Jesse Scheckner
Four candidates — two incumbents and two challengers — are seeking four-year terms on the Sweetwater Commission.
Voters will choose which among them they prefer Tuesday in the city’s biennial election. Two races this year were already decided in March, when Mayor-elect Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Commission President Saul Díaz won unopposed.
That left only the races for the Group 5 and 7 seats on the Commission undecided. Every candidate running, according to their filings with the city, is licensed to carry a concealed firearm.
Group 5
For Group 5, incumbent Commission Vice President Isidro Ruiz, hopes to keep the post he won four years ago. The 44-year-old fire equipment salesman raised close to $14,000 to defend his seat through May 4. A significant chunk of his gains came from real estate and construction businesses.
He faces former Commissioner Jose Guerra, who resigned from the city’s planning and zoning board just days ahead of the city’s qualifying deadline.
Guerra, 66, served as a Commissioner in 2013, when federal agents swarmed Sweetwater City Hall following an FBI probe that revealed rampant corruption. He lost his seat two years later by 90 votes and failed once to regain his seat in 2021, losing by 10 percentage points to sitting Commissioner Ian Vallecillo.
The city’s election webpage lists Guerra as “Jose M. Guerrera” and notes that a third candidate, Isolina Marono, withdrew from the race March 2.
A driver for Conviva Care Centers in private life, Guerra amassed about $2,200 for his bid this year, most of it coming from his own funds.
Both Ruiz and Guerra are registered Republicans.
Group 7
For Group 7, Reinaldo Rey Jr. is running to keep the seat he gained by appointment in September 2020 following the resignation of former Commissioner Sophia Lacayo, who resigned the month prior after pleading guilty to perjury.
Rey, a 33-year-old Republican who works as an electrician, enjoyed the best fundraising of the four candidates actively running, collecting nearly $36,000 through his campaign account and political committee, Building a Brighter Tomorrow.
That includes a $10,000 donation from Jose “Pepe” Diaz’s political committee, We the People PC; $5,000 apiece from real estate developers CREI Holdings and Global City Development, $3,000 from Orion Oil and $1,000 from the Miami Association of Realtors, Dade County Police Benevolent Association and the political committees of Miami-Dade County Commissioners Kevin Marino Cabrera and Anthony Rodriguez.
Rey faces Rolando Mendez, a 53-year-old CT scan supervisor at Jackson Health System and the only no-party candidate on Tuesday’s ballot. Of the $2,300 Mendez raised, about half was from his own bank account, with the remainder coming through contributions over Venmo and GoFundMe.
Background
Founded in the 1930s by Russian circus dwarves and incorporated in 1941, Sweetwater spans about 2,200 square miles in West Miami-Dade. Of the city’s 19,000 residents, more than 95% are of Hispanic origin and close to 74% were born outside of the United States and 9,601 are registered voters. Roughly 14% of residents in the city, whose median household income is $46,000, live below the poverty line.
Sweetwater, which has its own police department, nearly 6,300 residential housing units, 600 businesses and one bank, is largely uncovered by local media.
Just one outlet, news blog Political Cortadito, reported on the unopposed victories of Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Saul Díaz — no relation — who will take office May 10 alongside Tuesday’s winners.
The city’s other Commissioners include Vallecillo, Idiana Llanio, Jose Marti and Marcos Villanueva. All elected officials in Sweetwater serve four-year terms.
Jose “Pepe” Diaz will begin his second stint as Mayor of Sweetwater. He was Mayor there from 1999 to 2003, when he won a seat on the Miami-Dade Commission. He left the County Commission last year after reaching term limits. At the time, he led the Commission as Chair.
Diaz, a Republican, told Florida Politics in March 2022 that he “would love” to again be Sweetwater Mayor, one of just a few strong Mayors in the county, a position granting him powers and responsibilities of a City Manager in addition to serving as the city’s figurehead.
“I’m honored to have been elected without opposition as the Mayor-elect of my hometown,” he wrote on Twitter March 24 after qualifying ended. “I look forward to continuing to serve the residents of this beautiful city and begin to work on the issues that affect our everyday life. Improving our city’s public safety, transportation, financial stability, parks, resurfacing and beautifying our streets are some of my priorities.”
By the time Diaz won, he’d raised $119,000 through his campaign account and another $22,000 through his political committee, which has added another $43,000 since his victory and held another $610,000 in carry-over funds.
