Incumbents ousted as Miami voters chose candidates who vowed to clean up City Hall

Controversy and corruption allegations that swirled around Miami City Hall this year are expected to be raised as issues by two newly elected commissioners who ousted the incumbents this week.

Cleaning up City Hall was a major theme for the candidates who won Tuesday night and the small percentage of Miamians who voted in the runoff races for Districts 1 and 2 decided it was time for fresh faces on the City Commission.

“I think voters showed that they were concerned about corruption in the city, and it seems there’s a sense of optimism among those folks who wanted to see a change in the governing coalition in the city,” said Sean Foreman, a political science professor at Barry University who follows Miami politics.

After three failed bids for elected office, auto parts salesman Miguel Angel Gabela defeated incumbent Alex Díaz de la Portilla 54% to 46%. Díaz de la Portilla’s ouster from the District 1 seat comes 10 weeks after he was arrested and charged with selling his vote in exchange for political contributions and gifts. The next day, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended him from office.

And in District 2, political newcomer Damian Pardo became the city’s first openly gay commissioner after winning almost 53% of the vote against short-term incumbent Sabina Covo.

Here are three takeaways from Miami’s 2023 runoff election.

Money mattered less

Money was not enough to win City Commission races in this year’s runoff.

In the District 1 race, Díaz de la Portilla raised about 10 times more money than Gabela with about $182,800 in contributions directly to Díaz de la Portilla’s campaign account, and another $1.8 million in his political committee — although much of those contributions dried up following his Sept. 14 arrest.

In comparison, Gabela had a war chest with about $173,800 in contributions to his campaign and a committee supporting him.

In the District 2 race, Pardo was largely self-funded, having loaned himself over $165,000, according to campaign finance records from earlier this month. Separately, he raised just over $90,000.

Finance reports show Covo raised over $237,000 in direct contributions to her campaign, and an additional $361,130 for the political committee supporting her, Dream Miami.

Covo also had endorsements from the political establishment, including Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, South Miami Mayor Javier Fernandez, County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, SEIU Florida, AFSCME Florida and South Florida AFL-CIO. But that support was not enough to push Covo across the finish line.

City Commission dynamics could change

Miamians might see a shift on the dais in commission meetings.

Gabela and Pardo made corruption a theme of their campaigns, vowing to tackle it should they be elected to office and specifically criticizing Commissioner Joe Carollo, City Attorney Victoria Méndez and Mayor Francis Suarez, who came under FBI scrutiny for his undisclosed consulting agreement with an embattled developer.

“When you’re sitting there and you see corruption in the mayor’s office, you see corruption in a commissioner, you see another one arrested on the dais, you see a city attorney who’s implicated in all kinds of things that are not good, and then two other commissioners silent — you’re no longer living in a democracy,” Pardo said after he won Tuesday night. “You’re living in something else.”

Gabela said it was a “new day in Miami” after his victory Tuesday.

Once they are in their commission seats, each will need at least two colleagues to join them to make a majority on the five-person City Commission. The transition from amplifying campaign rhetoric to governing alongside adversaries will be a change to watch closely at City Hall.

“I think we’re going to see a refreshing new dynamic on the City Commission,” Foreman said

On the campaign trail, Gabela and Pardo criticized Carollo after he was slapped with a $63.5 million legal judgment against him in a federal lawsuit brought by Little Havana business owners who accused him of harassment. A jury found he’d spent years ruining their reputations and influencing police and code enforcement to target their businesses. Carollo, who says there was no wrongdoing, is appealing. The case has already cost the city millions of dollars in legal fees.

Speaking at a turkey giveaway in José Martí Park on Wednesday, Carollo told the Miami Herald he had no qualms about a new commission dynamic because he can either get along with his colleagues or confront them if they go after him.

“I have a history of trying to work with anyone who wants to work for the city and be civilized. If you want to come here and work with me, then I’ll work with you,” he said. “But if you come here to kill me and destroy the city of Miami, lots of luck. That ain’t gonna happen. My history shows that you will be defeated.”

He blasted Gabela as someone trying to “tear down the city,” saying the commissioner-elect doesn’t live where he says he does, echoing accusations from the campaign.

Gabela has maintained that he meets the city’s residency requirements.

Legal battles continue in District 1

Gabela’s residency is the focus of legal battles that will continue past this week’s election.

On Monday, Diaz de la Portilla, the suspended commissioner, sued Gabela alleging that the auto parts salesman is living in a home outside of District 1 and therefore does not meet a city residency requirement to be eligible for the election. The lawsuit is an extension of a dispute over whether Gabela can represent the district based on where he lives.

Díaz de la Portilla’s lawsuit and a separate lawsuit over the district boundaries are still pending in court, though Gabela has had two favorable rulings that confirmed he was a qualified candidate.

Gabela’s attorney, Juan-Carlos Planas, said the likelihood of a judge overturning the election due to a residency challenge is low.

Planas represented a candidate who sued Joe Carollo on the eve of the 2017 election when Carollo won the District 3 seat. The allegation: Carollo did not really live in the district where he was elected. After a trial that scrutinized Carollo’s lifestyle, power bills and cellphone records, a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ruled in Carollo’s favor, saying at the time that “the greater weight of the evidence does not warrant me undoing the will of the electorate.”

Meanwhile, Díaz de la Portilla faces a criminal case following his September arrest for one count of money laundering, three counts of unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior, one count of bribery, one count of criminal conspiracy, four counts of official misconduct, one count of campaign contribution in excess of legal limits and two counts of failure to report a gift.

Díaz de la Portilla also awaits a status conference scheduled for January on his ethics case before the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics & Public Trust. He is accused of violating county ethics law and exploiting his position.