It’s Regalado vs. Lerner in November as one Miami-Dade commissioner falls short on votes - Miami Herald
BY DOUGLAS HANKS UPDATED AUGUST 26, 2024
Miami-Dade District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado and candidate Cindy Lerner PEDRO PORTAL Pedro Portal
Former Pinecrest mayor Cindy Lerner on Tuesday night pushed Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado into a runoff election this fall after battering the incumbent for votes on the environment and development.
With all of District 7’s precincts reporting results shortly before 10 p.m., Regalado held just 49% of the vote, ahead of Lerner’s 42% but just shy of the majority vote needed to end the District 7 election and avoid facing voters again in November.
A third candidate, school-system police officer Richard Praschnik, held 9% of the vote in a district that covers the southern parts of Miami, as well as Key Biscayne, Pinecrest and South Miami.
“I’m happy to take her to November. I’m happy for the opportunity to clear up all the lies,” Regalado said in a telephone interview Tuesday night. She predicted she would fare better with a larger group of voters in November. “In August, you have to get people to turn out. In November, everybody turns out.”
Lerner, 71, a former Democratic member of the Florida House, ran as an environmentalist while trying to cast Regalado, a Republican, as too pro-development for voters. She criticized Regalado for her 2022 vote to expand Miami-Dade’s Urban Development Boundary to include farmland where developers want to build a warehouse complex in South Miami-Dade, a move environmental groups opposed.
Lerner said she plans on amplifying the message she’s been using on the campaign trail, including casting Regalado as not acting on what constituents want. “She doesn’t listen. She doesn’t incorporate any of the desires of the people in this district,” Lerner said. “I’m going to keep doing grassroots campaigning and knocking on doors.”
Richard Praschnik debates Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado (far right) and Cindy Lerner, a former Pinecrest mayor, in a District 7 forum held by the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. On Tuesday, Praschnik finished third in the voting while Regalado and Lerner are advancing to a fall runoff in the County Commission election. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
Regalado, 50, cast herself as helping reduce Biscayne Bay pollution by changing Miami-Dade laws to make it easier to reduce the number of leaky septic tanks across the county and for expanding the acreage of environmental lands under government protection.
Regalado raised about $1.6 million since 2020, dwarfing the roughly $250,000 Lerner reported raising for her campaign and political committee.
This was a rematch for the two candidates, with Regalado narrowly beating Lerner in the fall of 2020 for the commission seat.
Two other incumbent commissioners, Keon Hardemon representing the Miami area’s District 3 and Roberto Gonzalez representing the western suburbs in District 11, won their races outright.
This was the first commission election for Gonzalez, 37, a lawyer and former Florida House candidate who was appointed to his seat in 2022 by Gov. Ron DeSantis after the suspension of District 11’s commissioner, Joe Martinez, after Martinez’s arrest on corruption charges.
Tuesday’s results left Regalado the exception in an election cycle that left intact the power of incumbency for the 13-member County Commission. Four other commissioners — Eileen Higgins, René Garcia, Oliver Gilbert and Kionne McGhee — automatically won reelection to four-year terms in June when they were the only candidates in their races.
Hardemon, a former Miami commissioner, and Regalado, a former school board member, won their seats in 2020 after term limits forced the retirement of their predecessors: Audrey Edmonson in Hardemon’s District 3 seat and Xavier Suarez in Regalado’s District 7 seat.
County races are nonpartisan, with all candidates for a district seat competing in the same August election.
A candidate can win outright with more than 50% of the vote.
Hardemon took more than 60% of the vote with all of District 3’s precincts reporting. Edmonson challenged him for her old District 3 seat and held 30% of the vote. Gonzalez won with about 57% of the vote with all of District 11’s precincts reporting, over the 26% won by second-place finisher Bryan Paz-Hernandez, a teacher.
As an appointed incumbent, Gonzalez could run again in 2028. Term limits would require Hardemon to leave office that year after he finishes his second term.
In 2012, Miami-Dade voters changed the county charter to require commissioners to leave office after two consecutive terms, which meant mandated retirements after eight years for commission members like Edmonson and Suarez who were in office at the time.
The District 7 runoff will coincide with the presidential election in a district that Joe Biden won by seven points in 2020 over Donald Trump. While Lerner and Regalado won’t have their party affiliations printed on the ballot, Lerner’s campaign consultant said he expected party affinity to play a role in November.
“I think it certainly helps that these races have become more partisan in recent years,” Ben Pollara said of county elections. “Particularly in District 7.”