Former Homestead Mayor Jeff Porter lost the mayoral three-way primary in Homestead Tuesday, proving, finally, that an honest guy can’t get elected in Miami-Dade.
Incumbent Mayor Steve Losner, who got almost 47% of the vote, heads comfortably into a runoff with former Councilman Elvis Maldonado, who left office to run for an open county seat last year but lost to Miami-Dade Commissioner Kionne McGhee.
Maldonado — a Colombian-American who could become Homestead’s first Hispanic mayor — got 36% of the vote while Porter got 17%.
Know more: Homestead mayoral race may be a brutal ‘bloodbath’ redux with runoff
That’s a pretty big gap for Maldonado to overcome in four weeks. And Losner is going to be insoportable if he wins easily.
Very few Homestead residents are making the decision. Only a little more than 8 percent of the city’s 35,272 registered voters cast ballots in the primary. Absentee or vote-by-mail ballots accounted for more than half, more than Election Day and early voting ballots combined.
Councilwoman Erica Avila got a very high number of ABs to win the three-way race for the council seat in Group 5, where she was appointed last year, with 57% of the vote over Planning and Zoning Board Member Bradley Compton with 37% and Maycol Enriquez with 5%.
The mayoral runoff will be on the Nov. 2 ballot with the council race in Group 4 between Councilwoman Jenifer Bailey and Valencia “Val” Brown,
The deadline to request a vote-by-mail or absentee ballot is Oct. 23.
Steve Losner and Elvis Maldonado head into Homestead mayoral runoff added by Ladra on
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