Hialeah’s Jose Oliva wins House District 110
Hialeah businessman Jose Oliva beat two other Republicans to fill a vacant seat in the Florida House in Tuesday’s special election.
The race was part of the political domino effect triggered by the March 15 recall election. The three candidates vied to replace Esteban Bovo, a Hialeah Republican who resigned in his successful bid to replace ousted County Commissioner Natacha Seijas.
On the ballot for House District 110: Frank Lago, 30, the chief of staff for the mayor of Sweetwater, Manny Maroño; Oliva, 38, a cigar business owner and former Hialeah Housing Authority commissioner; and Rafael “Ralph” Perez, 35, a general contractor and former legislative aide to Marco Rubio when the U.S. senator was a state representative.
The relatively unknown candidates had a sprint of a race to establish a name for themselves in the heavily Republican district, which includes parts of Hialeah and Miami Lakes.
Oliva said the concentrated effort meant campaigning seven days a week. “It was grueling,” said Oliva, from an election watch party at his campaign office.
Oliva said his top priority is to reduce the size of government and cut taxes. “In particular there are people on a fixed income who are having trouble paying taxes on their home. They’re having trouble paying the windstorm insurance on their home,” Oliva said.
Oliva ran for Hialeah city commission in 2005, seeking the seat being vacated by current mayor Julio Robaina. But he dropped out of the race for personal reasons.
Technically, the race on Tuesday was a special primary election. But the results are considered a de facto victory because there is no Democrat on the ballot in the general election on June 28. Had a write-in candidate, Antonio Moreno, not jumped in the race, the GOP primary would have been open to all voters, regardless of political party affiliation.
Two candidates, Lago and Perez, did not live in the district when they filed to represent the area. Under state rules, candidates can live in another district during the campaign but must register in the district after their election.
Oliva spent the most on the campaign — more than $271,000 — with more than half funded by loans. As of May 19, Lago and Perez had spent about $105,000 and $60,000, respectively.
The race marked Lago’s first campaign and won him a nickname: “el del perrito” — the guy with the dog — for his campaign signs featuring a picture of him with his wife Elizabeth and Sara, their fluffy white poodle-maltese mix. Lago was backed by Miami Voice, the political action group that pushed for Seijas’ ouster
Perez worked on former state Rep. David Rivera’s first Florida House campaign and later ran unsuccessfully in 2008 for Rubio’s West Miami House seat. Nasty ads funded by third-party electioneering groups marked the final weeks of the heated contest. Candidates said they didn’t play a part in the mudslinging.
“They’ve taken it away from the actual issues and it’s more about jabs against the candidates,” said Lago on Tuesday as he greeted voters at Milander Park in Hialeah.
One flyer — paid for by Kendall-based Tell the Public the Facts — called Lago a marionette, of the Sweetwater mayor, who is a political ally of Gov. Rick Scott. Another group — Citizens for a Reality Check — sent a mailer blasting Oliva as a Sandinista sympathizer because his family business grows tobacco in Nicaragua.
Another flyer stirred up controversy because it touted Lago as a candidate on the same slate as Bovo, who ran for County Commission District 13, and Julio Robaina in his bid for county mayor. Both Robaina’s and Bovo’s campaigns said they didn’t authorize the ad.
Perez was not targeted in the mailers, but said that negative campaigning turned off voters. “The community is sick and tired of the fighting back and forth,” said Perez.