Voters in Miami’s District 2 will choose their next commissioner in special election
Voters in Miami’s waterfront neighborhoods will choose their next representative in a special election next month.
In a rare Sunday afternoon meeting, city commissioners unanimously voted to hold an election Feb. 27 to fill the District 2 seat that was recently vacated by former commissioner Ken Russell. District 2 extends from Coconut Grove through Brickell, downtown, Edgewater and Morningside.
The decision delivered some neighborhood advocates a major win, allowing them to choose the interim commissioner through a vote after a short campaign season that will begin this week. Commission Chairwoman Christine King and Commissioner Manolo Reyes notched victories, asserting their shared position that an election was the most democratic way to find Russell’s successor.
Following Russell’s Dec. 29 resignation, the commission had 10 days to appoint a replacement to serve out the remainder of his term, which expires in November. Their deadline was 5 p.m. Sunday.
A daylong hearing on Saturday, which included comments from 18 people who wanted to be appointed to the seat, yielded no decision. They cast ballots multiple times. King and Reyes steadfastly supported holding an election. Through 10 rounds of voting, they chose no one.
“I do believe, as I have said, that the people should decide who their representative is,” King said Sunday.
Commissioners Joe Carollo and Alex Díaz de la Portilla voted to appoint candidates, with former Miami-Dade judge Martin Zilber being Díaz de la Portilla’s consistent pick. They argued that a special election would be costly, and it would not truly be democratic because the election would draw such a small turnout, and the highest vote-getter would win — no runoff is required in such a race.
On Sunday, commissioners picked up where they left off. With one hour left, they had voted 10 times on an appointment with no winner, a repetitive process that had people in the audience rolling their eyes. An initial vote to call an election failed.
When it became clear there was still no consensus, Díaz de la Portilla tried to argue that the commission shouldn’t formally call for an election until a regularly scheduled meeting Thursday. Carollo jumped in to say that even though he strongly objected to an election, there was no sense in putting off the inevitable and shrinking the timeline for candidates to mount campaigns and raise money.
“If all that we’re going to do is prolong this, I don’t think this is the right way to go,” he added.
Díaz de la Portilla promptly changed his vote after Carollo’s statements, making the vote for an election unanimous. In the end, Reyes and King never switched their positions.
The qualifying period for the election will begin Monday and run through 6 p.m. Friday. People who meet the qualifications to run for District 2 commissioner will have until then to file paperwork with Miami’s city clerk to run for the Feb. 27 election. The commission is estimated to cost the city about $330,000.
At one point, Díaz de la Portilla argued that an election would be undemocratic.
“The argument that a special election works is not a good argument,” he said, saying the turnout would be low. “I don’t buy it. And I don’t think anybody here should buy it.”
Speaking next, Reyes pointed out that in November 2020, when there was a vacancy to fill the District 5 seat, Díaz de la Portilla argued “passionately” for a special election. At that time, Reyes was pushing for a “caretaker” commissioner to be appointed, someone who would promise not to run.
The commissioner they appointed then, Jeffrey Watson, broke a pledge to stay out of the 2021 District 5 election, which he eventually lost. Reyes has said in recent days that he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
“I should’ve supported your plea for a special election at that time. What made you change? I don’t know,” Reyes told Díaz de la Portilla on Sunday. “But at that time, you were very passionate, very passionate about a special election.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2023 at 5:55 PM.
