It’s all over but the crying in Miami Beach for those who supported Commissioner Michael Gongora in his bid to become the next mayor.
Or those of us who supported anybody but Philip Levine, the millionaire businessman declared the winner this afternoon after he held on to a narrow margin from Tuesday’s election through an automatic recount triggered by the tiny cushion.
The official tally: He got just under half a point more than 50 percent of the vote. And not by saying what a great job he could do and what a great track record he had. No, by attacking Gongora with a $2-million campaign (at least), mostly calling him a drunk driver — citing a DUI charge that was later downgraded to reckless driving — and blaming the city’s flooding issues and public corruption on Gongora’s “mañana” attitude.
There was even a commercial during Monday Night Football, the day before the election.
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this victory, which we have achieved together,” Levine said in a prepared statement sent out, because he apparently doesn’t talk to anyone from the media anymore.
“The opportunity to serve as Mayor of Miami Beach is an amazing and humbling honor, and I will do everything I can to make ours the best city in America,” he continued. “To do that, we will fix what’s broken, continue to do what works, and ensure that the 90,000 residents of Miami Beach are the only special interests that count.
“I want to thank my opponents for being a major part of this dialogue, as they love Miami Beach as much as I do, and I will encourage their ideas and efforts moving forward,” he said, but can anyone imagine him taking advice from former Gongora. I mean, he won’t even take my calls and refuses to speak to the Miami Herald reporter.
Gongora seems more hopeful than Ladra.
“Time will tell,” Gongora told me in a telephone call moments after he called Levine to concede.
“He did tell me that he’d like to get together one-on-one over lunch or dinner,” Gongora said. “Let’s see if that follow up call comes.”
It would have to come after the runoff election and Levine is sworn in Nov. 23. But until then, we can expect to see Levine on the campaign trail still.
“The campaign for Mayor is over, but the campaign for the future of Miami Beach is just beginning,” ended Levine, who had earlier promised to help his slate mates in the commission runoff races — so he can stack the city’s governing body in his favor.
Those would be Joy Malakoff against Mayor Matti Bower, criminal attorney Michael Grieco against Commissioner Jorge Exposito and community activist Elsa Urquiza against Micky Steinberg, wife of former State Rep. Richard Steinberg.
For many, it’s a big surprise that Bower didn’t win it outright in the first round. After all, that is why Grieco changed groups after the longtime mayor got into that race.
In fact, Exposito, which was supposed to be an easier mark for the handsome attorney with the smooth talk and the beautiful family, got slightly more than Mama Matti, with 46% of the vote to her 44%.
While both incumbents led in their respective races and are expected by all political observers to win round two, opponents will say that more people voted against them (they always say that), so Bower and “Expo” do have some work to do in these next two weeks. Especially if Levine puts a bean on them.
Exposito said he could not worry about what Levine was doing and would concentrate his runoff efforts on some of the single family home districts where he did not fare as well.
“You can’t call it a mandate of the people to get 50.48 percent of the vote, but he was elected and I respect that,” Exposito said, then sorta urged Levine to stay out of the commission races if he wants to stay effective as a mayor.
“I’ll work with him and it would behoove him as a mayor elect to show he can work with anyone and unify who gets in the commission, and not divide,” Exposito told Ladra.
In the open seat, Steinberg beat Urquiza out for pole position with only 38 percent of the vote. Urquiza got into the runoff with 32 percent while activist and realtor Sherry Roberts, dogged by residency questions that she couldn’t really shake, came in third with 26 percent.
But Steinberg is well positioned to take Urquiza out in the second round, where absentee ballots and early voting — which is where Urquiza nearly kept pace — are not as important as election day voting, which is where the ex-Rep’s wife slammed.
Steinberg will likely do equally well on Nov. 19.
Stay tuned, Beachcombers. The next 10 days are going to be a doozy.
Philip Levine wins Miami Beach recount; other runoffs are on added by Ladra on
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