Natacha Seijas (VNS): running away from voters, full of bile and contempt ... by gimleteye

It is an incredible video: Natacha Seijas standing before history, staring bleakly at the camera in a recorded deposition related to her lawsuit contesting the upcoming recall election; "suspended but not completed". Who knows what is the heart and mind of the vindictive county commissioner but bile and contempt for those who would hold her accountable? Seijas has owned Hialeah's county commission seat through massive campaign cash from land speculators and the brotherhood that controls Miami Dade County. During this time, voters in Hialeah have been clueless about the way Seijas has failed them. With support of unions that lack courage and insight and leadership, Seijas has dominated any opponents. In the last recall, her bile billowed against "people who aren't Hispanic" from the Redland; the last rural enclave in South Florida that Natacha was determined to open up to the bulldozers and platted subdivisions of her campaign financiers. This time, Seijas can't use ethnic and racial divisions: her well-worn trump card. Seijas can't outrun the pace of the economic collapse that turned the edges of the county into sprawling ghost suburbs, higher taxes, a degraded quality of life, and joblessness. Seijas scorns the view that she is personally responsible. But she is and in more than a symbolic way. Her role as de facto chair of the county commission-- a role enforcing the political order of land speculators, lobbyists, rock miners and fraudsters-- is directly implicated in the sprawling land use that destroyed Miami's natural attributes, put our drinking water at risk, and shifted enormous infrastructure costs-- mandates costing taxpayer billions-- onto the backs of voters to the benefit of the Growth Machine. Just one example from 2010: Seijas intervened to stop any county planning for climate change from including specific maps using science and studies that had already been completed, that would demonstrate low lying areas most vulnerable to flooding from sea level rise. Her recall, the second in five years, is an indictment by voters who don't know anything about the way she meddles and terrorizes county staff. In the same way the Spanish language TV reporter who surprised Seijas, forcing her to turn against the wall rather than face the camera: even Seijas must be kept awake by the message. You can run, Natacha, but you can't hide.