Three county commissioners now running for Miami-Dade mayor in 2020

Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr. announced his campaign for county mayor on Monday, positioning himself as a champion of working-class voters while taking subtle swipes at a rival who shares his Hialeah political roots: former mayor Alex Penelas.

“We always wanted to respect the small businessman, we always wanted to respect the homeowner. Those people who work hard to create jobs, and create opportunity,” Bovo said in an announcement speech that shifted from English to Spanish before a cheering crowd at the Casa Marin restaurant. “These are not individuals that go to County Hall to complain, or City Hall to complain. Because they expect us ... to do the job for them. To make sure there aren’t regulations that bog them down.”

Bovo, 57, declared for mayor in Hialeah, the same city where Penelas used a City Council perch as a launching pad into county politics. Penelas has already picked up support from a string of lobbyists active in his past campaigns, with a formal announcement expected soon in the race to succeed a term-limited Carlos Gimenez in 2020.

Bovo didn’t name Penelas in his announcement speech, but his remarks revolved around the theme of not letting Miami-Dade slip back into past practices.

“Do we move forward?” asked Bovo, a former state lawmaker and Hialeah City Council member who went on to serve as chairman of the County Commission. “Do we go backwards to an era of cronyism, and using the county government to enrich a few and not taking into account the betterment of our community?”

The Penelas camp points out Bovo’s political committee receives donations from the lobbyists, developers and county vendors that are the mainstay donors to incumbents in Miami-Dade races.

Two other county commissioners, Daniella Levine Cava and Xavier Suarez, are already in the race, as is former commissioner Juan Zapata.

The Bovo announcement highlighted the Cuban-American’s ease in campaigning among the Spanish-speaking, older voters who typically play an outsized role in the August primaries that can decide Miami-Dade’s nonpartisan county races. Bovo’s emcee for the event, former Hialeah council member Jose Yedra, mostly addressed the crowd in Spanish. Bovo switched between both languages, drawing cheers of “Bovo! Bovo!” after making his formal announcement for “alcalde” in Spanish.

“For my friends at the Miami Herald, tomorrow we will officially announce, and turn in our paperwork, to be candidate for mayor of Miami-Dade County in 2020,” he said afterwards.

Bovo, a father of five, was born in New York. His father was a pilot in the 2506 Brigade, which participated in the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. Bovo was elected to the Hialeah council in 1998, and then the Republican won a seat in the Florida House in 2008. When the District 13 seat on the commission became open in 2011, he won a special election for it and has been on the 13-seat board since then.

While he’s the third commissioner to join the mayor’s race, Bovo is the first to have fellow board members at his announcement. Commissioners Rebeca Sosa and Jose “Pepe” Diaz both said they were endorsing Bovo. Also in attendance and endorsing: Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid and former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina (who lost to Gimenez in the 2011 mayor’s race after the recall of then-mayor Carlos Alvarez).

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from West Miami who swore in Bovo as commission chairman in 2017, was scheduled to attend but canceled after the death of his mother on Friday, Bovo said. Bovo’s wife, Viviana, works in Rubio’s senate office as a senior advisor. His latest financial disclosure form shows Bovo earning about $82,000 in 2018 from ELB Business and Community Consulting, a firm he owns with two listed clients: Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and a corporate entity tied to the Hialeah Park casino.

For Bovo, Penelas presents a key rival for the 2020 campaign. Not only are the two competing for the same base of endorsements and donors in the Hialeah area, but Bovo and Penelas are on opposite ends of the transit debate.

Bovo is running in part on legislation he’s championed to advance future transit projects, including a tax district along planned transit routes and changes in county building rules to encourage taller buildings there, too.

No major new transit project launched under Bovo’s nine years on the commission, though the county is pursing rapid-transit buses in South Dade and has invited proposals to connect Miami and Miami Beach.

Bovo says part of the problem has been broken promises involving the transportation sales tax passed by referendum in 2002 after then-mayor Penelas campaigned for a transit plan that included an historic Metrorail expansion that never materialized.

“When you make promises that can’t be completed, and you raise people’s expectations and then leave others to do it — that’s not what we’re going to be about,” Bovo told reporters after the event. “We’re not going to sell them something that’s not doable.”

Penelas has blamed the 2002 transit plan’s shortcomings on mismanagement under Alvarez and Gimenez of the roughly $3 billion that the sales tax has generated since its passage by voters.

On Monday, Penelas issued a statement criticizing Bovo for a lack of progress on transit during the commissioner’s tenure.

“I left office 15 years ago, yet during Commissioner Bovo’s nine years on the commission not single mile of rail line has been approved to be built,” Penelas said in the statement.