders, the South Florida Builders, and their lobbyists were swinging like angry howler monkeys from a tree.

Everyone is getting paid to be there. (Except The Miami Herald, suddenly bereft of real estate advertising dollars.)

The smart developers pocketed many millions of dollars during the boom to cushion these bleak times.

So what is it, to them, if a candidate they're not so enthusiastic about gets another four year term? The Federal Reserve is printing money like mad. Thinking is, by then the markets should reverse.

In the meantime, nothing is happening fast at county government. Reform of the county charter has disappeared into the hands of the unreformable majority of county commissioners, as the campaign contributors want. Alvarez supports Burgess and his impossible job, taking marching orders from the unreformable majority and hearing, mostly, only what his department heads want him to hear.

Does that sound about right?