Carollo calls $500K he spent to elect Rosado ‘worst political mistake' of his life

Miami Herald

4 days ago

As he left the most recent Miami City Commission meeting this month, a seething Joe Carollo had harsh words for his new colleague, Ralph Rosado: 'You will never be a future mayor.'
In less than a month, the longtime city commissioner went from bankrolling Rosado's campaign and celebrating his subsequent victory, to deeply regretting the sleepless nights and mountains of cash he spent to ensure Rosado would become the city's next District 4 commissioner.
During the breakneck six-week special election, Carollo's political committee, Miami First, spent over a half-million dollars on Rosado's election. But according to Carollo, his help went far beyond mere financial assistance.
In an interview with the Miami Herald, Carollo laid out his winning strategy that he said catapulted Rosado from trailing 25 percentage points behind opponent Jose Regalado to defeating Regalado with 55% of the vote last month. At the end, just 548 votes separated the two.
That strategy entailed staying up until 2 or 3 a.m. creating campaign mailers, spending three days filming Rosado's 30-second campaign ad, and ultimately dragging the Regalado name through the mud to decimate any goodwill associated with one of South Florida's most prominent political families. A flurry of anti-Regalado attack mailers accused the former assistant building director of abusing animals and alleged that the Regalado family has ties to international drug traffickers.
Rosado, who declined to be interviewed for this story, said in a written statement to the Herald that he ran a 'positive, issue-focused campaign.' Rosado said Carollo's 'insights were appreciated' but that 'ultimately, the decisions about our message, outreach and the contrasts we drew were made by our campaign, and we're proud of the way we connected with voters and executed our plan with integrity and focus.'
Rosado's opponent sees it differently.
'It was character assassination,' Regalado told the Herald in a recent interview. 'It wasn't a positive campaign. It was one of the most negative campaigns I've ever seen in my life.'
Carollo says he was heavily involved in Rosado's campaign and that Rosado was '100%' aware of what was taking place behind the scenes — including the anti-Regalado smear campaign.
But now, weeks after Rosado's swearing-in, Carollo regrets those efforts.
'It's the worst political mistake that I've made in my life,' said Carollo, who was first elected to the Miami City Commission in 1979.
His change of heart follows several City Commission votes by Rosado that Carollo took issue with. That includes Rosado's tiebreaker vote in favor of postponing the upcoming November election to 2026 — a measure backed by the mayor — as well as Rosado's vote to shutter the Bayfront Park Management Trust in January of next year. Carollo previously chaired the Trust, but he was ousted from the agency earlier this year, and it was turned over to his rival, Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela.
Rosado now joins Gabela on Carollo's ever-evolving list of political adversaries — a roster that currently includes Commissioner Damian Pardo and Mayor Francis Suarez, whose political committee spent over $1 million on Rosado's election.
'I didn't expect anything with Ralph Rosado, with the exception of him coming here to be an honest commissioner,' Carollo said. 'I didn't expect him to come here to be a lap dog — another lap dog — for Mayor Suarez.'
Carollo explains his winning strategy
While Suarez outspent Carollo 2-to-1 in support of Rosado's campaign, Carollo maintains that his efforts, paired with help from his wife, Marjorie, are the real reason Rosado was victorious.
'It's not just the money. … It's the strategy,' Carollo said.
He added: 'Bottom line is that if Mr. Rosado had not had an angel like Joe or Marjorie Carollo, he never, never, never would have gotten elected.'
In a sit-down interview with the Herald, Carollo explained a two-prong strategy that he said paved the way for Rosado to defeat Regalado by less than 600 votes.
Step one was to run a negative campaign not just against Regalado, but his whole family.
Carollo said such a strategy was required in this particular situation, where there was less than two months to campaign and where Rosado was facing off against a member of one of South Florida's most powerful political families. Jose Regalado's father, Tomás Regalado, is a former Miami mayor and city commissioner and currently serves as the county's property appraiser; Jose Regalado's sister is Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado.
'I could've ran just a straight campaign of being positive, and you could not have beaten these people in what really amounted to four weeks of advertising,' Carollo said. 'You could've done it in six months, maybe. But not in four weeks. Not [against] the Regalado name.'
Of the $547,000 that Carollo's political committee, Miami First, spent on Rosado's election, the vast majority — over $420,000 — went to radio and television ads, according to campaign finance reports. Another $86,000 was spent on mailers and printing alone.
'You had to expose the negative of the Regalados, and you had to do it in a way that you give people the truth with the proof,' Carollo said. 'And that's how we did it: the truth with the proof.' (Regalado, meanwhile, has called Carollo's claims completely baseless.)
District 4 residents were getting inundated with a sea of negative mailers, television and radio ads. But it couldn't only be negative, Carollo explained, because that would leave voters so disillusioned that they might skip the ballot box altogether.
So the second step of his strategy involved offering voters a positive alternative to Regalado. Carollo went as far as offering Rosado almost a complete copy-paste of a mailer Carollo sent out in his own 2021 run for city commissioner, in which Carollo is holding up his grandson.
In a visually similar mailer, Rosado is seen holding up his nephew. Carollo said he designed the mailer, although it says it was paid for by Rosado's campaign.
Carollo also said that he and wife, Marjorie, spent a total of three full days filming Rosado's 30-second campaign video. That included one day of meeting and interacting with Rosado's family members off-camera, followed by two days of filming.
Carollo told the Herald that he and Marjorie directed the video and were heavily involved in its production.
That's different from what Rosado has stated publicly. He initially told political blogger Elaine de Valle that Carollo was not with him at Douglas Park filming a campaign video. When de Valle told Rosado that she had a video clip showing Carollo and his wife seemingly directing a shot, Rosado told her he would get back to her but never did, de Valle reported.
When the Herald later asked Rosado to clarify the incident, he described something serendipitous, saying Carollo happened to be in the Douglas Park area while Rosado was filming, so he decided to swing by and offer some insights.
But that's not true, Carollo said.
'Everything that was said there was written by my wife and myself. Everything,' he said of Rosado's 30-second ad.
Mayor's involvement
Carollo also described a coordinated effort between himself and Suarez to get Rosado elected. While Carollo would handle the negative campaigning, Suarez would focus on the positive side, Carollo said.
Suarez's political committee, Miami for Everyone, spent $1.1 million on Rosado's election, according to campaign finance reports. That includes $900,000 that went directly to Rosado's PAC.
Suarez declined to be interviewed for this story. In response to written questions, he denied Carollo's claim that there was a coordinated effort of any sort.
'I'm proud to have supported Ralph Rosado for Commissioner,' the mayor said. 'He ran on a clear, public platform and made his positions known throughout his campaign — including to your publication.'
Suarez said Carollo's claims 'come at a very particular time, in light of the recent Commission votes that could impact his and his family's ability to continue making a living out of the city taxpayer's pockets.'
'For the past two and a half years, our office has had a positive working relationship with Commissioner Carollo's office,' Suarez continued. 'However, now Commissioner Carollo is throwing out baseless claims hoping something sticks — but you have to ask: why now, and not a year ago or two years ago? These are the same political tactics we've seen for years, and they're as transparent today as they have ever been.'