Attorney Suarez Elected Mayor in Miami

Attorney Xavier Suarez defeated millionaire banker Raul Masvidal in a runoff election Tuesday to become the city’s first Cuban-born mayor.

With 100% of the votes from all 85 precincts and absentee ballots reported in unofficial totals, Suarez had 31,662 votes, or 56.7%, to 24,224 votes, or 43.3%, for Masvidal, who also was born in Cuba.

“I want to thank all of Miami,” said Suarez, who will be sworn in today.

“I congratulate Xavier Suarez for his victory,” Masvidal told disappointed supporters. “He can count on me to support him as mayor. We have made certain that the political leadership of Miami has changed.”

Backed by Newspapers

Masvidal, endorsed by both of Miami’s daily newspapers, led in the early tabulations, but Suarez surged into the lead shortly after 10 p.m.

Suarez led Masvidal by as much as a 7-1 ratio in the areas heavily populated by Cuban-Americans.

Masvidal’s strength came from black voters, while Suarez did better than expected in the non-Latino white districts.

Although election officials had predicted a 60% turnout of Miami’s 114,173 registered voters, less than 50% actually cast ballots.

Incumbent Defeated

Suarez, 37, and Masvidal, 43, eliminated six-term, Puerto Rican-born incumbent Maurice Ferre and eight other challengers in the Nov. 5 primary.

Ferre said after the results were announced Tuesday night that he had voted for Suarez. Although Ferre declined to make an endorsement earlier, several of his aides had gone to work for Suarez after the primary.

Suarez finished first in the primary, with 28.9% of the vote. He got nearly half the Cuban votes and many see him as a staunch anti-communist.

He is an enthusiastic campaigner and has been trying to win city office since 1979. Two years ago, he barely lost the mayor’s race to Ferre.

Harvard Graduate

Suarez is a graduate of Harvard Law School and he speaks flawless English. His major efforts in the last week have been to use his charm and Americanized manners to lure black and Anglo support.

Suarez spent at least $214,642 to win the $6,000-a-year post as chief spokesman for Miami’s manager-council government.

Masvidal poured more than $760,000 into his campaign, at least $200,000 from his own pocket.

Masvidal is closely identified with the city’s almost exclusively Anglo downtown Establishment. Until he resigned before running for mayor, he was one of two Cuban members of the so-called Non-Group, 37 behind-the-scenes power brokers who have met secretly for 14 years to map out a civic agenda.

The influence of the Non-Group--and the identity of its members--only recently has become public in newspaper accounts.

Dakota Waste Dump

Elsewhere, South Dakota voters rejected a plan Tuesday that would have had their state join North Dakota in an agreement allowing construction of a dump to store low-level radioactive waste from other states.

With 99% of the vote counted, unofficial totals showed 83%, or 75,895 votes, against the proposed compact, to 17%, or 15,482 votes in favor in South Dakota’s first statewide special election.

In Albuquerque, former city councilor Ken Schultz narrowly defeated Jim Baca on Tuesday in a runoff mayoral election that centered on the growth of New Mexico’s largest city.

Baca, 40, the state land commissioner, and Schultz, 47, emerged as the top vote-getters in the city’s Oct. 8 municipal election, defeating six other candidates, including two-term Mayor Harry Kinney. With all precincts reporting, unofficial returns showed Schultz had received 41,495 votes, or 51%, to Baca’s 39,450 votes, or 49%.