Miami Beach voters propelled Mayor Steven Meiner and city commissioner Laura Dominguez to second terms, while two candidates vying for an open city commission seat are headed to a runoff.
Meiner captured 51 percent of the vote, beating his lone challenger, city commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, by about 350 ballots, election results show. Dominguez thumped her opponent, spec home developer Fred Karlton. She garnered more than 60 percent of the vote, despite a campaign by Karlton and city commissioner David Suarez to paint her as beholden to real estate developers in the city. Another city commissioner, Alex Fernandez, also won by a wide margin, capturing 84 percent of the vote against his opponent, Luidgi Mary.
The race for the city commission seat vacated by Rosen Gonzalez will be decided next month in a runoff between former city commission aide Monica Matteo-Salinas, who picked up 23 percent of the vote, and attorney Monique Pardo Pope, who landed in second place with 20 percent of the vote. But Pardo Pope led hotel investor Brian Ehrlich by less than a percentage point. If the margin drops to less than 0.5 percent, it would trigger an automatic recount.
Meiner also bested Rosen Gonzalez in garnering financial support from the city’s real estate and hospitality industries. Players backing the mayor included Lennar co-CEO Stuart Miller, who lives in Miami Beach. Miller donated $50,000 to Meiner’s political action committee Miami Beach First.
The PAC also racked up $25,000 from real estate investor and Miami Beach resident Michael Simkins; $20,000 from David Grutman, founder of Miami Beach-based Groot Hospitality; $18,000 from Alex Kleyner, another Miami Beach-based real estate investor; and $10,000 each from Miami Beach developer Scott Robins and New York-based Naftali Group, led by Miki Naftali.
In the race between Dominguez and Karlton, real estate and hospitality players lined up behind the incumbent. Karlton bankrolled his own campaign by donating $150,000 to it.
Dominguez’s individual campaign saw many real estate and hospitality bigwigs donating the maximum $1,000 each, including developer Michael Shvo; Jose and Diego Ardid, developers who lead Miami-based Key International; New York-based LeFrak Organization’s managing director James LeFrak and a LeFrak affiliate; and two executives with Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group.
During the campaign, Karlton and commissioner Suarez attacked Dominguez by claiming she voted on legislation that benefitted developers that bankrolled her political action committee, Coastal Communities Matter, when she first ran in a 2022 special election. Dominguez did not raise funds through her committee for this year’s election.
In the city commission race headed to a runoff, Ehrlich was the candidate backed by real estate and hospitality interests. His individual campaign received the maximum $1,000 donation from Arnaud Karsenti, managing principal of Coconut Grove-based development firm 13th Floor Investments, his wife Rebecca Karsenti, the Catalina Hotel at 1732 Collins Avenue, and two entities managed by Miami Beach-based real estate investor Jimmy Resnick.
Ehrlich’s PAC, Miami Beach in Focus, got $25,000 from hotelier Shawn Vardi, and $5,000 from Christopher Cuomo, ex-COO of Groot Hospitality.
