Philip Levine wins Miami Beach recount; other runoffs are on

Philip Levine wins Miami Beach recount; other runoffs are on

It’s all over but the crying in Miami Beach for those who supported Commissioner Michael Gongora in his bid to become the next mayor. Or those of us who supported anybody but Philip Levine, the millionaire businessman declared the winner this afternoon after he held on to a narrow margin from Tuesday’s election through an […]

Lots of absentee undervotes in Miami Beach mayoral race

Lots of absentee undervotes in Miami Beach mayoral race

In Miami Beach, the mayoral race was certainly the most exciting contest on the ballot. But it wasn’t the only one. Yet it seems that hundreds of voters who picked millionaire businessman Philip Levine simply did not vote for any of the candidates in the commission races or answer any of the six referendum questions […]

Second chance runoff would be good in Miami Beach race

Second chance runoff would be good in Miami Beach race

Let’s not write Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Gongora off just yet. The nail-biter election in that city just drew a recount. While millionaire mayoral candidate Philip Levine may have won 50.48 percent of the vote Tuesday, the narrow margin called for an automatic recount after the provisional votes counted today did not push him toward […]

Re-elected Hialeah Mayor gloats with plane banner

Re-elected Hialeah Mayor gloats with plane banner

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane. Yeah, it’s a plane. A political plane with a message. It wasn’t enough for Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez to win with 81 percent of the vote Tuesday. It wasn’t enough to usher in two of his lackeys on the Seguro Que Yes […]

Homestead mayor’s win is victory for Dade Dems, too

Homestead mayor’s win is victory for Dade Dems, too

Newly elected Homestead Mayor Jeff Porter wasn’t the only one who won in that city’s election Tuesday night. The Miami-Dade Democratic Party, which went hot and heavy behind the Democrat against hotelier and Republican Mark Bell, husband of Miami-Dade Commissioner and uber conservative Republican Lynda Bell, claimed his 55-45 victory in that heated race as […]

Hialeah incumbents slide in easy, challengers hang around

Hialeah incumbents slide in easy, challengers hang around

Everybody saw it coming: Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez and the two councilmen up for re-election coasted back into office Tuesday on what looks like a mandate from the people. But what most people don’t realize is that, much more than simply an absentee ballot problem, Hialeah has a wider “hostile election climate” where many […]

Mark Bell’s Homestead loss ripples over to wife Lynda Bell

Mark Bell’s Homestead loss ripples over to wife Lynda Bell

Now that Mark Bell‘s bid for Homestead mayor is a thing of the past, how will his loss Tuesday to former Councilman Jeff Porter — who he outspent at least 4 to 1 — affect his wife, Miami-Dade Commission Vice Chair Lynda Bell? That is what everyone was buzzing about Wednesday. Bell is up for […]

Jackson’s $830-million bond passes handily, as planned

Jackson’s $830-million bond passes handily, as planned

After a one-sided, well-funded campaign that went pretty much unchecked and unchallenged by anyone — including yours truly — the $830-million bond referendum (read: public tax) for the modernization of Jackson Memorial Hospital passed overwhelmingly Tuesday. Some might be surprised that this ballot question passed in an anti-tax community still reeling from the proposal to […]

Miami Beach mayor’s post costs Philip Levine plenty

Miami Beach mayor’s post costs Philip Levine plenty

Millionaire Philip Levine‘s considerable campaign investment was apparently another smart business move, as evidenced Tuesday when the political neophyte media mogul won the Miami Beach mayoral race outright, without a need for a runoff, with just over 50 percent of the vote. Fifty point 48, actually. At one point, it was 52.44% when it was […]

Score one for Mark Bell: Ethics board chides Jeff Porter

Score one for Mark Bell: Ethics board chides Jeff Porter

Score one for Homestead mayoral candidate Mark Bell, whose campaign attorney filed an ethics complaint against former Councilman Jeff Porter for what they called a “maliciously false” mailer focused on a $25,000 CRA grant given to Bell’s Redland Hotel earlier this year. The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust found probable cause Wednesday that […]