Miami Beach voters will choose from six City Commission candidates in runoff elections
Twelve entered. Six remain. But just three candidates for the Miami Beach City Commission will earn a seat in City Hall.
Voters cast their ballots in three commission races on Nov. 5, but three runoff elections were called after none of the candidates earned more than 50% of votes in their races.
GROUP VI: Richardson vs. Gonzalez
The closest of the three races, in Group VI, saw former state representative David Richardson fall just 109 votes short of winning outright over restaurant owner Adrian Gonzalez. Richardson received 4,627 (48.9%) to Gonzalez’s 3,634 (38.4%). Two other candidates scored less than 10% each.
“In many respects, it’s like a new campaign,” Richardson said. “We’re not taking anything for granted. I run every election like I’m 20 points behind.”
The seat will be vacated by Commissioner John Elizabeth Alemán, who is not seeking reelection.
Richardson, who served in the state House for six years as a Democrat, is leaning on his experience managing government budgets and the “critical thinking” skills he used as a forensic auditor and accountant, both for the government and his private firm. He has also referenced his relationship with lawmakers in Tallahassee, which he says he can leverage into securing funding for deserving city projects.
Gonzalez, the owner of David’s Cafe Cafecito in Miami Beach, is running to achieve a “healthy balance of representation on both sides of the spectrum” — between political and residential interests. Gonzalez, who lost a bid for the commission in 2017, said Richardson represents the establishment. Gonzalez proposes the city offer small, family-owned businesses vouchers to reduce the impact of rising rents.
“My opponent, in the last six years, he hasn’t done much for the city of Miami Beach,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a great politician on a state level but not a local level.”
GROUP V: Arriola vs. Pacheco
In Group V, first-time candidate Raquel Pacheco was 21 points behind her opponent, Commissioner and Vice Mayor Ricky Arriola, on Election Day, marking the largest difference in any of the commission races.
The lone incumbent in any of the races, Arriola, is seeking reelection. First elected in 2015, Arriola leveraged his legislative record and name recognition into a 45% vote share on Election Day. He was forced into a runoff because Pacheco (24%) and third-place candidate Stephen Cohen both received just under a quarter of total votes cast. Jonathan Welsh ran a distant fourth.
In his pitch to voters, Arriola points to his four-year track record in office, which includes continuing the city’s climate resiliency efforts, expanding free trolley service and “ushering in the renaissance of North Beach” through the Town Center development project.
“Voters have a clear choice in my race,” Arriola said in a statement. “Re-elect someone who has deep roots and a track record of community service or choose someone who recently moved here from another state and has no demonstrable evidence of serving her local community.”
Pacheco, president of translation company RDP Agency, received Cohen’s support in the runoff. She said she felt confident in the public’s disapproval of Arriola’s time in office and temperament, pointing to the fact that about 55% of votes in the race went to Arriola’s three opponents.
She has pushed for state and federal help to solve the city’s traffic congestion and “green” initiatives to mitigate flooding and protect the environment.
“It’s really important for that 55% to come out to vote again,” she said. “Let’s take the power back and give it to the people. I need them to help me accomplish that.”
GROUP IV: Rosen Gonzalez vs. Meiner
In Group IV, former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonazlez faces federal attorney Steven Meiner to regain her old seat, which she relinquished to run for Congress in 2018.
Rosen Gonzalez, who received 38% of the votes cast in the race, has positioned her candidacy as one under constant attack — from the political establishment, like Mayor Dan Gelber, and from dark-money political committees who have flooded mailboxes with misleading attacks.
“I am running against the Gelber machine,” she said in a statement. “He and the developers have played very dirty and have spent a lot of money.”
Gelber and others on the dais criticized Rosen Gonzalez recently for her opposition to an early voting expansion Gelber proposed. In a newly spawned mini-controversy, which Gelber jokingly coined “Turkey Gate,” Rosen Gonzalez questioned adding an extra day of early voting on Friday, the same day as a city-sponsored turkey giveaway near an early voting site.
The early voting resolution passed 6-1 on Tuesday, and Gelber directed the city to try moving or rescheduling the food drive. He accused Rosen Gonzalez of seeking to limit voting opportunities for Sabbath-observing Jewish voters, who would be unable to vote from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday.
Meiner, an observant Jew, cannot vote on Saturday. Rosen Gonzalez, herself Jewish, denied Gelber’s accusation.
Meiner, an enforcement attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, earned his spot in the runoff two days after Election Day, on Nov. 7, after a manual recount put him just two votes ahead of third-place finisher Michael Barrineau. Rafael Velasquez ran fourth.
As the candidates waited a final count, Rosen Gonzalez enjoyed a head start in campaigning. She didn’t know who she’d meet in the runoff, but her message didn’t change.
“I stand for resident rights, hard work, the environment, representing the average guy and voting the right way,” she said, “which means following the Miami Beach Charter, which might sometimes anger the power structure.”
Meiner considers himself somewhat of an underdog against Rosen Gonzalez, who served on the commission from 2015 until her resignation in 2018. His campaign staff is composed entirely of volunteers, most of them friends and family.
He has received the support of some commissioners and the mayor.
He said his platform echoes residents’ concerns, including improving the police presence in the city and improving government transparency.
Meiner said his issues-oriented campaign has clearly resonated with voters fatigued by negative campaigns focused on attacking individual candidates.
With an opponent like Rosen Gonzalez, who has been involved in multiple scandals while in office, Meiner has no shortage of political ammunition.
Rosen Gonzalez has been investigated at least five times by the Florida Elections Commission and the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics. She was never found guilty in the complaints against her, but the Ethics Commission did knock her “poor judgment” in one case.
She is also the subject of a defamation lawsuit by the fourth candidate, Velasquez, who claims Rosen Gonzalez fabricated an allegation that Velasquez exposed himself to her in 2017. The interpersonal politics figured into the Group IV race, as Velasquez publicly tried to clear his name and keep Rosen Gonzalez from returning to public office.
Through it all, Meiner hasn’t spoken negatively of his opponents.
“I ran because i was involved in trying to make my neighborhood better. I saw that there were ways that Miami Beach could be improved, whether that be a more robust police presence or better lighting,” he said. “If that’s considered drama free then that’s fine.”
If you plan to vote
Early voting will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday-Sunday at Miami Beach City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Dr., and the North Shore Branch Library, 7501 Collins Ave.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 19. Those who vote on Election Day must vote at their assigned precinct. A list of polling places can be found on the city of Miami Beach website.
Voters should bring a current and valid ID that contains a voter’s name, photograph and signature. Voters are not required to bring their voter information card, but bringing it may speed up the voting process.
The deadline to request vote-by-mail, or absentee, ballots was Nov. 9. Registered voters must return ballots to the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, 2700 NW 87th Ave. in Miami, no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 5:55 PM.
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