Two longtime Key Biscayners Joe Rasco and Fausto Gomez in race to be next mayor
.png "Key Biscayne mayoral candidates, Fausto Gomez (left) and Joe Rasco, are competing in a runoff on the November ballot.")
In 1998, Joe Rasco was elected to be the third mayor of Key Biscayne. More than two decades later, he’s seeking a return to Village Hall.
After earning 45% of the vote in last month’s primary election, the former director of Miami-Dade County’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs will face longtime lobbyist Fausto Gomez in a November runoff.
“The 45% was very encouraging,” Rasco said, “but we know that this is a brand new race and we are going to work as if we didn’t have the 45% on our side.”
Gomez spent nearly 40 years in Tallahassee representing municipalities such as Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Surfside and Key Biscayne through his consulting firm Gomez Barker Associates. Other clients included AT&T, Florida International University and Florida Power & Light.
Gomez secured his spot on the November ballot with 29% of the vote during the August primary, trailing Rasco by nearly 500 votes —a significant number considering there were 3,073 total ballots cast. Former Village Councilor Katie Petros came in third.
The primary results haven’t deterred him.
“Let’s put it this way,” Gomez said. “I’m very confident that the residents of Key Biscayne will make the right decision.”
Longtime Key Biscayners
Rasco and Gomez, both 68, are longtime Key Biscayners. Rasco was elected to the island’s first ever Village Council when it incorporated in 1991. Ten years later, Fausto relocated to Key Biscayne from Coral Gables.
The village of approximately 15,000 residents faces a different set of challenges than it did 20 years ago. The most pressing issues include the Rickenbacker Causeway, which is the only road connecting Key Biscayne to the mainland; the threat of rising sea levels; and fraught relationships with the county and the neighboring city of Miami.
Gomez said those “external threats” are what prompted him to run for mayor. He criticized Rasco, who chairs the Virginia Key Advisory Board, for being “blindsided” by last month’s proposal from the city of Miami to build a homeless encampment on the neighboring Virginia Key. Gomez proposes that the state purchase Virginia Key through its Florida Forever conservation program.
Rasco said the advisory board was caught off-guard by the homeless encampment announcement because of “the dysfunction of the city of Miami and nothing else.”
“The same thing happened with Ultra. The same thing happened with the boat show,” Rasco said. “We will continue to fight against things that don’t make sense for Virginia Key and harm the residents of Key Biscayne.”
The Rickenbacker Causeway, which connects Virginia Key and Key Biscayne to the mainland, is also a flashpoint in this election.
Gomez said the causeway should be transferred from the county to the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX), and that the mayors of Key Biscayne and Miami should be added to the MDX board. Gomez has previously lobbied for MDX.
Rasco supports a plan presented by the village manager last month that would convert the center lanes on the Rickenbacker Causeway into through-lanes with direct access to Key Biscayne. Those through-lanes would be flanked by local access lanes that connect to Virginia Key, with the goal of increasing capacity for special events without clogging up traffic for Key Biscayne residents.
Rasco has so far received over $64,000 in campaign contributions. He’s spent just under $50,000, according to campaign finance records.
Gomez, who is funding his own campaign, has spent about $23,000 so far.
“I don’t want anybody coming to my door,” he said, “asking for favors or contracts because of campaign contributions.”
In addition to the mayor’s race, five candidates are running for three open seats on the Key Biscayne Village Council: incumbent Ed London, Andy Herrera, Nicolas Lopez-Jenkins, Oscar Sardinas and Fernando Vazquez.
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