MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade County school board member Raquel Regalado is the first official challenger to county Mayor Carlos Gimenez's re-election.
"I'm really focusing on issues and on changes," said Regalado, when announcing her candidacy to Local 10 News on Sunday afternoon.
Regalado was expected to run, having increasingly become the public face and voice of opposition to a series of projects launched by the mayor -- most recently a mega-mall project in the northwest corner of the county.
Last summer, Regalado led the opposition to a plan that would have raised taxes to pay for a new Miami-Dade County courthouse.
More recently, she has rallied against using public money to pay for infrastructure to support SkyRise, and partnered in a lawsuit with billionaire businessman Norman Braman. She said she is expecting Braman's support for her candidacy.
Gimenez, a veteran administrator, began fundraising in January, a full year-and-a-half before the August 2015 primary election. He used his annual State of the County address last month to tout the county's economic achievements and flat tax rate.
Regalado recorded a response to the speech among a series of critical posts on the social media platforms she uses often.
"We didn't hear anything about services, we didn't hear anything about hiring more police officers, no information about the libraries," Regalado said Sunday.
To transition from mayoral critic to mayoral candidate, Regalado said she knows she has to broadcast a platform and a vision for change, and she plans to make mass transit improvements a priority.
She said she expects her critics will attack her lack of administrative experience, and countered that her two-term tenure on the Miami-Dade County school board exhibits an ability to govern a large and complicated county operation.
"I did a five-year transportation plan with all our school buses," Regalado cited as an example. "A lot of things I talk about doing at the county, we've done a lot of it at the school board."
Critics question Regalado's financial savvy, having gone through a home foreclosure and an admittedly botched financial oversight during her tenure as treasurer during her father Tomas Regalado's 2009 campaign for Miami mayor.
"I think I've been very forthright about the decisions I've had to make," said Regalado about the home foreclosure. "I'm no different than half the residents of Miami-Dade County, who as the result of the financial bubble had to make some difficult decisions."
Regalado signed papers to open a campaign finance account after the interview and said she planned to submit them Monday morning.
Though Gimenez did not speak publicly Sunday, he indicated to Local 10 last week that he planned to run for re-election.
County Commissioner and former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez is also considering a run for county mayor. He is expected to announce his decision in October.
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