Fifteen qualify for Miami’s special election in District 2. Here’s who they are
Update: After the close of the qualifying period, two candidates have dropped off the ballot. Thirteen candidates remain in the race. Read more here.
Fifteen people have qualified to seek the District 2 seat on the Miami City Commission.
The city will hold a special election Feb. 27 to choose who will succeed Ken Russell, who had to resign following an unsuccessful bid for Congress. Potential candidates had until 6 p.m. Friday to qualify to run. Under the city charter, the person with the most votes will win the election. There will be no runoff.
Read more: Miami has a special election. Here are District 2 candidates talking about issues
District 2 covers most of the city of Miami’s coastal neighborhoods, including Coconut Grove, Brickell, downtown Miami, Edgewater and Morningside.
One surprise candidate emerged Friday: Eddy Leal, an attorney in Mayor Francis Suarez’s office. Leal has advised Suarez since April 2019. He was once accused of improperly lobbying during public hearings over a zoning issue in Brickell, but the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust found no probable cause for wrongdoing and dismissed the complaint.
The candidates are:
▪ Sabina Covo, former television journalist and director of Hispanic media relations for Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
▪ Michael Goggins, wealth management professional.
▪ Javier Gonzalez, real estate agent and previous District 2 candidate in 2019.
▪ Lior Halabi, digital marketing professional.
▪ Alicia Kossick, proprietor of Polished Coconut in the Grove.
▪ Eddy Leal, attorney on Miami mayor’s staff.
▪ Max Martinez, founder and creative director of marketing agency Maxfuture and a former mayoral candidate in 2021.
▪ Lorenzo Palomares, attorney.
▪ Renita Ross Samuels-Dixon, former Coconut Grove Village council member.
▪ June Savage, real estate agent and Miami Beach mayoral candidate in 2017.
▪ Kathy Parks Suarez, auto dealer.
▪ Christi Tasker, business and marketing consultant
▪ James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance.
▪ Mario Vuksanovic, a former homeless outreach worker for the city.
▪ Martin Zilber, a former Miami-Dade judge who resigned from the bench in May 2021 amid allegations of misconduct. A state judicial committee investigation was dropped when he resigned. A 2022 Florida Bar inquiry found no probable cause to sanction Zilber.
This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 7:38 PM.
