Clark Elected Mayor of Miami; Hialeah Backs Convicted Official

Steve Clark, who was mayor of the city in the 1960s, won the job back Tuesday as voters rejected City Commissioner Miriam Alonso’s appeals to Latino ethnic solidarity.

With all 85 precincts reporting, Clark had 24,097 votes, or 59%, to 17,060 votes, or 41%, for the Cuban-born Alonso.

In neighboring Hialeah, Florida’s fifth-largest city, Mayor Raul Martinez, who is facing 10 years in prison for federal corruption convictions, was barely reelected to another four years in office.

With all 32 precincts reporting, Martinez had 14,540 votes, or just under 50.5%, to state Rep. Nilo Juri’s 14,267 votes, or 49.5%. There was no immediate word on whether Juri would seek a recount.

Juri had urged voters to rebuke Martinez and not risk wasting their votes on a convicted felon. Martinez, 44, who is free on bond, has said he will be exonerated on appeal. He was convicted in 1991 on federal charges that he took money and land in exchange for zoning favors.

In Miami, the 69-year-old Clark had led a six-candidate mayoral field in voting Nov. 2, while Alonso, 52, came in second. She had urged Latinos to keep the mayor’s post as “a Hispanic seat.”

Incumbent Xavier Suarez, elected in 1985 as Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor, endorsed Clark and criticized Alonso’s ethnic divisiveness. He did not seek reelection.

Clark was Miami’s mayor from 1967 to 1970, then was elected Dade County mayor. In his two decades with Dade County, Miami’s political power shifted from Anglos to Latinos, who today make up about 43% of eligible voters.

Once dubbed the “marshmallow mayor” for seeming to devote most of his time to ribbon cuttings, parades and festivals, Clark drew on years of goodwill, saying he had always served all ethnic groups.

The job carries a $5,000 annual salary and little executive power. Clark is a registered Democrat and Alonso a Republican, but the election was nonpartisan.

In other voting Tuesday, Oregon’s proposed 5% sales tax was defeated resoundingly. If enacted, it would have raised about $1 billion a year for schools. Also, voters in Oregon City and Keizer, Ore., were deciding on anti-gay rights measures, despite a recent state ban on local ordinances that address gay rights.