THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION UPDATE .....

One day later than normal, we bring you our next in a series of reports on the contested judicial elections in Miami-Dade County. In Week One, we focused on the only contested County Court race of Lindsay v. Lesperance. Last week we switched our focus to the Circuit Court and the race of Cueto v. Velis. 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 move to Group 18 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 18 is presently occupied by the retiring Judge Jon Gordon. Vying to replace him are Migna Sanchez-Llorens and Manny Segarra.


MIGNA SANCHEZ-LLORENS .....

"Migna" as she has come to be known on this blog has been here before. In 2006, she ran a hotly contested race against Judge Shelly Schwartz for the seat in Group 27 of the County Court. In a squeaker, Schwartz pulled in 71,057 (51%) votes to Migna’s 67,236 (49%).

Migna was not afraid to spend money in that 2006 race. In total, she spent $215,745 and $185,000 of it was her own money. She and her husband, (a partner at the silk stocking firm of Shutts & Bowen), have the bucks and Manny better be prepared to either raise lots of money or getting lots of exposure in other ways.

Migna graduated from NYU Law School and she has been a member of The Florida Bar for 13 years. Her entire legal career has been spent in public service, as an Assistant with both the Federal PD and the State PD. Prior to becoming an attorney, she spent nine years in the banking industry.

Migna has been very active in Domestic Violence (D.V.) issues. She serves on the Florida Coalition Against DV and the Miami Dade County D.V. Oversight Board.

You can read all about Migna on her web site at migna4judge.com.


MANNY SEGARRA ....

Manny Segarra has been a member of The Florida Bar for 7 years. He graduated from the Univ. Of Illinois Law School. Manny's entire legal carrer has been spent with the State Attorney’s Office. There, he distinguished himself in the DV Unit. For two years, he was the Division Chief of the County Court Domestic Crimes Unit. He also authored the Misdemeanor DV Unit Training Manuel for his office for three years.

Manny has only raised $2,600 as of the last reporting period and has thrown in another $8,550 of his own money. He readily admits that he will not be able to compete with Migna in the money category.

Manny has three "You Tube" style videos running on his website. Check them out at mannysegarra.com.

Manny does note that he has been endorsed by none other than the "Blue Parrot Bar"; (that may be enough to get Rumpole’s endorsement).

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 .........