Distractions threaten campaign to oust Seijas ... by gimleteye

It has been clear for some time that the best chance to remove Natacha Seijas from office will be under the condition in which her recall election is scheduled on the same ballot as the recall against Miami Dade mayor Carlos Alvarez. Seijas and Alvarez are certainly not natural allies. Alvarez has been on the receiving end of Seijas' scorn for many years. But on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the Seijas and Alvarez camps could be pushed closer together. For Seijas, it is a delicate balancing act. She knows that Miami-Dade voters are likely to make Alvarez a scapegoat for higher taxes and inefficient government and that, also, her campaign financiers (from the land speculators, developers of platted subdivisions, and interests in erasing land use planning and the Urban Development Boundary) will not rush to Alvarez' defense as they will, to hers. Alvarez is at greater risk of recall, of course, in a county wide election. Over many years, Seijas has carefully cultivated the unions. (The unions are largely uninformed how their leaders support of her is to their own detriment.) If Seijas is able to de-couple her recall from the same date and ballot as Alvarez, she may be able to summon union political voters, like SEIU to the rescue. In that event, the Seijas recall could be a replay of Florida Hometown Democracy: the citizen movement to return control of big zoning decisions to local voters. Its fervent supporters had enough strength, motivation and money to bring the matter to the state-wide ballot last November, but were too ragged, exhausted, and poorly funded to make their case to the wider public by election time. If Miami Voice defeat Seijas, it will be a momentous event not just for Miami-Dade but for Florida politics. Between here and there is a very long distance. In the context of what it takes to traverse that distance, the lawsuit by Seijas to stop the recall is a tactical distraction.