A partisan Miami mayoral runoff can overshadow what this election is really about | Opinion

Miami voters on Tuesday sent a message by sending two reform candidates to the December runoff in the city’s mayoral race: We are tired of corruption and the lack of affordable housing.

The next few weeks will test whether that message holds. The temptation and pressure for both remaining candidates will be to retreat into partisan corners, turning a local race into another national political food fight. That would be a mistake.

Miami’s problems aren’t red or blue. Our crises are practical and urgent. The cost of housing, the threat of flooding, and the lack of accountability at City Hall have no party affiliation. To truly win Miami in a way that’s a win for Miami, the next mayor must speak to everyone, not just one side. It’s not just the right thing to do: Both Emilio Gonzalez and Eileen Higgins must broaden their base to surpass 50% of the votes. Neither one is even close yet, but either one could do it.

Here are some commitments that all voters would love to see the candidates address and embrace:

• Fight corruption: Enact meaningful lobbying reforms like those already working in Miami Beach and Los Angeles. These would close the revolving door between campaigns and city contracts and clearly define lobbying to end influence-peddling in all its forms.
• Address affordable housing: Implement the Florida International University Metropolitan Center’s Affordable Housing Master Plan recommendations that the city of Miami has already approved, turning plans into real programs that deliver roofs, not reports.
• Defend home rule: Stand up to state and federal overreach by protecting the rights of all of Miami’s residents — even when it means challenging Tallahassee or Washington and even when it carries political risk.
• Protect the environment: Veto any effort to weaken protections for Miami’s tree canopy. Prioritize the water quality of Biscayne Bay over development interests. Our environment is our economy and, without it, we lose both prosperity and identity.

These are not partisan goals. They are the foundations of a functioning city. When we let our municipal elections become partisan battlegrounds, we lose sight of the fact that our problems are shared as well as our solutions.

Of course, none of these can be achieved without deep reform. Beating the personalities who embodied corruption in the first round was only a short-term victory. The long-term victory must be systemic. This includes rules and reforms that prevent those same dynamics from returning under new names. Corruption isn’t just about who holds office. Corruption is a system that rewards access, removes accountability and rejects transparency.

The candidate who advances these reforms will win more than an election. They’ll win the chance to restore trust in our democracy on the shared issues of both parties. Let’s keep this election about what matters: transparency, good governance and a Miami that belongs to all of us.

Ken Russell is a former Miami commissioner and was a mayoral candidate in the Nov. 4 elections.