November is a month away, but there was an election already on Tuesday.
Bet nobody noticed outside of Homestead, where they work the runoff backwards, having a primary in October whenever there is more than one candidate in any race. And guess what? All three races are headed to runoffs.
Former Mayor Jeff Porter — who resigned last year to run for Commissioner 
of Agriculture, losing to Nikki Fried — could be on his way to regaining his local perch: Porter got the most votes in a four-way contest that sees him facing off former Councilman Steve Losner in round 2 Nov. 5.
Losner, who served from 2001 to 2007 and ran (and lost) for mayor in 2011, got 30 percent to Porter’s 34. But both had comfortable leads over former city mayor and councilman Roy “Steve” Shiver — a former manager in Miami-Dade and Opa-Locka where, it was revealed by the Herald last month, he served as an FBI confidential informant — who got 19 percent of the vote, and Bradley Compton, vice chairman of the Waterstone development taxing district, who came in last with 16%.
Shiver, who is reportedly the subject of at 
least two police investigations, could not, apparently, beat a campaign that stressed his negative headlines, including a charge of bribery that ended up being part of his bogus FBI cover.
Who knows what’s next for him? Television pundit seems like a shoe-in.
So does Porter. Sorry Losner, but you have tried this before. There is just something so gosh diggity darn attractive about Porter. Is it his southern drawl that charms you into a sense, real or false, of — dare I say it? — trust? Or is it just the fact that he hasn’t been arrested for anything? At least not yet.
Remember, the mayor elected just before Porter was carted off in handcuffs — and then voters watched him try to win his seat back. Awkward.
“We had a real problem in Homestead. We were on the front page all the time,” Porter told Ladra Tuesday. “We were dysfunctional. We were corrupt.
“Have you seen us in the front pages since I’ve been elected,” asked Porter, who characterized the primary as practice for the real race, although he said he was beat up on social media for having run for state office.
“When you get partisan it gets nasty and everything is partisan now,” Porter, a Democrat, said. “Partisan politics have gone to the street level.”
Losner could not be reached for comment, but Porter said the runoff campaign would be about Homestead’s future. “He represents the past.”
Two three-way council races also ended in runoffs after every candidate failed 
to get that sweet 50 percent plus one spot. The third race was decided weeks ago after nobody qualified to run against Councilwoman Patricia Fairclough (photographed here), who automatically gets another four years.
In the seat 2 race, where Councilman Jon Burgess was term-limited out, Sean L. Fletcher, the security manager at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point nuclear plant (yuck), and Dennis Ray Maytan Jr., the city’s former Parks and Recreation director (duh), head into the runoff with 44 and 34 percent of the vote, respectively. Paul B. Wiggins, Jr., whose family owns a nursery business, finished third with 22%.
In the seat 3 race, incumbent Councilman Larry Roth 
led the votes, with 43%, and will go up against William “Bobby” Rae, a retired Homestead Police officer (who looks like he could be Porter’s cousin) who got 35%. Teacher Kim Sloan Hill, an advocate of police body cameras, finished third with 22%.
I know, right? The seat 2 and seat 3 numbers are eerily similar. Almost like they ran on a slate or something.
It looked almost as if Roth might win it outright in the first round when only absentee ballots were counted and he had 49%. That, however, slid down six points with the early voting and Election Day numbers.
But if everything through Tuesday was practice, then the championship game begins now. Absentee ballots will be mailed to voters Oct. 15. Hopefully, they will turn up in bigger numbers. Less than 10% of the 32,170 eligible voters turned out on Tuesday.
Homestead mayor’s election, two council races end with runoffs added by Ladra on
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