THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
ELECTION CENTRAL - 2024
On August 20th, voters in Miami-Dade County will head to the polls to elect several new judges in both the Circuit and County Court. As I have for the past 19 years, your Captain will be on top of all of the races, bringing you the breaking news that our readers have come to expect from your humble Blogger. You won’t get this kind of coverage in the Miami Herald, nor the Daily Business Review, the Miami News (now I’m aging myself), or any other local thread. Thanks to Rumpole and the Justice Building Blog our readers know that they will obtain their best election coverage from The Captain.
Today, we bring you the filings from the Circuit Court.
CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE:
There are a total of 24 Circuit Court Groups up for election in 2024. The deadline for filing is Friday, April 26, 2024. With 11 days to go, we currently have three judges who are retiring. Group 8, where Incumbent Judge David Miller is retiring, has drawn two candidates, and one name should be very familiar to most of our readers as he has been a Judge and ran in two contested elections in the past. In Group 29, where Incumbent Judge Pedro Echarte is retiring, that Group has also drawn two candidates. In Group 49, Incumbent Judge Terera Pooler is retiring, and only one candidate has filed so far.
The other 21 Groups have Incumbent judges currently facing no opposition.
***In the contested and open races we are providing you with information on how much money the candidates have raised as well as how much they have loaned their individual campaigns.
GROUP 8 (Judge David Miller retiring)
Raised $0.00 Loan $575,025
Jason Bloch has been a member of The Florida Bar for 30 years. He spent 20 years working for Miami-Dade County as an Assistant County Attorney. He was appointed to the Circuit Court bench by Governor Rick Scott in 2014. He ran in his first election in 2016 and lost to Judge Marcia del Rey 52% to 48%. He has spent the past seven years working pro bono on legal matters. He ran again for Circuit Court Judge in 2022 against Incumbent Judge Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts. He lost by 1,851 votes out of 262,589 votes; 50.4% to 49.6%.
Raised $28,526 Loan $25
Ms. Jones-Peabody has been a member of The Florida Bar for 33 years. She is currently working as an Assistant Public Defender in Miami-Dade County as a supervisory and training attorney. She has been with the office of Carlos Martinez for the past 20 years.
GROUP 29 (Judge Pedro Echarte retiring)
Raised $107,313 Loan $11,000
Ms. Correa has been a member of The Florida Bar for 14 years. She is originally from Brazil. She began her legal career as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County working there for nearly four years. She spent three years working for a law firm before opening up her own law office. She concentrates her practice in the areas of commercial litigation, complex business litigation, and construction litigation.
Raised $2,700 Loan $120,000
Mr. Padron has been a member of The Florida Bar for 12 years. He is a solo practitioner working in the areas of family law, dissolutions of marriage, paternity actions, domestic violence matters, as well as complex civil litigation and appeals.
GROUP 49 (Judge Teresa Pooler retiring)
Raised $133,884 Loan $10,100
Ms. Mato has been a member of The Florida Bar for 24 years. She has dedicated her entire legal career as an Assistant Sate Attorney in Miami-Dade County where she currently handles the most serious felony cases in the office.
GROUP 2 Ariana Fajardo Orshan
GROUP 13 Jose L Fernandez
GROUP 14 Vivianne del Rio
GROUP 15 Maria Elena Verde
GROUP 24 Mindy S. Glazer
GROUP 25 Yery Marrero
GROUP 31 Carlos Lopez
GROUP 36 Lisa Sharon Walsh
GROUP 42 Miguel M. de la O
GROUP 43 Ellen Sue Venzer
GROUP 47 Maria de Jesus Santovenia
GROUP 53 Jason Emilios Dimitris
GROUP 54 Antonio "Tony" Arzola
GROUP 56 Javier A Enriquez
GROUP 58 Diana Vizcaino
GROUP 61 Christine Bandin
GROUP 66 Lourdes Simon
GROUP 68 Victoria del Pino
GROUP 71 Charlie Johnson
GROUP 78 Valerie R. Manno Schurr
GROUP 80 Marisa Tinkler Mendez
We will monitor both the local election office as well as the office in Tallahassee for any Group movement by the candidates as well as any new filings over the next 11 days.
TOMORROW, THE COUNTY COURT RACES.
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