Congressional Race Dims Ken Russell’s Political Future

Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell can’t seem to find a federal race where he’s the favored candidate.

After ditching a bid for the U.S. Senate Democratic primary because of insurmountable odds against a rising female minority political star, Russell is now going up against another popular, liberal woman heavily favored to beat him.

Since giving up her own longshot bid for the Florida gubernatorial Democratic primary and jumping into the race for Florida’s 27th Congressional District, state Sen. Annette Taddeo has emerged as the dominant contender to take on Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in the November general election.

A poll in late June by Sarasota-based SEA Polling & Strategic Design for her campaign shows Taddeo comfortably leading Russell in popularity and name recognition, with the Colombian American politician holding a 36-point lead over the city commissioner and an even wider margin against a third candidate, community activist Angel Montalvo. Taddeo also scored key endorsements from fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill and is galvanizing progressive voters to her side.

Meanwhile, Russell, who switched races in May, further eroded his own political capital with grassroots liberals by flip-flopping on the no-bid Inter Miami CF soccer stadium deal that gave the club’s owners, MasTec chairman Jorge Mas and soccer celebrity David Beckham, control over the city’s Melreese Golf Course.

Approved by voters in 2018, the controversial proposal involves giving Inter Miami development rights to 73 acres of public green space where the Mas-led group plans to build Miami Freedom Park, a massive mixed-use site that would include Inter Miami’s soccer stadium, a hotel, retail shops, a 58-acre public park and playing fields on the roof of a three-story parking garage.

After vociferously indicating he was a “no” vote halfway through a late April city commission meeting, Russell ended up being the swing vote that approved Inter Miami’s contract by a 4-1 supermajority, which is required on no-bid deals.

“I think Annette Taddeo is a better fit because she has a better track record in terms of community involvement,” Miami-based liberal community activist Thomas Kennedy told the Biscayne Times. “She is also outspoken and an independent thinker. She is not afraid to buck the party when needed and has great credibility.”

Russell, on the other hand, has disappointed many of his constituents time and time again, Kennedy said.

“Ken has spent most of his time on the city commission being a hack for real estate developers,” he said. “He is a phony and a fraud. And people recognize it.”

Falling Political Star

Since winning his first elected position on the Miami City Commission in 2015, Russell has shown a propensity of never sticking to a coherent political game plan.

Ana Gitli, Russell’s congressional campaign press secretary, did not respond to email requests from the Biscayne Times for an interview. Russell, whose June 3 city commission resignation doesn’t take effect until the election is over, also did not respond to voicemail and email messages for this story. He will leave City Hall with one year left on his current term.

In 2018, Russell mounted a brief campaign for the 27th Congressional District but withdrew his candidacy because he did not want to risk losing his city commission seat due to Florida’s resign to run law. At the time, he was competing against a crowded field of candidates, including former University of Miami president and ex-Clinton administration cabinet member Donna Shalala, whose internal polling showed she was ahead of him by 22 points, according to the Miami Herald. Shalala won the seat, served two years and lost a nail-biter in the 2020 election to Salazar.

In June of last year, two years after Miami voters gave him a second term, Russell announced he was going to run for the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, pitting himself against Orlando Congresswoman Val Demings, the Black former police chief who has galvanized party operatives and elected officials in her attempt to unseat Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

In an interview for the November 2021 BT issue, Russell said he planned on staying in the Senate primary despite the odds against him.

“This is not the first time that Washington Democrats and the national party has tried to put a finger on the scale,” Russell said at the time. “They have gotten more wrong than correct.”

A Democratic Party political consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Russell missed his chance for higher office by opting not to run for the 27th District last year.

“Politics is largely about timing, and his timing was too late on this,” the consultant said. “There is universal agreement that Russell is going to get trounced.”

The metrics heavily favor Taddeo, the consultant explained.

“There is institutional support for Taddeo and Russell will be at a financial disadvantage,” the operative said. “Democratic primaries always have a more significant number of women voters than men, and then there is the large Hispanic vote.”

Had Russell entered the 27th District race last June, he’d have a $2 million war chest and been considered a strong candidate against Salazar, the consultant said. Instead, Russell burned through $1.2 million of the $1.7 million he raised – primarily from real estate developers and people doing business with the city – for his Senate bid, leaving his campaign with $468,000 in hand, according to federal campaign reports.

Taddeo has quickly matched it with a haul of $457,327 in June, including donations from key congressional campaigns, including U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the federal filings show.

“Ken’s miscalculation in running against Val and not targeting this race in the first place are self-inflicted errors that have put him in this position,” the consultant said. “I think this election cycle has damaged him very badly, but political resurrections are always possible.”

Democrats’ Best Shot

Interestingly enough, Taddeo was in a similar situation as Russell. As a state senator in a heavily blue district, she could have easily won reelection, but instead chose a tougher path.

Since October, when she entered the race to be the Democratic challenger to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Taddeo consistently fell behind Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Congressman Charlie Crist, who has emerged as the primary’s front-runner.

In a phone interview, Taddeo told BT that several factors led to her switching races, including being handcuffed from raising money because of Legislature ethics rules; the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead; and the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

As a sitting state senator, Taddeo was prohibited from fundraising during the two-month Legislative session and the subsequent special sessions called by DeSantis, she said.

“As the only gubernatorial candidate with this prohibition, it was a true hindrance,” Taddeo said. “Even though we had raised $1 million, it was going to take more than that to catch up.”

The Uvalde mass murders and the overturning of federal abortion rights sealed her decision after having a conversation about both with her 16-year-old daughter, Taddeo said.

“We were talking about how she can’t believe she is going to have less rights than I’ve been afforded as a woman,” Taddeo relayed. “There were also a lot of people calling, asking and encouraging me to enter the race for the 27th District. So, we decided to jump in.”

Despite the controversy over the Republican redrawn district maps in Florida, the 27th District now encompasses more of her state Senate district, which also gives her an additional advantage against Russell, and subsequently, Salazar, Taddeo said.

“If I wanted the easy route, then yes, I could have run for my state Senate seat again,” she said. “But this election is so much bigger than me and anyone else.”

Taddeo’s chances of beating Salazar is one of the few bright spots during a midterm election cycle that many prognosticators predict will be more brutal than previous ones for Democrats, who have a tenuous hold on the two branches of Congress. The same internal poll that showed her comfortably leading Russell shows Taddeo in a dead heat with Salazar, a former TV journalist who eked out a one-point victory over Shalala in 2020.

“In any other year, Annette would probably be the favorite over Salazar,” Miami-based political consultant Jeffrey Garcia told BT. “Because it is the midterm election, she is going to be a slight underdog. I think Annette is okay with that because that is her comfort zone.”

Garcia is not involved in any congressional campaigns.

Taddeo knows she’s in a tough race, but it’s a winnable campaign, she said. She is also not intimidated by Salazar, whose antics in Washington, D.C., have raised eyebrows, such as when she posted photos of herself holding a piñata outside the Capitol shortly after voting against the American Rescue Plan that extended unemployment benefits during the pandemic and provided financial assistance to small businesses. Salazar declared the bill was “socialism.”

Salazar did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment.

“We are running against an incumbent whose record before she got elected was not truly highlighted to the voters,” Taddeo said. “They will have a choice between someone making false promises and someone who stands up for the things we care about in our community.”