Hector Medina is going to take the weekend to decide whether he wants to move forward with what could be an expensive appeals process after a court ruling booted him from North Miami\u2019s coming election.<\/p>\n
Judge Christopher Green disqualified Medina, a retired medical professional and repeat candidate, after deciding that Medina failed a mandatory candidate-qualifying requirement.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a technicality, but it stuck: Florida law<\/a> provides that a Treasurer or Deputy Treasurer must be the person who makes a qualifying payment on behalf of the candidate. In Medina\u2019s case, that was his wife, Alina Medina. But he signed the checks instead.<\/p>\n Green, citing the Florida Supreme Court\u2019s August decision in Amador v. Secretary, Florida Department of State<\/a>, ruled that North Miami acted properly when it disqualified Medina from eligibility on Aug. 25, five days after the qualifying period closed.<\/p>\n The city still put Medina\u2019s name on the ballot<\/a>, however, after his lawyer, former state Rep. J.C. Planas, threatened litigation.<\/p>\n On Aug. 27, both the city and Medina\u2019s incumbent opponent, Vice Mayor Kassandra Timothe \u2014 who notified North Miami Clerk Vanessa Joseph of the signature discrepancy, which she said her staff found while surveying her opponents\u2019 paperwork \u2014 filed lawsuits to resolve the matter.<\/p>\n Both sought declaratory relief<\/a> confirming Medina\u2019s disqualification was proper. Timothe\u2019s complaint<\/a> also sought to formalize the disqualification through injunctive relief.<\/p>\n Medina\u2019s defense leaned on the ministerial responsibility of the Clerk\u2019s Office to confirm his paperwork was in order, noting the city accepted the payment Aug. 11 \u2014 nine days before the qualifying deadline \u2014 and later cashed his checks.<\/p>\n That argument failed to sway Green, who entered a final judgment for Timothe and declared Medina unqualified on Friday. Because ballots have already been prepared, Medina\u2019s name won\u2019t be removed; instead, election officials must notify voters that he is disqualified, post notices at voting sites and ensure that votes for him aren\u2019t counted.<\/p>\n Green temporarily stayed those measures until 5 p.m. Tuesday so Medina can seek expedited appellate relief \u2014 a prospect that Medina, 66, said he\u2019s inclined toward, but not fully decided on.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan is to file Monday, but before I do that, I need to speak to my rabbis and my priests and my pastor,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s several lawyers looking into this. It can get pretty expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n He estimated the cost of pursuing an initial appeal would be about $7,000, but that the expense would grow exponentially from there. And it would take years, meaning that even if he ultimately wins, the elected term he wanted will have substantially elapsed.<\/p>\n Medina, who previously ran for Mayor in 2017, 2019 and 2024, and for District 2 in 2021, when he lost to Timothe, suggested the Clerk\u2019s Office and Timothe\u2019s campaign colluded to remove him from contention.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hard for me to believe that Ms. Timothe was able to, in the four to six hours after they released my paperwork, that she had filed this case already,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was a very well-orchestrated, very well-planned and very well-executed plan. This just doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothe, 33, rejected that premise, saying there is \u201cabsolutely not\u201d any truth to Medina\u2019s accusation and pointing out it was her campaign\u2019s notifying the Clerk\u2019s Office about the issue that prompted Medina\u2019s disqualification, not the other way around.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d she said. \u201cI do wish Hector Medina well. He did endorse me in my first run. We ran against each other before, and I always wish him well. But you know, the rules are the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothe still has one other opponent to get by: Brian Jinks, 64. She doesn\u2019t consider him much of a threat.<\/p>\n \u201c(He\u2019s) a registered Republican, and I\u2019m a Democrat,\u201d she said. \u201cThe district is very Democratic. So, it\u2019ll still be a race, but nonetheless, I look forward to serving the residents of District 2.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hector Medina is going to take the weekend to decide whether he wants to move forward with what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[156269,156263,156273,147070,156264,127469,156268,114609,156265,156259,156271,225,227,226,156272,155915,156275,7338,156266,156260,156274,156262,156258,156270,156257,156276,156261,156267],"class_list":["post-390889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-amador-v-secretary-florida-department-of-state","tag-candidate-qualifying-requirements","tag-candidate-removed-from-north-miami-election","tag-christopher-green","tag-florida-candidate-disqualification","tag-florida-election-law","tag-florida-supreme-court-amador-decision","tag-hector-medina","tag-hector-medina-appeal","tag-hector-medina-disqualified","tag-hector-medina-north-miami-election-appeal","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-judge-disqualifies-north-miami-candidate","tag-kassandra-timothe","tag-kassandra-timothe-hector-medina-lawsuit","tag-north-miami","tag-north-miami-ballot-dispute","tag-north-miami-candidate-disqualified","tag-north-miami-candidate-qualifying-payment-dispute","tag-north-miami-city-council-election","tag-north-miami-district-2","tag-north-miami-district-2-election-2026","tag-north-miami-election","tag-north-miami-election-candidate-disqualification-appeal","tag-north-miami-election-lawsuit","tag-north-miami-qualifying-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}