BY CHARLES RABIN

Ask the man most people expect to be Miami's next mayor to describe his vision for the city, and you might as well stick eight years of skyline-filling rapid development in mothballs.

``Tell the people how their money is being spent. No backroom deals. Any grandiose projects, we take to the voters,'' says Miami Commissioner Tomás Regalado. ``We do need to take a breather.''

The anti-Manny Diaz?

The approach may be sticking.

After 13 years of solidifying his base from a bully pulpit on the dais and radio and television programs beamed into voters' homes, Regalado finds himself with a solid lead in fundraising and ahead in polls over fellow Commissioner Joe Sanchez in the race to become Miami's next mayor.

His approach is connecting with voters fed up with the status quo amid a bleak economy. Even in the final weeks of the campaign, Regalado remains the naysayer.

Last week he was a dissenting voice on outgoing Mayor Diaz's two most important remaining initiatives -- the parking garages at the new baseball stadium in Little Havana, and the move to overhaul the city's dated zoning code, called Miami 21. Both items passed.

Yet those losing votes -- which follow many, many others over the years -- highlight the key unanswered question about how well Regalado would serve as mayor: Can the stone thrower become a coalition builder in South Florida's most populous city?

The Regalado way has become a question even for some backers.

Former City Manager Frank Rollason, a supporter, recently had a face-to-face with the commissioner, asking him about his vision for the city. ``He didn't say an awful lot besides guaranteeing basic services,'' Rollason said. ``But I think it's time that maybe we take a breath for four years.''

Some in Miami's business community are worried about the direction Miami could take under Regalado.

``There's an overshadowing concern we may be taking a step back toward the politics of old,'' said Mario Artecona, executive director of the political group the Miami Business Forum.

Said lobbyist Jose Cancela: ``The business community is sitting back and taking a wait and see attitude with Regalado. There is no vision at this point.''

Regalado wants nothing to do with grand plans.

``When I speak of our great city,'' his campaign website states, ``I do not envision a metropolis.''

Yet at 62, Regalado remains beloved by the city's older Hispanic residents, and wildly popular in his Flagami district, both ground zero for voter turnout in slow nonpresidential election years like this one.

Politics wasn't always in his blood -- but populism was.

From a young age, Regalado was in awe of his father, a journalist, attorney and professor at the University of Havana. ``He was the last president of the Association of Reporters in Havana,'' Regalado said. ``All my life I wanted [to be] in journalism.''

That journey began when he and his 7-year-old brother boarded a flight from Cuba to Miami in 1962. His father had already begun a jail sentence in Cuba for anti-government propaganda that would last two decades before his arrival in Miami.

After the Regalado boys landed on U.S. soil, they lived at a Catholic Church facility in Kendall, then were taken in by an aunt. Their mother made it to Miami in 1963, and Regalado graduated from LaSalle High, a private Catholic school in the city.

Six years later, in 1969, he was working the sound board at a Spanish radio station in Miami, a move that would lead to television and ultimately propel him into office.

Today, Regalado does a morning news program for the Spanish Broadcasting System, and hosts a television news program called El Informativo on Telemiami.

He met his wife, Raquel, during those early days on the radio. They married in 1972 and had three children. Raquel Regalado died nearly two years ago of heart complications.

When she died, Regalado said he briefly considered backing out of the mayoral contest. He stayed in, he said, after urging from his children.

``They said mom would have wanted it.''

Regalado, elected to Joe Carollo's seat when Carollo became mayor in 1996, stepped into Miami politics at the dawn of the city's darkest hour.

That year, after discovery that Miami had blown its budget by $68 million, the state took control of the city's finances, and the fallout triggered the arrest of several administrators and eventually some commissioners. For five years, Miami's budget moves had to be approved by the state.

``It gave me a chilling effect that's stood by me forever when it comes to spending public money,'' Regalado said.

Meanwhile, with his radio and television popularity making him a staple in many households, he easily won reelection four times.

Regalado said he is now focused on three modest goals -- repaving streets in his district, completing a wall at a subdivision called Coral Gate, and building a fire station on West Flagler Street.

His anti-development stance has remained consistent: votes against condos at Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove, a baseball stadium for the Marlins in Little Havana, and a tunnel to the Port of Miami. He questioned plans for a pair of museums and a new park in Bicentennial Park, one of the remaining waterfront crown jewels of Miami.

CONTROVERSY

But his time in Miami and tenure on the commission has come with controversy.

In 1983, while working at a Spanish-language news radio station, Regalado helped raise money for the defense of Eduardo Arocena, later convicted of murder and numerous bombings in what Arocena claimed was an attempt to free Cuba of Fidel Castro.

Asked if he now regrets the fundraising, Regalado says ``no,'' adding that other stations also raised money.

In 1999, the state attorney's office investigated Regalado's controversial use of his city gas card, which was used to buy fuel two or three times a day, pumping twice what his Jeep's manufacturer said the tank holds. ``They investigated for three months and no charges were filed,'' Regalado said.

That same year Regalado's commission paycheck was garnished as the IRS attempted to collect thousands of dollars in taxes he owed.

In a recent debate at the Miami Science Museum, Sanchez pulled at that old financial wound, questioning Regalado's ability to oversee the city's finances at a time of massive budget cutting and escalating pension costs.

``They cleared me totally and absolutely,'' Regalado replied.

Another vulnerable spot for Regalado: He tends to mix up his facts.

At the same science museum debate last month, Sanchez went on the offensive after Regalado said he voted against fat union contracts many blame for Miami's newest financial mess and a $118 million hole that had to be sealed.

Sanchez pointed out that Regalado voted against union contracts in 2003 -- but not the 2007 contracts that helped create a system where eight firefighters now earn more than the city manager. Sanchez also supported that deal.

CAMPAIGN

Regalado has run a campaign linking Sanchez to the current administration and uses the Spanish airwaves to discuss his experience in office, and to say the endorsement of the city's three main unions will make it easier for him to bargain with them.

By the end of September, Regalado had a healthy $200,000 fundraising lead, and posters of him are plastered around the city.

He has secured support from neighborhood associations fed up with rapid development.

``Tomás Regalado has been much more supportive of protecting and preserving neighborhoods,'' said Upper East Side activist Elvis Cruz, whose support helped propel Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff into office.

Sanchez has gained traction in recent weeks hammering away at the unions. ``I don't think that he's got a plan to get this city moving forward,'' Sanchez said.

Plan or not, Armando Gutierrez, a prominent lobbyist helping run Regalado's campaign, said he is confident his candidate's core beliefs will lead him to office.

``I have a lot of friends,'' Gutierrez said, ``and Tomás is the one who always tells it like it is -- even if you don't like it.''