Joe Carollo wins reelection to Miami commission by wide margin after Acevedo storm

Joe Carollo secured a second term on the Miami City Commission in Tuesday’s election, extending his role at the center of power at Dinner Key weeks after he led the successful charge to oust Mayor Francis Suarez’s pick for police chief.

The comfortable win for Carollo, 66, against three challengers capped a stormy year for the former Miami mayor, who first won elected office in the city in 1979.

At a victory party at Old’s Havana Cuban Bar and Cocina in Little Havana, a campaign video rolled on a jumbo screen showing the Cuban-American commissioner handing out food bags, visiting senior centers and presiding over backpack giveaways for school children.

Once early results showed the commissioner receiving 65% of the vote, the screen switched to the county Election Department’s website and a Spanish conga campaign jingle kicked in: “Con Carollo Vamos Bien” — With Carollo, We Are Doing Well.

Carollo called the wide margin of victory an example of District 3 voters knowing him well. ”I responded to the needs of my district,” Carollo said. “I’ve been there time after time, making sure my constituents were going to be served.”

Backed by a $2 million reelection war chest, Carollo headed into Election Day with no well-funded or well-known challenger in a heavily Hispanic district that includes Little Havana, Shenandoah and The Roads.

Former Miami-Dade commissioner Bruno Barreiro, dropped out of the race in July after failing to gain fund-raising traction against the incumbent.

Of the three remaining challengers, candidate Quinn Smith raised the most — about $92,000 according to the latest campaign finance report. Smith had backing from the Democratic Party in the officially non-partisan race against Carollo, a Republican.

With all precincts reporting Tuesday night, Smith, a lawyer, finished second with about 22% of the vote. Third place went to communications consultant Andriana Oliva with nearly 10% of the vote, followed by construction executive Miguel Soliman’s 4% share.

For Carollo, reelection means another chapter in a political career that has spanned multiple decades and multiple comebacks. He first won a commission seat at the age of 24 in 1979.

He was reelected, then lost a reelection bid. Then he returned to the city commission in 1995, followed by a successful run for mayor to finish out the term of Stephen Clark, who had died in office.

Carollo won the 1997 mayoral election against longtime rival Xavier Suarez — the current mayor’s father — after courts tossed out fraudulent Suarez ballots. Then Carollo lost reelection in 2001.

That set up a 16-year absence that ended with his return to the City Commission in 2017 in an election to succeed his brother, Frank Carollo, representing District 3.

The 2021 election followed one of the most controversial stretches of Carollo’s first term as he led the charge to oust the city’s new police chief, Art Acevedo.

Accusing Acevedo of being unfit for office and a hasty hire pushed by Suarez, Carollo spent hours at a commission meeting attacking Acevedo — a prosecution that included footage of the chief dressed in a tight Elvis costume for a charity event.

Commissioners backed firing the Havana-born Acevedo, who had accused Carollo of misconduct and got heat for telling city officers the department was run by the “Cuban mafia.”

At the swearing in of Acevedo’s replacement, Carollo pulled out his cellphone to play the theme from The Godfather mafia movie.

On Tuesday night, Carollo said he refused to “cower” from the Acevedo fight even it might cause headaches with the election. “I didn’t choose the timing,” he said.

Despite national attention, Carollo said he didn’t think the controversy was an issue in the District 3 race.

“With my core constituency,” he said, “it doesn’t matter.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 10:20 PM.