The union has helped underwrite a committee called Big Vote for Justice that produced two large mailers savaging Rundle as an incompetent crime fighter who protects political cronies. Rundle says the union is bitter over arrests and an investigation involving the union.

One person featured in one of the mailers, county lobbyist Rick Sisser, filed a defamation lawsuit Friday against the union, union president John Rivera and political operative Charles Flowers, an ally of a city commissioner who was unsuccessfully prosecuted by Rundle’s office.

Rivera denied knowledge of the mailers, but said Sisser was being hypocritical because he had sought paid work from the union to trash Rundle and thereby help the union’s candidate, Rod Vereen. Sisser says Rivera is lying.

Both Vereen and Rundle are Democrats. Only Democrats can decide the race Tuesday because two unknowns filed as write-in candidates, triggering a state law that closes the primary. Republicans and independents therefore can’t vote. Write-in names don’t appear on the general election ballot and must literally be written in by voters who want to cast ballots for them.

A male model named Josue Vazquez filed a write-in in the state House District 103 contest between School Board Member Renier Diaz de la Portilla and Manny Diaz Jr. In his unsuccessful race for school board in 2010, Diaz had paid Vazquez, who went on to do campaign work for Diaz’s allies, Rep. Gonzalez and Rep. Jose Oliva. They also represent Hialeah-area seats.

Oliva faces a woman named Ileana Abay, who’s the mother of consultant Sasha Tirador, the employer of Gonzalez’s opponent, Balboa.

In his lawsuit against Tirador, Gonzalez’s lawyer has produced bank records that indicate Balboa broke campaign-finance rules and that Tirador has commingled funds from the multiple campaigns for which she works. Tirador says it isn’t true.

The Hialeah shenanigans roped in yet another politician, County Commissioner Steve Bovo, whose former aide was receiving and disseminating absentee ballots in his district office. The ballots were targeted in the probe from his Hialeah office and led to the arrest of the mayor’s uncle.

Bovo, who said he knew nothing of what happened, was lambasted as a “clown” in a hard-hitting robo-call from state House District 112 candidate and former state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla.

In that race, Diaz de la Portilla was bashed in mailers from a committee called “Conservatives United,” which supports his rival, former Republican Rep. Gus Barreiro. The mailers featured a weeping woman and excerpts of Diaz de la Portilla’s divorce file.

Diaz de la Portilla calls Barreiro a “pornographer” because he had been fired from a state job after investigators found someone lad used his state computer to log into the singles-and-swingers website, Adult Friend Finders.

In the Republican primary to challenge Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, candidate Ozzie deFaria’s divorce and confrontation with his ex-wife’s husband became a campaign issue. DeFaria responded against rival Karen Harrington by noting she once attended a gay marriage.

Homosexuality became a campaign issue in the state House District 116 race between Rep. Jose Felix Diaz and Rep. Ana Rivas Logan. Allies of Logan accused Diaz of being gay. Diaz allies accused Logan of being Nicaraguan, a perceived slur in a Cuban-heavy district. Two write-ins closed that race to Republicans only.

There’s also a mystery candidate in what could be Florida’s most-competitive congressional race for the U.S. House District 26 seat.

There, political newcomer Justin Lamar Sternad has sent out multiple mail pieces, one of which falsely accused Democratic rival Joe Garcia of leaving his wife when she had cancer. The records indicate his ex-wife, who has contributed to his campaign, divorced Garcia.

Sternad’s campaign-finance reports don’t show how he can afford the mailers, which repeat attack lines from Republican Congressman David Rivera. Garcia thinks Sternad’s a Rivera ringer, which Sternad and Rivera deny. Garcia’s main rival, Gloria Romero Roses, has attacked him in mailers as well.

“I’ve never seen an election season like this,” said J.C. Planas, the attorney representing Gonzalez in his lawsuit against Tirador. “This stuff usually happens to one degree or another, but you don’t see it because there aren’t so many races. It’s tough not to ignore now. It’s like it’s everywhere.”

After Tuesday, it’ll get a little easier.