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| This 2002 election cycle may be remembered as "The Year of the Sign", or "the nastiest, meanest, most back-stabbing, sign-stealing, phony-baloney election in the history of Key Biscayne". Yes, history is being written. Adults acting like children, children acting like children, and candidates doing whatever they can to get elected to a non-paying council seat on the Village of Key Biscayne. (Don't get me wrong. Not every candidate is running their campaign in this ugly fashion. We have some excellent neighbors running in the elections for Mayor and Council; candidates that, if elected, I believe will represent our island in a manner in which we will be proud...) | ||
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| Signs litter the Key, with any sign ordinance temporarily going out the window. Our zoning officials look the other way, the beautification committees and any other group of concerned citizens, who will have an absolute heart attack if a garage sale sign is seen on the Key during other times of the year, will attach a sign for their candidate to anything moving or stationary. Our sign ordinance for Golf Carts has also been also ignored. | ||
Here on the Key, pregnant pigs took the back seat on the non-smoking high-speed tax-increasing rail with limited classroom size for the little riders, and we were primarily concerned with electing a new mayor for our island paradise and three new council members. And guess what? We get to do it again on November 19!!! In order for a candidate to be voted into office, they must receive at least 50% of the ballots cast. Jorge Mendia was the only candidate to gain more than 50% of the ballots cast. By 3 votes. He got 50.09% of the vote. Congratulations Jorge - quite an achievement in this fierce and fiery election! (This figures out to 8.6 votes per yard sign. Check out our signs per candidate study.) Robert Vernon received 49.9% of the vote, missing a guaranteed seat on the Village Council by a scant five ballots! Vernon, along with Carol Diaz-Castro, Jim Taintor, and Henny Groschel -Becker, will run-off on November 19th for the remaining two council seats. No Mayoral candidate received 50% of the ballots cast, so the top two contenders, Bob Oldakowski and Richard Gregorie, will face a run-off for the Mayor's seat on November 19th also. If we have learned anything from this campaign, it is that "the candidate with the most signs wins!" ... So, if you were looking forward to those signs disappearing from the landscaping of the island by November 6th, and our island returning to it's normal eye-pleasing existence, think again! Expect to see a lot more signs out there through the next two weeks, and plan an extra few minutes to get through the intersection at Crandon and Harbor in the mornings, now that the top contenders are running off!!! Congratulations to the candidates, and a big thanks to the voters of Key Biscayne for the impressive 73% turnout. And Key Biscayners, let's get out there once again and vote on November 19th! See you at the polls! |
