None of the new Miami-Dade County commissioners elected Tuesday are really new to public office — or to us.
With all the votes save some absentee ballots counted, the Miami-Dade Elections Department reported that former Miami City Commissioner Keon Hardemon, former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado and former State Rep. Kionne McGhee won their respective races Tuesday and will join former State Sen. Rene Garcia and former Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, who won in August, to replace the termed out members of the county board later this month.
This new crop of commissioners will lower the average age on that board by at least two decades.
Hardemon, the youngest, was the most comfortable from the start, winning the District 1 race against Haitian activist Gepsie Metellus with a whopping 67% of the vote, that’s twice as many, and leading in all three categories — vote-by-mail or absentee ballots, early voting and Election Day. It was never a real contest. Because the Hardemons have a lock down on that community. And because he outspent her by at least 2 to 1 — not counting his multiple political action committees and help from friends with their own PACs.
McGhee, the longtime frontrunner endorsed by termed-out Commissioner Dennis Moss early on, also took District 9 handily, beating former Homestead Commissioner Elvis Maldonado with 54% of the vote and leading in every category — vote-by-mail, early voting and Election Day.
The District 7 race was the closest and most interesting.
Regalado, who ran for mayor in 2016 and forced the incumbent into a runoff, beat former Pinecrest Mayor and State Rep. Cindy Lerner with just under 51% percent and a 1,500 or so vote margin where Hispanics, unincorporated voters and Key Biscayne likely made all the difference.
Read related: Miami-Dade candidate Cindy Lerner lies with competing campaign messages
But she lost the AB or vote-by-mail vote by more than 6,600 votes. Regalado only won because she outperformed on both early voting and Election Day, possibly riding a Republican rush that helped crush the blue wave (more on that later) in a non partisan race that has become partisan.
Ladra believes that Lerner’s “clever” Spanish-language ads backfired on her. The two abuelitas gossiping about Rrrrrrraquelita did not sit well with voters who have called her that her whole life because her mother, a known TV and radio personality who died suddenly and tragically in 2008, will always be the first Raquel Regalado. It seemed insensitive. That’s her mami.
It prompted her dad, former Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, to record an ad defending her and then Lerner got former State Rep. JC Planas, a Biden Republican and her paid attorney, to record a Spanish-language radio spot defending Lerner. Like, esa gringa was actually trying to win points on Cuban radio. Vino a bailar a la casa del trompo.
It also seemed disingenuous when she campaigned in Spanish that Regalado was too cozy with Democrats and then sent mailers saying that her opponent was aligned with Donald Trump. Regalado has already represented parts of this district. People know she’s a moderate.
Lerner also probably lost some of her base with the ads that Regalado put on TV of her abusive verbal outbursts at commission meetings, where Cindy has berated her colleagues as well as constituents. She is a female version of Steve Bovo. And nobody wants that.
Read related: Cindy Lerner had a pattern of verbal abuse, not just one incident
Regalado may go into the seat with a smaller margin, but she got a bigger turnout than the other commissioners — 103,844 people voted in District 7, compared to 78,727 in District 9, 71,714 in District 5 and 65,406 in District 3.
In the middle of a pandemic!
“We got over 100,000 people to vote in this district,” Regalado said about a historic turnout. “That in itself is an amazing feat. And it shows that every vote does count.
“To all the people we pulled out to vote on the last days, we’re grateful.”
She also had a message she posted in a video on Facebook to the people who did not vote for her. “I hope that you will give me the opportunity to start a conversation and to start working together for what’s best for District 7.
“I hope you know we have more in common than you think and I look forward to talking to you about those concerns,” she said, referencing the services and improvements she wants to work on and the “generational change” she says needs to take place.
“At the end of the day, this is a non partisan race. This is not about parties and organizations but about people, about neighborhoods, about families, about businesses and about ensuring that government is listening to the people it represents.”
“You have my commitment that I will do that.”
There were also big turnouts in the Regalado strongholds of Miami, where she lives with her two children, and Coral Gables and less voters in the Lerner strongholds of Pinecrest and South Miami.
Regalado’s victory is one of the highlights of this crazy election (Hardemon is one of the lowlights) because she can really hit the road running. She knows the county operations and budget better than most if not every sitting commissioner up there. She has questions for department heads that will get answered now. She knows where some of the bones are buried, and she will dig them up. She has ideas and is eager to get started.
She will bring the energy, efficacy, transparency and aversion to bullshit that we sorely need on that dais. She has an uncanny ability to bring people together, find compromise and build consensus. She represents a new generation of leadership and vision for our county.
And if she can’t be the mayor (she has plenty of time for that), at least she can sit on the dais where Ladra is certain she will have more influence than your typical newcomers and more impact than your typical old-timers.
A lot is expected of her, more than some of her other newly elected colleagues, so she has to be on her A game.
The new commissioners are sworn in in two weeks.
Miami-Dade’s 3 new Commissioners: Hardemon, Regalado and McGhee added by Ladra on
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