After wrestling with his ambivalence for months over whether to run for reelection or pursue other endeavors outside the political arena, Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi has filed his papers seeking another four-year term in an uphill battle against his former foe and a current council member leading the pack in fundraising.
The town’s first mayor and the catalyst for the incorporation movement, Wayne Slaton, and Councilmember Manny Cid are challenging Pizzi for the mayoral position in the November 8 general election.
In all, 11 candidates, including two incumbents, are running for four seats on the Town Council. Twenty-one candidates originally filed papers to run for political office but only 11 qualified for the November election.
The incumbent mayor opened up a campaign account on the last day of the qualifying period, while Cid, who has raised $43,535, and Slaton have already begun hitting the campaign trial.
According to his campaign report, Slaton has loaned himself $5,000, and is using the traditional campaign of knocking on the doors of all Miami Lakes residents.
Slaton, an electrical contractor, was the town’s first mayor in 2001 and won reelection in 2004.
During Slaton’s first two terms, then-Councilmember Pizzi was his most vocal critic, leading him to run for mayor in 2008. Slaton decided not to seek reelection but unsuccessfully challenged Pizzi in 2012.
Following Pizzi’s arrest on public corruption charges in 2013, Slaton won a special election to replace him as mayor, but a controversial legal fight, first in the Florida Supreme Court against Governor Rick Scott, and then against Miami Lakes in the lower courts returned Pizzi to Town Hall following his 2014 acquittal.
Slaton, who has lived in Miami Lakes for more than 40 years, decided not to take his case to Florida’s top court and yielded his position for Pizzi’s return, but said he would run again in 2016.
Cid initially filed papers to run for his Seat 5 but changed his mind and entered the mayoral race.
Council member Ceasar Mestre was forced to drop out of the mayoral race after he missed a requirement to resign from his Seat 6 10 days before the start of the qualifying period.
Mestre, who had raised $40,000, including loaning himself $3,000 before leaving the mayoral race, indicated missing the requirement actually was a sigh of relief since the campaigning took a toll on spending quality time with his family.
For the other Town Council races, incumbent Councilmember Nelson Rodriguez, a Coral Gables firefighter, is facing off against Xiomara Pazos, CEO and president of non-emergency medical transportation company and newcomer Alex Dehghani to keep Seat One.
Pazos ran for a Town Council seat in 2014.
Councilmember Tony Lama (Seat 3) is being challenged by attorney and neophyte Elizabeth Delgado. Robin Brown-Beamon, who retired following a 30 year career at Miami-Dade County, didn’t qualify to run for Seat 3, and Jose Nodal Jr., a building inspector, dropped out of the race.
Lama, so far, has raised $20,477 for his campaign and Delgado mustered up $5,200.
Seat 5, which Cid gave up to run for mayor, initially drew 10 candidates, including newcomers Luis Collazo, chair of the town’s Elderly Affairs Committee, and Roberto Alonso Jr., whose father was Miami Lakes’ first vice mayor.
But seven candidates either dropped their bids or failed to qualify to officially enter the race, leaving Collazo, Esther Colon, former town manager for Lauderdale by the Sea, and criminal defense attorney Nayib Hassan, to battle it out on election day.
Alonso, Cynthia Beyer, Rosalina Nunez, Alejandro Sanchez, chair of the town’s Veteran’s Affairs Committee and Caridad Vasallo bowed out of the race for the vacant seat.
Natalie Hope Guzman and Wendy Milanes didn’t qualify to compete against the other candidates for Seat 5.
Political novice Hassan leads his group in fundraising with $13,680 followed by Colon with $6,341.
If neither candidate collects 51 percent of the votes, the winner will be determined in a run-off election two weeks later.
(Editor’s Note: The Miami Laker will profile Seat 1 candidates in the September 2 issue; Seat 3 candidates in the September 16 issue; Seat 5 candidates in the October 7 issue; Mayoral candidates in the October 21 issue; and recap all races and candidates in the November 4 issue.)