Republican influencer Alex Otaola, a popular YouTube personality running for Miami-Dade Mayor, has never run for public office before and lacks institutional support, for now at least, from the GOP at both the state and county levels.
He understands, but prefers not to speak, English.
His campaign account ledger is virtually devoid of business or political committee donations.
Yet thanks to thousands of small contributions, many as low as $1, he's the second-biggest fundraiser in the seven-person Mayor's race, having raised $310,500 through late July. Only Daniella Levine Cava, the Democratic incumbent, and Republican Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid lead him.
Much of the money came through his "Hola Ota-Ola!" show, which surged in viewership during the 2020 election cycle, when he backed the re-election effort of ex-President Donald Trump. Trump, an advertiser of the show, went on to lose Miami-Dade by only 7 points. He'd lost there by nearly 30 points just four years prior.
Otaola is running, he said, to help his homeland of Cuba and other oppressed nations from the outside by going after businesses in Miami-Dade that he says are funneling money to their dictators.
He said he also hopes to weed out corruption in county government.
"I'm not a career politician. I'm an outsider," he told Florida Politics through a translator. "My intention in getting into politics is to clean Miami-Dade of the bureaucracy, communist penetration and financial corruption that has hurt the county in the past."
Voter records show Otaola, 45, was a registered Democrat from 2012 to 2020, when he switched to the Republican Party. He briefly changed his affiliation to NPA in 2023 before re-registering as a Republican this year.
He emigrated to the U.S. in 2003 by visa and worked various jobs before being cast in telenovela and comedy shows. His incomplete IMDB page features six TV credits between 2009 and 2014.
In 2020, a video of Otaola hosting his show in blackface three years earlier made headlines, drawing accusations of racial demagoguery. He said he regrets the incident.
Because the Mayor's Office and its elections are technically nonpartisan, Otaola, Levine Cava and Cid are all on the Aug. 20 Primary ballot.
So are Miami-Dade Libertarian Party Vice Chair Miguel Quintero, no-party transport executive Eddy Rojas and two other Republicans, Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger and actor Carlos Garín.
If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote to win outright, the two top vote-getters will square off in a runoff culminating in the Nov. 5 General Election.
Otaola sat down with Florida Politics to discuss his candidacy. Below is a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.
Florida Politics: Is this your first run at public office?
Otaola: Yes. Politics has never been in my plans, and this campaign is the result of my followers, who have allowed me to take this step.
You've said one of your priorities is to establish commissions to cleanse Miami-Dade of "communist doctrine" by investigating businesses that launder money for the dictatorships of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. How are those companies laundering money, and how would your administration address that?
The proper agencies should determine the laundering of money. My job would be to show that these companies are collaborating with agencies that support Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
We have several people who have been denounced for having frontmen who, from Miami, support those and other governments. My intention is to make commissions for them to investigate these businesses of corruption, were there to be any.
Jurisdictionally, wouldn't that investigative authority and responsibility fall to the federal government, since it's across national borders?
Collaborating with county workers and others is not part of the federal or state (purview). That falls to every public office.
The voters from Miami-Dade are asking for us to step in.
The county would still have limited power to investigate these private entities.
Collaborating with the federal government and who takes power in November will be the greatest thing. This service isn't being provided to the community now because of politics.
The money we want to investigate is at the county level, and most of the money that supports the Cuban government today comes from Miami-Dade.
Obviously, that falls within the responsibility of the Mayor.
Do you know who these frontmen are?
We have complaints about companies in Miami, but like I said, those will go to agencies that investigate such things.
Do you believe Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and President Joe Biden's administration have done an adequate job of investigating communist money laundering?
No. It's evident that Joe Biden's administration has been flexible and has given oxygen to these dictatorships by easing U.S. sanctions on them.
Do you believe that Donald Trump and former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez, who preceded Biden and Levine Cava, did enough to stop this sort of activity?
Mr. Giménez never put into his policies anything against them. Mr. Trump did what no one else had done. He enforced Title III of the Helms-Burton law.
This communist penetration has been long coming, and there has been no one at the county level willing to take on these things.
Your campaign platform also includes, among other things, legalizing marijuana, addressing housing insurance, housing costs, taxes and inflation. What would you do as Mayor to address those issues that the incumbent and your other opponents have not done, particularly since policy affecting most of those issues are largely dictated at the state level?
Legalizing marijuana is not a county- or local-level issue, but what I would do is support recreational use of marijuana at the local level as a way of getting new taxes.
The objective would be for us to support building new and cost-effective housing. What the current administration does is stick its hands in the homeowners' pockets over and over again. This can't go on. People are losing their property.
The current politicians aren't looking for new ways to get taxes. They're looking at the old ways to continue taxing people. My compromise is with the voters of Miami-Dade and those who are being kicked out of the county.
How would you go about lowering housing costs?
I will bring a plan to Miami-Dade Commissioners, which they should approve, for transitory housing. It's a cost-effective housing plan for families who cannot pay rent.
They can apply for transitory houses once a year. It would make them pay small rental fees while allowing them to rebuild their finances and continue with their normal lives.
Where would the money for this come from?
Part of the funds would come from the budget, which is misused now. The other would come from private donors. Right now, there is building and growth within Miami-Dade without considering families who need cost-effective housing.
My compromise would be to give builders tax exemptions for them to build cost-effective houses.
Are you familiar with the Live Local Act that passed last year and was updated this year?
Not exactly. Tell me about it.
It does a similar thing by providing tax exemptions and additional density allowances to residential developers that set aside a certain share of their properties at quote-unquote affordable rates.
If these regulations do exist, they are not taking place correctly. What I would do is make sure this cost-effective housing is fulfilled.
It sounds to me like the rent rate you're proposing is far lower than rates the Live Local Act includes. How will you compel developers to offer such a rent rate when they have an existing state-level deal that already offers them tax incentives but with more rental income?
I would make sure that this is applied, because every day we see more homeless people in public areas, even though it's illegal for them to be in certain public areas.
The Legislature may have passed that bill, which offers small rental relief compared to what I'm proposing, but what we see is that there are more homeless now.
I understand things are a certain way now. But what I propose is that we make this into law and make sure the laws are carried out and that help reaches the people who need it.
Do you think Joe Biden won the 2020 election?
Despite everything that happened, all these irregularities that took place and seeing the disaster that happened in 2020, I trust the North American electoral system.
I know this time they'll vote in favor of the well-being of everyone. I trust in the clarity of the North American people.
To be clear, is that a yes or no that you believe Joe Biden truly won in 2020?
Most of us accept him as a winner. Although those 80 million voters who voted for him haven't been attending his public events.
What would you like to make clear to those who read this interview?
I want them to know I am one of them. I am one of the voters from Miami-Dade, and I am here without being compromised by greater political interests.
No comments:
Post a Comment