‘Meiner Miracle’: First-time Miami Beach candidate beats Rosen Gonzalez in runoff
In an upset victory his friends have dubbed the “Meiner Miracle,” first-time candidate Steven Meiner defeated Kristen Rosen Gonzalez in a runoff election Tuesday for her old seat on the Miami Beach City Commission.
Meiner, who secured a spot in the runoff election by edging out the third-place finisher by just two votes in a dramatic manual recount, defeated Rosen Gonzalez by 8 percentage points. The former Miami Beach Commissioner raised and spent far more money than Meiner, a Securities and Exchange Commission attorney endorsed by city leaders.
“I’m very cognizant, I am, of how close I was to not being in this situation tonight,” Meiner said, referring to the two-vote margin that separated him from the third-place Mike Barrineau. “You can make it happen if you believe.”
With his win, Meiner ends Rosen Gonzalez’s months-long effort to reclaim the Group IV Commission seat she left when she resigned to run for U.S. Congress in 2018.
He received 54% of the 8,225 votes cast in the race.
Rosen Gonzalez, who was the leading vote recipient in her race during the Nov. 5 general election, received 46% of votes Tuesday, according to the final results posted just before 9 p.m. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Rosen Gonzalez outspent Meiner by about $150,000 but was the target of repeated attacks from political committees.
Meiner was endorsed by Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, and Commissioners Ricky Arriola and John Elizabeth Alemán.
Meiner avoided speaking negatively about his opponents throughout his campaign, but nonetheless benefited from the big money spent hitting Rosen Gonzalez via mail ads.
“I didn’t like the negativity,” he said. “It’s not healthy in my opinion. Obviously I had no control over that.”
At his Election Day watch party on Tuesday night, Meiner praised his grassroots campaign.
“I didn’t raise a lot of money, didn’t have any paid consultants,” he said. “I was using two very close friends.”
Meiner will be sworn into office during Monday’s commission meeting, along with the other two winning candidates. He will replace Commissioner Joy Malakoff, who the commission selected in January to fill Rosen Gonzalez’s seat for the rest of her term.
After more than a year of campaigning, he said he wishes his first day would come sooner.
“I’ve been working toward this moment my whole life,” he said. “I’m ready to get to work.”
He is not the only new face joining the commission.
In Group VI, former legislator David Richardson defeated restaurant owner Adrian Gonzalez by 16 percentage points. Richardson received 58% of the 7,921 votes cast in the race. Gonzalez received 42% of the vote.
The seat was relinquished by Commissioner Alemán, who did not seek reelection.
“I’m incredibly grateful to all of you who have supported me along this journey,” Richardson said in a statement. “Whether you’ve donated, volunteered, or shared your thoughts, you have been the backbone of this campaign.”
He thanked Gonzalez for bringing forth “valuable ideas,” and said he was grateful for his “contributions to our community.”
“Tonight, I’m excited to celebrate with supporters and express my gratitude for all of the help. But tomorrow, it’s time to get to work on the issues we’ve discussed throughout this campaign,” he said. “Now that the election is over, we must get to work protecting our environment, promoting fiscal responsibility, and investing in our city’s future.”
Incumbent Commissioner and Vice Mayor Ricky Arriola defeated challenger Raquel Pacheco by 16 percentage points, receiving 58% of the 4,578 votes cast in the race. Pacheco received 42%.
He said he was excited to work with Meiner and Richardson, whom he considers “first-class” leaders. He said he hopes to build on the work of his previous four-year term by continuing the city’s resiliency efforts, stimulating the small-business community and seeing through the construction of the Convention Center hotel.
“I look forward to moving the city forward, continuing the work of the last four years,” he said.
Voters in Miami Beach headed back to the polls Tuesday, two weeks after the Nov. 5 election produced no official winner in three City Commission races.
There are seven seats on the City Commission. Four were up for election this year, although Mayor Dan Gelber ran unopposed and was automatically reelected.
Twelve candidates competed for the three open commission seats during the Nov. 5 general election. But none of the candidates received more than 50% of votes cast in their respective races, triggering the runoff elections.
Voter turnout for the runoff elections was 18%, three percentage points less than the Nov. 5 general election. There are 48,364 registered voters in Miami Beach.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 8:15 PM.
.JPG)