Voters in South Miami elected Brian Corey to serve out former Commissioner Bob Welsh‘s term after Welsh died in January. Corey beat out two other candidates: Mary Ann Ruiz and Zach Mann.
Guess those negative mailers worked.
Corey got 43% of the vote while Ruiz came in second with 33%. Mann came in third with 23% and someone named Henry Tien who didn’t campaign at all actually got four votes. Maybe it was his family.
Mann got five more Election Day votes but Ruiz beat him in vote-by-mail ballots.
“Bicycle Bob” died in January after years of battling skin cancer. A popular figure in South Miami politics, he was an ally of both former Mayor Phillip Stoddard and current Mayor Sally Philips, Stoddard’s handpicked heir.
Read related: In South Miami, Phillip Stoddard stays in power through puppet, Sally Philips
The election was marked by negative campaigning through the political action committee presumably run by Mark Herron in Tallahassee, even though Stoddard told Ladra himself that it was run by Corey’s campaign manager, Randy Hilliard.
First they hit Ruiz with a mailer that said she was taking contributions from developers. The second mailer was against Mann, who ran unsuccessfully 10 years ago and hasn’t been active in the city since.
The difference came down to 173 votes between Corey and Ruiz, who are both planning board members. The total number of ballots cast were 1,667, almost 20% of the 8,371 voters registered.
Interestingly, 57% voted against Corey but it can’t be known if either Ruiz or Mann would have gotten a majority of votes if the other hadn’t run.
Phone calls and texts to Corey, a marketing an advertising professional, and Ruiz were not immediately answered.
Read related: Dark money PAC attack in South Miami special election hits Hispanic hopeful
The one issue he pressed on his website is a pedestrian bridge over U.S. 1 to the Shops at Sunset Place. Funds have been allocated for a study, he said.
“The finalization of this project would not only put us one step closer to solving the conundrum of Downtown South Miami’s perpetual underperformance, but would signify to the South Florida community that Downtown South Miami is a place we want you to visit safely and to enjoy,” Corey writes in his website.
Zach Mann supporters were pretty devastated Tuesday night. One longtime activist said they had post traumatic stress disorder. They are concerned that the pro-development side of the commission now has the super majority — and that Stoddard is still running things behind the scenes.
“Brian Corey is supported by [Commissioner] Josh Liebman, who wants to super high-rise the city, and by Phil Stoddard who is for monstrous high density,” the activist, who preferred her name not be published, said.
“He’s going to approve everything that comes before him.”
Corey will serve for the next 18 months until November 2022 because voters last year approved a referendum moving the elections from February to November in an effort to improve turnout.
Negative mailers work as South Miami elects Brian Corey over two others added by Ladra on
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