Appeals court confirms Miami commission candidate qualifies for election
Miami City Commission candidate Miguel Angel Gabela scored a major legal victory on Tuesday which confirmed the validity of his candidacy just hours before polls close.
A three-judge panel from Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal unanimously ruled in favor of Gabela, who is running to represent District 1 and locked in a legal battle with City Hall after commissioners redrew the voting map in June in a way that excluded his longtime home from District 1. Gabela later moved into the new district, but the city said it was too late.
The changes spurred a lawsuit over whether Gabela met the city’s residency requirements to run for City Commission. Miami’s city charter requires candidates to live inside the district they wish to represent for at least one year before qualifying.
Tuesday’s ruling confirms that votes cast for Gabela in the District 1 race will count. Gabela’s attorney, Juan-Carlos Planas, told the Miami Herald that the city has purposefully tried to influence the election with the legal challenge.
“The candidacy was undeniable, and we are obviously very happy with the result,” Planas said.
Read more: Five Miami-Dade cities have elections Tuesday. See if yours is one, and how to vote
Gabela, an auto-parts salesman in his fourth bid for the City Commission, is running against Mercedes “Merci” Rodriguez, Marvin Tapia, Francisco “Frank” Pichel, and incumbent Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who was suspended from his commission seat after he was arrested in September on corruption charges.
After the commissioners changed district boundaries in June, Gabela said he moved into a duplex he owns inside the new District 1 in early August. The city’s attorneys have argued that Gabela should’ve moved earlier. In late September, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Pedro Echarte sided with Gabela, saying the city moved the lines on him and Gabela did nothing to remove himself from the district.
Read more: Will Diaz de la Portilla overcome criminal charges, suspension to win reelection?
The city appealed the decision. The appellate court’s decision affirmed Echarte’s ruling. A more detailed written opinion from the judges has not yet been filed, according to court records.
In a statement, City Attorney Victoria Méndez said that any confusion about the city’s residency requirements affects “future elections, not only in the City of Miami, but also other cities in the state of Florida.”
“We await to see the actual opinion, as drafted, to see the far reaching implications of this decision,” Méndez wrote.
This story was originally published November 7, 2023 at 11:36 AM.
