South Miami Mayor Phillip Stoddard wasn’t on the ballot Tuesday, but he won anyway when his hand-picked replacement (read: puppet) Sally Philips took 34% of the vote in a five-way race to become the new mayor.
Philips is lucky there is no runoff (don’t listen to the Miami Herald because they got it wrong) 
because the Hispanic vote was split three ways and she would have lost in a round two.
There is no runoff. Whoever gets the most votes, no matter how small the sample — even if 66% voted against you — wins the race. There is no second date in two weeks. That’s all folks.
Former Mayor Horace Feliu came in a somewhat distant second with 23% of the vote and Mark Lago, who ran for commission two years ago and had some leftover name rec, trailed him by just 12 votes with 22%. Lina Sierra got almost 18%, which is not a bad showing for a newcomer, except that she spent more than anybody else. 
Bruce Baldwin didn’t get 4%, as expected.
But Feliu, Lago and Sierra got a total of 1,358 votes. That’s almost twice as many as Philips’ 739 votes — and two thirds of the voters chose someone else. Which goes to show: Get three Hispanics to run and one anglo in an off month race with no runoff and its a formula for the lone wolf to win. It would probably work in reverse, too.
“I didn’t lose anything, I just didn’t win,” Feliu told Ladra just after the results came in before 8 p.m. “I ran a good, clean campaign. I did everything I could to get my message out. And I guess the voters saw otherwise. I don’t know what happened.”
Read related: South Miami mayor’s race is war: Phillip Stoddard vs Horace Feliu
He said he did hear reports that some seniors in public housing were told they could bring in their absentee ballots on Monday, but that was not confirmed Tuesday night.
Well, it could have been that Stoddard, er, I mean Philips spent a whole lot more money. According to the latest campaign reports with transactions through Feb. 6, Philips raised $16,120 to Feliu’s $9,135. But he still did better with less money than Lago, who raised at least $18,900, and Sierra, who raised $24,935 as of Feb. 6, the most of any candidate.
“What happened was that the people who voted, most of them don’t have a clue as to what’s happening,” 
said Vice Mayor Walter Harris, who had endorsed Feliu and Levy Kelly against Commissioner Josh Liebman, who coasted to re-election with 55%.
“They basically got emails from the mayor,” Harris said about Stoddard’s very vigilant campaigning for Philips. “She virtually did nothing. She was by herself and not too enthusiastic at first,” even on Election Day, he said.
Harris admits he’s “the odd man out” now and that it’s going to be awkward sitting on the dais with both Philips and Liebman. “It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be ugly,” he said.
Both Harris and Feliu, and every other mayoral candidate, and several voters that Ladra spoke to, worry that Philips, the mayor’s longtime treasurer, will be manipulated and controlled by Stoddard. She didn’t even want to run and offered to serve as Lago’s treasurer before Stoddard convinced her (reportedly not his first or second choice). Stoddard lent her his consultant, Randy Hilliard, and his political action committee to attack the three Hispanic candidates, questioning their ability to serve as mayor.
Read related: South Miami mayora race gets ugly with ethnically-tainted hit piece
But some observers and candidates on Tuesday questioned Philips’ ability even though she has served on the planning and zoning board and the police retirement pension board.
“Let’s see what she does with the budget,” Feliu said. “The manager said there was going to be a $2.5 million shortfall.”
Just over 2,170 people voted — more or less the same as last year. About 120 fewer people voted in the commission race, where 
Liebman was able to hold on to his seat. Kelly, a member of the South Miami Community Redevelopment Agency for four years, got more actual votes — with 609 people casting for him — than Feliu (495) or Lago (483) or Sierra (380). Does that support the argument that they split up their base? Yes, Ladra thinks it does.
Feliu told Ladra that he would continue to stay involved, Lago could not be reached for comment and Sierra told Ladra that she was not going anywhere.
“I am 100% committed to my community and I will be around,” she said, shortly after the results were known.
Dear Phil, er, I mean Sally, so will Ladra.
In South Miami, Phillip Stoddard stays in power through puppet Sally Philips added by Ladra on
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