How the underdog won — and Rosen Gonzalez ‘self destructed’ — in Miami Beach runoff
His mom designed campaign fliers, while his stepdad handled the money coming in. And from his bedroom, Steven Meiner planned a political upset.
After a two-vote advantage earned him a spot in the runoff election for Miami Beach Commission in Group IV, Meiner defeated former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez in a surprise win on Tuesday, ending the de facto incumbent’s chances at retaking her old commission seat.
The political newcomer leaned on his “home-field advantage” within the Jewish and civic networks in Mid-Beach. He earned the admiration of supporters who applauded him for sticking to the issues and not going negative against his divisive opponent. He received high-level endorsements from Mayor Dan Gelber and commissioners Ricky Arriola and John Elizabeth Alemán.
But while Meiner’s message may have resonated with a large contingent of voters, political observers said that in many ways the runoff election appears to have been a referendum against Rosen Gonzalez, a scandal-plagued candidate publicly at odds with sitting city leaders.
“It was Kristen’s to lose, and she lost,” said political consultant Keith Donner, who was not affiliated with the commission race. “It was just one series of unforced errors after another.”
Rosen Gonzalez, who was forced to resign the Group IV seat to run for Congress in 2018, may have expected voters to welcome her back with open arms. She was endorsed by Rep. Donna Shalala, who defeated Rosen Gonzalez in the primary for the 27th congressional seat vacated by former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican.
Rosen Gonzalez led the Group IV race in fundraising and spending, and received the most votes in the Nov. 5 general election. While Meiner and third-place candidate Michael Barrineau endured a dramatic manual recount that saw Meiner win a spot in the runoff by two votes, Rosen Gonzalez was given a head start on campaigning.
But then she attacked Gelber, the popular leader of the city who ran unopposed for reelection earlier this month.
She took a controversial position against extending early voting because it would coincide with an annual turkey giveaway. Gelber coined the mini-controversy, which he criticized as voter suppression, Turkey Gate. A resolution proposed by Gelber to extend early voting to three days passed 6-1.
“Turkey Gate was taking something that’s positive that we do every single year and turning that into a scandal,” Arriola said. “I think voters just clearly had enough.”
While dark-money attack ads made Rosen Gonzalez’s past scandals instant talking points in the race, Arriola said Rosen Gonzalez “self destructed” in the waning moments of the race.
Gelber, who had not endorsed anyone in the Group IV race during the general election, backed Meiner after Rosen Gonzalez publicly opposed his resolution extending early voting.
He then sent a scathing email to residents responding to her “false claims” about his resolution.
“Up to now, I declined to respond to Ms. Rosen Gonzalez’s daily insults because I believe that most people recognize some candidates will say anything as election day draws closer,” Gelber wrote. “Responding to false claims can often give them a dignity to which they should not be entitled.”
He later said in an interview that he was taken with Meiner’s positivity and aversion to drama.
“I think that there was way too much negativity across the board,” Gelber said. “He had none of it. Both the way he conducted himself and his personality seemed to have a real positivity to it.”
While the endorsements Meiner received helped him reach different voter bases in the city, Rosen Gonzalez’s flaws as a candidate cleared a path for his victory, Arriola said.
“He was able to do a few things: one was tap into a lot of surrogates and endorsers. That helped,” Arriola said. “But the real clincher beyond his own strength and appeal as a candidate was Kristen.”
Donner said the unsavory allegations pervading the race may have turned off voters, too. Rosen Gonzalez accused last-place finisher Rafael Velasquez of exposing his penis to her in 2017, while he was running for the commission. He has an active defamation lawsuit against her and made clearing his tattered reputation a pillar of his campaign.
“Her race generated a lot of interest and unfortunately for Kristen it was the wrong type of interest,” he said.
Rosen Gonzalez did not respond to repeated requests for comment following her election loss, but in an email to supporters on Wednesday she congratulated Meiner and said she would turn her attention back to her teaching career.
The Miami Dade College speech professor said Meiner would make a “competent” commissioner.
“It’s time to pick up my yoga mat, focus on my family and students (I am kind of behind in grading this semester), find some good books, and reflect on how I could have done it better and earned more widespread support among our constituency,” Rosen Gonzalez wrote. “My biggest heartache is that I disappointed you. I am so sorry that we couldn’t bring it home.”
Meiner defeated Rosen Gonzalez by 8 percentage points. He was helped by winning two Mid-Beach precincts with more than 80% of the vote, despite a lack of financial resources or paid political consulting. He also carried Precinct 30 on the Venetian Islands, which had the largest concentration of voters, with 60% of the vote.
His showing across the city even impressed Rosen Gonzalez, whom Meiner said texted to congratulate him after the election.
“It was a strategy that I had very early on,” he said. “I knew one advantage I had was the network that I had.”
Meiner, a 48-year-old Securities and Exchange Commission attorney, was motivated to run for the City Commission after getting engaged in hyper-local issues, like poor lighting, that affected his Mid-Beach community on West 41st Street.
Similarly, his commission platform included an emphasis on quality-of-life issues like increasing police visibility and government transparency, while reducing waste and fraud. He said competing with Rosen Gonzalez’s name recognition seemed overwhelming, but soon enough his campaign signs dotted lawns across the city.
“I know a lot of people [in Mid-Beach] and we were able to put up hundreds of yard signs early on in the campaign, which got me within a very short period of time name recognition throughout the city,” Meiner said. “Within a couple of weeks of my putting out the signs, then I started branching out into South Beach. ... It worked. It gave me the name recognition that I needed.”
Overall, he received 54% of the 8,225 votes cast in the race. He won 10 of 24 precincts.
Christian Ulvert, a political consultant who worked on the Barrineau and Gelber campaigns, said Meiner ran a campaign similar to Rosen Gonzalez’s first commission race in 2015 against Elizabeth “Betsy” Pérez.
“He ran the same playbook, which is focus on service and focus on bringing people together,” Ulvert said.
Arriola said Meiner succeeded at concentrating on his base of Jewish voters in Mid-Beach but expanded it during the runoff.
“The trick to winning a general when it’s one on one is can you expand your base,” Arriola said. “He expanded his base in 10 days with limited funds and with low name ID.”
Meiner, who ran his campaign out of his apartment, will move into a new office after being sworn in during a City Hall ceremony on Monday. He will be joined by friends and family.
For him, serving on the commission is a “dream come true.” And his swearing in will be a special moment.
“Not only am I gonna have chills, I told my wife I’m a little nervous I’ll get a little teary-eyed,” Meiner said. “If that happens, that’s me.”
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