UPDATED Scandal Season: Miami Runoff Election Shaken Up by Eleventh-Hour Allegations

Update published 11/22/2023 6:00 a.m.: In the race for Miami's District 1 commission seat, Miguel Angel Gabela has defeated suspended Miami commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who was seeking re-election while facing criminal charges of bribery, conspiracy, official misconduct, and money laundering, among other counts.

Gabela secured more than 54 percent of the District 1 runoff vote.

In the Miami Beach mayoral race, Steven Meiner prevailed over Michael Góngora by a nearly 7.5 percent margin, with all precincts reporting.

The tightest race of the night was the runoff for Miami's District 2 commission seat, in which Damian Pardo won against incumbent Sabina Covo, locking up roughly 52.5 percent of the vote.

The original story follows below.

It's November in Miami, and the figurative stench of political scandal is wafting in the brisk winter air as voters head to the polls to close out the local runoff election.

Even for Miami-Dade County, where dirty politics, claims of corruption, and eleventh-hour election-season allegations are commonplace, the November 21 runoff races have been especially messy.

Miami's District 1 commission race might take the cake, as suspended commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla defends his commission seat while defending himself against a criminal corruption case. Prosecutors allege he accepted bribes from a wealthy Miami power couple in exchange for pushing through a development project for their private school, the Centner Academy — allegations which he has decried as politically motivated bunkum.

Two local runoffs — the contests for Miami Beach mayor and Miami's District 2 commission seat — were shaken up by last-minute claims of alleged impropriety, giving voters some extra food for thought ahead of the Thanksgiving-week election.

Dizzied by the claims?

Worry not. In the interest of informing the electorate and helping residents wade through the muck, we've assembled a brief rundown of the allegations lodged against candidates vying for office in the soon-to-be complete runoffs.

Díaz de la Portilla vs. Gabela

Díaz de la Portilla secured his spot in the runoff with more than 36 percent of the vote notwithstanding the sprawling set of bribery, money laundering, and official misconduct charges pending against him.

The Broward County State Attorney's Office claims Díaz de la Portilla and his political committees took tens of thousands of dollars from tech entrepreneur David Centner, a prominent holder of prime Miami real estate, in exchange for pushing forward a $10 million sports complex project on behalf of Centner and his wife Leila's Miami private school, the Centner Academy.

Prosecutors allege that two days before a city commission vote on the project, the Centners' lobbyist wrote a $50,000 check to Díaz de la Portilla's political committee, greasing the wheels for the project's approval. The controversial Miami power couple also bankrolled the commissioner's high-priced stay at a luxury hotel in Miami, prosecutors claim. (The Centners have not been charged in the case.)

Díaz de la Portilla's legal team has argued that the charges are politically driven and false. The veteran Miami politician did not shy away from mentioning the case during his bid for re-election, as his campaign put out ads lambasting Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor for pursuing the charges.

"This action has been timed and executed for shock and awe purposes, to create the maximum damage to Commissioner Díaz de la Portilla's campaign and his family," attorney Benedict Kuehne told New Times after the commissioner's September 14 arrest.

With the runoff election in its final hours, Díaz de la Portilla has been busy trying to disqualify his opponent, local businessman Miguel Angel Gabela, who secured 28.8 percent of the November 7 vote. 

As WLRN first reported, Díaz de la Portilla filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to void votes in favor of Gabela on the grounds that he did not live in District 1 for a full year leading up to the race and therefore did not meet candidate residency requirements.

The legal action was filed the same day the Third District Court of Appeal upheld a lower court decision finding that Gabela did qualify for the race, on the basis of his twenty years of residency in District 1. Though the commission's attempt to redraw the district boundaries in June amid a gerrymandering lawsuit stood to place Gabela's longtime home outside the district, the appeals court found the county rules do not require a continuous one-year residency to qualify.

The Miami commission in September voted to keep Díaz de la Portilla's seat vacant following his arrest. Though Gov. Ron DeSantis classified the suspension as indefinite, Díaz de la Portilla was not legally precluded from running for re-election.

Covo vs. Pardo

A few hours after early voting began in the runoff for Miami's District 2 commission seat, former candidate James Torres took to the airwaves to accuse incumbent Sabina Covo of offering him a lucrative community-redevelopment agency job in exchange for his endorsement.

Torres, who fell short of the votes needed to secure a runoff spot, lodged the allegations on documentarian Billy Corben's BecauseMiami podcast. Covo's current opponent in the runoff, Damian Pardo, was present in the BecauseMiami studio when Torres expounded on the claims.

"I met with Sabina and it was very dark and grayish in a way," Torres alleged. "It was, 'Hey, I need your support? What is it going to take? Can I offer you a position at the Omni CRA as a contractor making over $120,000?'"

Torres claims Covo made the offer when she met with Torres at the Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Grove shortly after the November 7 election.

Covo, a public relations consultant and former TV news anchor, batted back at the allegations, saying she did nothing of the sort. In a response statement, she said Torres was a sore loser "busy spreading lies once again as he did since the first campaign in February," when he fell to Covo in a prior District 2 race.

"At no point whatsoever did a conversation occur about any employment," Covo said in her statement.

Set up in 1987, the Omni CRA is an agency tasked with revitalizing neighborhoods and supporting redevelopment projects in its district, which overlaps with downtown Miami and stretches north to NE 20th Street.

In the November 7 election, Pardo lined up 26.4 percent of the vote, as compared to Covo's 39.3 percent.

Meiner vs. Góngora

On November 17, the Miami Herald reported allegations from three women who accused Miami Beach commissioner and mayoral candidate Steven Meiner of making inappropriate advances toward them dating back between 2012 and 2016 while they were working at the Securities and Exchange Commission, a regulatory agency where Meiner serves as an enforcement attorney.

One of the women told the Herald that while she was working as an SEC intern, Meiner made unwelcome attempts to kiss her during a dinner in Brickell after work in 2012. Another former SEC intern said he repeatedly texted her and asked her out for dinner despite her persistent refusals, according to the report.

A third woman reportedly complained to the SEC in 2016 that Meiner had made inappropriate comments to her about renting an apartment so he could take her there and start an affair with her.

Meiner called the allegations "absolutely untrue and offensive."

"In 16 years with the United States government, I’ve only received exemplary reviews and never received a single admonishment or reprimand of any kind," Meiner said in a statement to the Herald. "I have never been the object of a formal complaint."

Meiner is facing off against former Miami Beach commissioner Michael Góngora, a condominium-association litigator, in the mayoral race.