Internal poll gives Xavier Suarez thin lead over Alex Penelas in mayoral race

Internal poll gives Xavier Suarez thin lead over Alex Penelas in mayoral race
  • Sumo

Everyone’s internal polls have them winning the Miami-Dade mayoral election this year, and Commissioner Xavier Suarez is no different.

He told Ladra that he was leading the other six candidates in a poll done earlier this month of 503 likely voters countywide.

The survey by John Zogby Strategies found that Suarez had 21% of the vote. Former Mayor Alex Penelas came second with 17% and Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava came third with 11%. Poor Commissioner Esteban Bovo came in at 5% — less than both Robert Ingram Burke and Monique Nicole Barley. Ouch.

Still, there’s room for improvement as 31% of the voters said they were undecided.

That number goes down to 19% when you count voters who are leaning toward a particular candidate, and the numbers go up to 25%, 20% and 14% for Suarez, Penelas and Levine-Cava, respectively. But Bovo stays flat at 5%.

Bovo’s performance is pretty much the only thing that the polls have in common. Penelas’ push poll in January put him just above Suarez and Levine-Cava a bit further behind with Bovo in the dust. DLC released an internal poll of her own where she led the pack with with 22%, and in which Penelas had 20%, Suarez had 14% and Bovo hit double digits at least with 10%.

You know, we keep getting consistent showing for Bovo behind the other three, so that seems to stick. But how good are any of the other results if they each come out on top of the polls they buy and pay for?

That’s it. Ladra is taking matters into her own paws: Look for a Political Cortadito poll as soon as qualifying ends on June 9. Stay tuned.