A heated and sometimes bizarre election season in Miami Beach could come to a close Tuesday as voters cast ballots for mayor and three commissioners.

But considering two hotly contested races featuring six candidates running for vacant seats, Tuesday could simply be a mid-point in contests already peppered with political attacks, criminal investigations and even a cameo by the U.S. Secret Service.

Should no candidate receive more than 50 percent of the vote in any race, the top two voter-getters would be headed for a Nov. 17 runoff -- something political insiders expect in both the Group 2 and Group 3 commission races.

With the mayor and three out of six commission seats up for grabs, the city's elected body could be in for substantial changes. Voters will cast ballots in two open races and decide the political fates of Matti Herrera Bower and Commissioner Jerry Libbin, who are running for reelection.

Bower said voters will probably base their decisions on who they believe will be best to lead the city through its current struggles -- including foreclosures, dwindling property values, and hits to business and tourism.

``I unfortunately am coming through to the bad times,'' she said about the end of her first term as mayor. ``It's very easy to be mayor or commissioner when a lot of money is coming in. We need to figure out how to maintain high services with less money.''

Bower squares off with perennial candidate Raphael Herman -- whose eccentric antics led the U.S. Secret Service to contact him out of concern when President Barack Obama was in town last month -- and education activist Laura Rivero Levey, who has criticized the mayor for what she says is lack of leadership.

Levey has little political experience and acknowledged that she has an uphill battle, but said she has long been active in the city and has developed a reputation as someone who can get things done.

``I think this has been a hard race because I've been against somebody that has been there for a long time,'' Levey said. ``She has a lot of respect in this community. But I have respect, too. People know who I am and know what I can do.''

In the Group 1 race, Libbin has touted his accomplishments and says he wants to finish a fight to reform the state's condo foreclosure laws. Like Bower, Libbin faces opposition from a new face in beach politics: Oduardo ``Oddy'' Segui.

Segui, however, is dogged by allegations of check kiting at local banks and has blown off a number of candidate forums, calling them ``a waste of time.''

In the Group 2 and Group 3 races, there is no incumbent. Commissioner Saul Gross is leaving due to term limits and Commissioner Victor Diaz Jr., who was appointed to his seat in December 2008, agreed not to run this November.

The candidates running to replace Gross -- insurance executive Jorge Exposito, attorney Maria Mayer, and Realtor and Decoplage condo president Sherry Roberts -- all have highlighted their financial acumen.

However, all three have been defending themselves as of late, as critics have become louder and third-party organizations have reared their heads.

A recent third-party mailer slamming Mayer and promoting Roberts led both women to say Exposito was behind the attack because his campaign consultant, David Custin, has worked with the group on other campaigns. Exposito and Custin deny the charge.

Meanwhile, though Roberts has received support from a number of residents at the Decoplage, she has been followed from forum to forum by a group of residents at her condo that have distributed literature saying she has mishandled their community.

And Mayer has had to brush off claims that her employment with Carlton Fields law firm and her husband's position as a special assistant to the city manager on construction projects would be a conflict of interest, calling the attacks ``political smear.''

But the most contentious of the races belongs to the battle between former Miami Beach commissioner Michael Góngora, one-time mayoral aide Alex Fernandez and property manager Gabrielle Redfern. Negative commercials and mailers attacking Góngora's driving record, including a 2002 DUI arrest that was downgraded to a reckless driving charge, and the source of Fernandez's $104,000 campaign self-loan, have dominated the race.

Some of the attacks have been misleading, including a claim from the Góngora campaign that Fernandez has been ``sued repeatedly for credit card non-payment.'' Góngora has pointed out that several lawsuits turned up in Fernandez's personnel file when the city conducted a background check on his given name, Alejandro J. Fernandez.

However, the city said Friday that the suits were filed not against the candidate but against at least one man by the same name, and later that evening, Comcast agreed to pull an anti-Fernandez commercial that referenced the suits in the personnel file.

``What's being put out there about me is really all false,'' Fernandez said Saturday.

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