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HIALEAH

Hialeah voters keep status quo

Voters in Hialeah showed overwhelming support for their incumbent leaders at the polls Tuesday.

ypineiro@MiamiHerald.com

Bringing to a close the largely uneventful election season in Hialeah, voters elected Tuesday to keep the same mayor and two council members.

Mayor Julio Robaina captured 93 percent of the vote, earning him another four years as the leader of Miami-Dade County's second-largest city.

``I'm extremely proud for the residents of Hialeah,'' Robaina said. ``Our future is even brighter today than it was yesterday.''

Miami-Dade Elections Department officials said the unofficial results show 24.52 percent of Hialeah voters cast ballots, or 21,755 of the city's 88,716 registered voters. A chunk of the ballots -- about 9,751 -- were cast by mail. About 1,441 chose to vote early.

In the Group 5 post, council member Luis Gonzalez, a print shop owner, secured a second four-year term after garnering 84 percent of the vote -- or 17,073 votes -- compared with nearly 16 percent by his opponent, community activist Fernando Alvarez.

``At the end of the day, I just didn't raise enough money to seriously compete. And the the reality is 60,000 voters chose to stay at home,'' said Alvarez, who raised $3,855 to Gonzalez's $49,875. ``I'll continue being an activist. And in 2011, I'll try again.''

Councilwoman Katharine ``Katy'' Cue faced the toughest competition for the Group 7 seat after coming under fire by opponent Daniel Bolaños, a former Hialeah police officer and son of the former longtime police chief Rolando Bolaños Sr. Bolaños accused her of voter fraud.

But Cue, who Robaina nominated to a seat vacated by Steve Bovo last November, was cleared by the Florida Elections Commission and the court system. On Tuesday, she handily defeated Bolaños when she captured 90 percent of the vote, or 18,602 votes. Largely missing from this year's elections were the nasty campaign tactics often typical of Hialeah politics. Also missing: issues.

This year's races pitted incumbents who pointed to the job they had done managing the city, against political novices who were critical of the current seven-member council's rubber-stamp tendencies.

Incumbents point to the mostly peaceful election season and overwhelming support from voters as a symbol that residents were pleased with the way the city is being run.

``We haven't raised taxes. We haven't cut services. We haven't laid people off,'' Gonzalez said. ``And we're about to open the Hialeah race track.''

At the Milander Park polling station Tuesday, Nestor Chanfrou said though Robaina and some fellow council members had not necessarily won him over yet, he had begun to notice welcoming changes in the City of Progress, such as new streets and more trees.

``Up until now, he's done a good job, so why not give them another four years,'' he said.

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