THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION UPDATE .....

It's Part Five of our weekly series breaking down the contested judicial elections in Miami-Dade County. In Week One, we focused on the only contested County Court race of Lindsay v. Lesperance. Since then, we have provided you with the Circuit Court races of Cueto v. Velis; Migna v. Manny and Colodny v. Kopco v. Millan. As we reported on May 2, 2008 on this blog, there are nine contested races here in Miami-Dade County; eight in the Circuit Court and one in the County Court.

Today, we discuss Group 38 of the Circuit Court. Our goal will be to attempt to provide you with a weekly contest overview and then let you have at it and give us your opinions on why we should or should not vote for a certain candidate.

Group 38 is presently occupied by the retiring Judge Leonard Glick. Vying to replace him are Mario Garcia and Stacy Glick (yes, she is related to the sitting Judge Glick).

DR. MARIO GARCIA .....

Mario Garcia has been a member of The Florida Bar for 8 years. He graduated from UM Law School and joined the State Attorneys office working there for three years. He is in private practice and handles criminal defense, real estate, immigration, and family law cases.

Mr. Garcia has kept himself very busy. He is also a US Army Captain, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, and a Certified Addictions Prevention Professional. Garcia earned his doctorate in 2004 from Capella University in the field of Psychology. Capella is an online educational institution. The "Dr." in Garcia is as a result of that online degree.

Garcia filed to run in February of 2007 and has reported raising $14,800 from 71 contributors.

You can read all about Mario on his web site at mariogarcia.net.

STACY GLICK ....

Ms. Glick is a lifelong member of the Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office. She obtained her law degree from St. Thomas University and has been a member of The Florida Bar for 9 years.

While Stacy may be the daughter of Judge Leonard Glick, she has made a name for herself at the GJB and has obtained a wealth of experience in the trial court over the last 9 years in virtually every division of the SAO. Her last position there was as a supervising attorney.

Ms. Glick has been impressive in the fundraising area since her filing in June of 2007. Since then she has reported raising $47,100 from, get this, 299 supporters. Also, she has kicked in $100,000 of her own money toward the campaign.

Check out Stacy at glickforjudge.com.

Please do your homework on the two candidates. Help out our readers by giving us your comments, pro and con, on each of the candidates.

The election takes place on Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

CAPTAIN OUT .........