Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Two nice victories in Miami-Dade municipal elections

Jonah Wolfson (red cap) checking returns on election night.

A whopping landslide for Marc Sarnoff for Miami city commission and a big margin for Jonah Wolfson for Miami Beach city commission – they add up to a satisfying election night for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.

Not so good for three underdogs running in Homestead and Hialeah with the party’s endorsement, but at least we stuck our neck out for those Democrats trying to make an impact on the local level against Republican opponents.

Next time we’ll do better.

For now, how about 88.97 percent of the vote in Marc Sarnoff’s victory for Miami City Commission! Opposition apparently not too strong against the incumbent Sarnoff.

In the Miami Beach Group 4 race, Jonah Wolfson raked in 55.4 percent against hard competition from Luis Salom, who got 44.6 percent. Wolfson, a young lawyer making his first run for office, became a familiar figure around the city as he knocked on zillions of doors.

Jonah, how many pairs of shoes did you shred?

I sneaked a look at his voting-day coverage plan of the beach, and he, his pregnant wife Andrea and mother Laurel were prominent on the plan, and hey, his dad Jerry was in there, too. Talk about a vigorous family effort.

Not to be outdone was his opponent. I had a knock on my door one day in North Beach, and there were Salom’s wife and 12-year-old son asking for my vote. Sorry, I said, I know it’s a non-partisan race, but I also know who’s a Democrat and who’s a Republican.

For the record, we backed Fernando Alvarez in Hialeah for city council and in Homestead we endorsed Amanda S. Garner and Darwin Brett Brown – all in losing attempts. Good luck next time!

This link goes to the official results.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Next time let's put money into direct mail, absentee ballots and canvassing in communities like Homestead, and not blow it on a ridiculous Miami Herald online advertising scheme. We could have really helped those Dems in Homestead win.

Larry Thorson said...

How much impact? The Herald reported that over a half-million people were exposed to the ads, and over 500 paid enough attention to have clicked to the next link. We can canvass and get absentee ballots with volunteers. Ads cost money. Did you volunteer? I hope so, and thanks in advance!