Voters in Hialeah, Homestead, Miami and Miami Beach went to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots for a slate of municipal candidates. In Surfside, voters had to decide on five charter amendments.
Unofficial results across Miami-Dade County late Tuesday night showed that turnout was light given the off-year election.
Among some key results:
- Alex Diaz de la Portilla , who is facing charges of money laundering and official misconduct, was headed to a run-off against Miguel Angel Gabela for the Miami District 1 seat.
- In Hialeah, Angelica Pacheco beat incumbent Vivian Casáls-Muñoz for a city council seat.
- Miami Commissioner Steven Meiner and Michael Gongora were headed for a run-off election later this month in the closely-watched mayoral contest.
Here’s a city-by-city breakdown of unofficial election results as of Tuesday night.
Hialeah
In the Hialeah Group 1 contest, incumbent councilwoman Monica Perez, who is council president, easily defeated her challenger, Elias D. Montes de Oca.
In the Hialeah Group 2 contest, Angelica Pacheco upended incumbent Vivian Casáls-Muñoz. Pacheco was leading by nearly five percentage points. Less than 8,400 votes were cast in the race.
Read more here about the Hialeah race from WLRN news partner El Nuevo Herald.
Homestead
In Homestead, where turnout was in the single percentage numbers, voters had to decide on four city council seats.
Early tallies show only 3,163 ballots were cast in early voting and Election Day voting. That represented just under 9% of the city’s 35,610 registered voters.
Winning the Seat 1 special election to represent the city’s northwest was Thomas B. Davis. He was ahead of James Wyatt and Amy Spadaro.
The special election was held to fill the seat of Vice Mayor Julio Guzman, who ran for mayor last month and lost to incumbent Steve Losner.
Winning the race for Seat 2, representing Keys Gate, was incumbent city councilman Sean L. Fletcher over Ana San Roman.
Winning Seat 3 was incumbent city councilman Larry Roth over his sole opponent, William R. Rea.
In the Seat 6 race to represent the Oasis area, Clemente Canabal was victorious over Toshiba Mitchell. There was no incumbent.
Read more hereabout the Homestead election from WLRN news partners at the Miami Herald.
Miami
Three incumbent city commissioners faced challengers on Tuesday, including Miami’s District 1 seat left vacant by the suspension of Alex Diaz de la Portilla. In September, he was arrested and charged with money laundering and official misconduct. He has rejected the allegations and pleaded not guilty in court to the charges.
Despite the criminal allegations, Díaz de la Portilla held a strong lead over his top opponent, Miguel Angel Gabela but not enough to avoid a run-off election.
Gabela went to court in August and won his lawsuit to keep him on the ballot. He had accused the city of carving his property out of District 1 to disqualify him from running against Díaz de la Portilla.
The three others in the race were Francisco “Frank” Pichel, Mercedes “Merci” Rodriguez and Marvin Tapia.
In a packed field for District 2, incumbent commissioner Sabina Covo was leading her seven challengers, but with only 40% support she’s headed for a run-off against Damian Pardo, who garnered 26% of votes.
Running against Covo and Pardo were Michael Castro, Gabriela Chirinos, Alicia Kossick, Eddy V. Leal, Christi Tacker and James Torres. Only Leal got more than 1,000 votes. The others got 735 votes or less.
Said Covo in a statement: “I am grateful to have our community’s strong support, finishing with a commanding first place lead in today’s election and laying the path for victory in two weeks.”
Ruth’s List Florida, which is dedicated to electing Democratic pro-choice women statewide, applauded Covo making the runoff and pledged to continue their support.
“Ruth’s List is excited to see Sabina Covo emerge from an eight-person field and make the runoff on November 21st,” said Christina Diamond, CEO of Ruth’s List in a statement. “In just a few short months, she earned voters’ trust and they see her as an accessible advocate and champion for their community.”
