South Miami mayor's race is war: Phillip Stoddard vs Horace Feliu

The South Miami mayoral race has become, basically, a blood fight between current Mayor Phillip Stoddard — who is not running but has a puppet candidate in the race — and his arch nemesis, former Mayor Horace Feliu, who wants his old job back.

It’s a five-way race but while the other three candidates knock on doors and campaign the old fashioned way, these two archenemies have sucked all the air out of the election.

And the battleground this week has been the Next Door app, which has 10,154 South Miami residents as members/readers. There are 7,830 registered voters.

Feliu opened a can of worms when he posted his endorsement from the South Miami Residents Association over the weekend.

“What distinguishes this endorsement from others is that their board consists of South Miami residents with over 100 years of combined involvement in our city,” Feliu wrote. “Their members have consistently attended commission meetings and truly understand the issues and the importance of this election.”

Stoddard followed with comment and a post of a video clip from a 2009 meeting, a video Stoddard has also been sending out via email, where Feliu as mayor interrupts a resident who is complaining about being heard. It’s really a silly shouting match, but Feliu — who at one point banged on the gavel and said he was running the meeting — ended up letting her speak.

“This same resident, Yvonne Beckman, has been supporting me for the last 10 years. Please see my campaign finance reports on the city’s website,” Feliu quipped back.

Furthermore, it’s a weird argument from Stoddard, who had a complaint filed with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust after he blocked Steve Cody from speaking at a meeting about the former police chief’s lawsuit — arguably caused by Stoddard — that cost the city $1.5 million. Everyone remembers that. So he’s being a big hypocrite.

But Feliu wasn’t the only one to defend himself on the Next Door app. Eda Harris, wife of Commissioner Walter Harris — who is helping Feliu — chimed in, too. Loudly.

“Should I remind you how obnoxious you behaved with people talking at public remarks and your fellow commissioners,” she asked Stoddard, asking also how many lawsuits and ethics complaints he’s had the city taxpayers pay to fight. “Do you want me to remind you how low you stooped exactly two years ago while campaigning and going around and spreading vicious lies about your best friend’s Walter Harris’ health, so he would NOT BE ELECTED.”

Her caps, not mine. And Ladra guesses it’s personal.

“You are full of lies and dirt,” Eda Harris wrote in another of many posts. “You disgrace yourself with your dirty emails, camouflaged lies, ‘creatively’ misleading flyers, etc. In spite of it all, I feel sorry for you.”

Another gem: “Like an old dog with an old bone that cannot let it go, you took your years long war with Horace and chose Sally as your ‘political transmitter,'” Eda Harris wrote, referring to Sally Philips, the mayor’s handpicked successor. “I would suggest, if you want to allow some kind of chance to Sally, leave her alone.”

Feliu ended the back and forth with a threat to post a video of “one of your ethically challenged lawsuit based meetings.”

We’re still waiting for that.

Meanwhile, the woman that Stoddard is fighting so hard for isn’t really into this.

Philips, the puppet, told mayoral candidate Mark Lago — who ran unsuccessfully for commission two years ago — when he announced in June, that she would support him and even offered to be his campaign treasurer.

So why is she running? Just because Stoddard asked her to? Las malas lenguas say she wasn’t even the first one he asked. That she was third. And he is really, really invested in her winning, using his campaign consultant, his political action committee to attack other candidates and campaigning for her door to door every spare minute he’s got.

Why? Why is he so invested in her victory that he would argue in such a public forum? Could it be that he still wants a hand in the big developments on the horizon: the renovation of Sunset Place, the future of the Winn Dixie lot and the sale of City Hall? What’s in it for him?

Ladra thinks it’s going to backfire on Phillips and that Feliu can only benefit from Stoddard’s obsessive campaigning against him. More and more people are turning ABS — Anyone But Sally. But this public feud between Feliu and Phil could also turn people off of both of them and benefit one of the other three relative newcomers running for mayor — Lago, Bruce Baldwin and Lina Sierra — simply for staying out of the fray.

There are no runoffs in South Miami. The one with the most votes by Feb. 11 wins a two year term. Every vote really counts.

Already, 575 absentee ballots have been returned, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department. There are almost 1,300 more ballots out there, that were mailed to voters, that have not been returned. Not yet, anyway. And there are only a few days left to send them.

Early voting is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Horace Feliu, Phillip Stoddard, South Miami Election

South Miami mayor’s race is war: Phillip Stoddard vs Horace Feliu added by Ladra on February 6, 2020
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