Voters have been steadily trickling into the Homestead public library for early voting. I don’t know what has them so excited. Because despite mounting anticipation, the mayoral debate in Homestead last week was a little anticlimactic.
Here’s a race where one candidate, the former incumbent before he was suspended by the governor, has been arrested on public corruption charges, another is the husband of a county commissioner, a third was a councilman who was investigated for ethics lapses and another is a man of God.
Talk about drama. You’d think there would be plenty of fireworks. But last week’s debate, hosted by the Homestead Rotary Club, was sort of a snoozefest, instead. Ladra is still yawning. In fact, maybe that is why it has taken me so long to write about it. It put me in a deep sleep.
All four candidates behaved rather well. But that made none of them very compelling.
Some people were not sure that former Mayor Steve Bateman — who was suspended after his arrest last month on charges of unlawful compensation for not disclosing his lobbying job with a company that has business before the city — would show up. Others were certain that Bateman, a fromer Golden Gloves boxer who doesn’t back down too much, would relish the opportunity to strut around publicly and declare his innocence.
Which he did — afterwards with a television reporter.
He said he had full confidence that Gov. Rick Scott would not suspend him again and that he held no hard feelings for Scott or Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle.
“The state attorney was brought a complaint. They moved on it,” Bateman said, with a little shrug. “What I think was overdone was the way they went about it.
“You come into someone’s neighborhood at 7:30 in the morning, with sirens and lights on? Come on! Where am I going, for God’s sake? I own several pieces of property. I’ve been a good citizen. I’ve run a good, good council,” he said, referring to one of the questions he answered about how the council has worked together. “This council has accomplished more than a lot of what past councils have.”
But I guess he then realized that it was his own council that turned him in — then danced on his political grave hours after he was arrested during a press conference where they basically threw Bateman under the bus.
“I don’t know why some of them have turned left or right. Maybe they want my job. God bless them. Let them run for it,” Bateman told NBC6’s Justin Finch. “But I’m not going to give up on the citizens of Homestead. I’m not going to give up on the people who were here tonight, standing behind me.”
There was a good group of Bateman supporters, many of them wearing his red campaign t-shirts. And he got the only applause of the night, even though it was against the rules.
He also told Finch that he expected to be cleared since he told the city attorney about his job with Community Health of South Florida, which wanted to build a children’s clinic and crisis center in Homestead.
“I had disclosed it to our city attorney before I ever signed on the dotted line,” Bateman said. “He blessed it, and they don’t even know that. They’ll find it out.
“I’ve never had the chance to stand before my peers, to stand before the state attorney, and ask ‘What is the charge? Where do you come up with this?'” he said.
The arrest barely came up during the debate and, apparently, Rotary Club leaders avoided the subject as much as they could. But there were a few mentions. Or maybe I dreamed it. I may have been falling asleep because of all the previous talk about traffic and blah blah economic development and blah blah the Seminole Theater and blah blah the city’s electrical plant. All candidates think the electric bills can go down, especially Mark Bell, who reminded everyone that both Bateman and Jeff Porter pay less with FP&L service. Sorta saying they don’t care. All candidates want to see a new exit on the Turnpike.
Nobody was very radical, though I gotta admit I like the ideas that Rev. Joseph Sewell has about a state of the art skating rink and “Saturday Night Live” events that would make Homestead like Coconut Grove during Goombay but every weekend.
But one thing that woke me up was when the candidates were asked the last question: Which council candidates did they support?
Bell went first, but was chided for his non answer when he mentioned Steve Shelley, who has no opposition but launched his campaign for vice mayor this week, and Councilwoman Patricia Fairclough McCormick, whose term is not even up for another two years. He didn’t mention Councilman Elvis Maldonado, though the word on the street is that the Bell campaign is helping him even though they used to be friendlier with former Councilwoman Nazy Ramallo Sierra, who filed for a rematch against Councilman Elvis Maldonado.
Bateman said he would want to continue to work with Maldonado and Councilman Jimmy Williams while Ramallo got a weak endorsement from former councilman Porter, who looked around the room before he answered.
Someone in the audience must have texted that to Maldonado because he knew by the time Ladra called him for comment. And he was taken aback, telling me that Porter — who ran with Maldonado on the same slate in 2007 — had pledged his support to him.
“I wasn’t surprised with Bateman’s choice. These last four years that I served successfully, he was the mayor,” he said. “Porter shocked me. We have been friends since 2007. He supported me when I ran first in 2007 and again in 2009 when I won. We spoke frequently about many things.
“Funny thing is that he told me many times that he would rather have me over Nazy any day,” Maldonado added. “I guess you can’t believe anything he says.”
Porter told me after the debate that he wasn’t on a slate with anyone and that everybody was running independently, even though Ladra has heard that a few weak and private alliances have been made.
Debate a dud, but early voting starts in Homestead added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