In the District 4 race, incumbent commissioner Manolo Reyes was far ahead of his longshot challenger, Andres ‘Andy’ Vallina. The 79-year-old Reyes told the Miami Herald on Monday that he is being treated for leukemia.
Miami Beach
Miami Beach voters chose a new mayor among four candidates vying to succeed three-term Mayor Dan Gelber. Three commission seats were also up for grabs.
In the mayor’s race, Commissioner Steven Meiner was leading Michael Gongora, but none had more than the 50% required to win the post. Trailing both were Mike Grieco and Bill Roedy.
Meiner and Gongora will move to a run-election on Tuesday, Nov. 21. Early voting would begin Nov. 19.
Said Gongora in a statement: “I am beyond grateful to be moving on to the next round in this important race, and I look forward to continuing to share my vision and hopes for the future of Miami Beach.”
“I have been a staunch advocate for implementing environmentally sustainable policies, promoting inclusivity, putting limits on excessive development that causes traffic congestion and strains our infrastructure, and improving and expanding public safety measures, which is why I was endorsed by the Miami Beach Police,” he said.
In the Group IV race, Tanya Katzoff Bhatt had a sizable lead over Andres Asion.
In the Group V race, David Suarez held a slim lead over Mitch Novick. Suarez noted he’s a political outsider and was self−funding his campaign, allowing him to “have an unbiased and fresh perspective on how we can improve and upgrade a level of city services we deserve.”
In the Group VI race, Joe Magazine declared victory against Marcella Novella in one of the day’s closest races.
“I am humbled and honored by the support I received from Miami Beach voters who have elected me as our next City Commissioner,” he said in a statement. “Together, we will fight to ensure Miami Beach works for families, treats everyone equally, and focuses on a resilient future. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for the opportunity to serve the community I love and where I’m proudly raising my daughter.”
Magazine’s campaign website listed four top priorities. They included “reducing short-term rentals and commercial usages in our residential neighborhoods.”
Surfside
Voters in Surfside did not vote on any candidates on Tuesday but had to consider five charter amendments.
Soundly defeated was one charter amendment that would have extended the terms of the mayor and town commissioners from two years to four years.
Winning by a large margin was another amendment that requires a mayoral candidate to earn 50 percent of the vote plus one to win election or face a run-off. Currently, a mayoral candidate only needed to have more votes than his opponent.
Surfside voter Gerardo Vildostegui told WLRN he voted against extending terms of mayor and commissioner.
“The two-year terms give us a good chance to review our elected officials’ work within a short period,” he said.
Like a majority of Surfside voters, Vildostegui voted in favor of requiring mayoral candidates to win 50%-plus-one to be elected.
More voter voices
In Hialeah, one of the county’s biggest cities, voters trickled into the JFK Library polling place on Tuesday afternoon as campaign volunteers drove around the parking lot carrying candidate campaign signs.
Armando Alba, 77, speaking to WLRN in Spanish, said he voted because local elections are more important than presidential elections, noting that local election results have more direct impact on Hialeah residents.
At South Pointe Elementary School in Miami Beach, there was no line to vote early Tuesday. Only about two dozen voters had cast their ballots before 8 am.
Outside the polling station, campaign volunteers held signs hoping to sway voters at the last minute.
Matthew Gultanoff, founder of Better Streets Miami Beach, told WLRN that he was disappointed with the candidates — none of which, he said, are supporting a current county proposal to connect South Beach to downtown Miami via Metromover. The project is called the Baylink.
“It’s concerning because we have elected officials who set the policy for the city and they just off the bat are against it,” he said. “And they don’t experience what public transportation is like in the city today.”
Joshua Ceballos
Joshua Ceballos is WLRN's Local Government Accountability Reporter and a member of the investigative team. His work appears under a partnership between WLRN and the Key Biscayne Independent.
Verónica Zaragovia
Verónica Zaragovia is the health reporter at WLRN. Her work appears under a partnership between WLRN and the Key Biscayne Independent.