City of Miami has an illegitimate government. Here’s how we fix that.

Julian Santos
Nov 3 · 4 min read
Francis Suarez is a Republican mayor in a blue city. How did that happen?

“’Illegitimate’? That’s a bit much, Julian. A term as severe as ‘illegitimate’ should be reserved for places like North Korea or Venezuela with governments that are not democratically elected.”

Let me explain.

Like most large cities in America, City of Miami votes overwhelmingly Democratic during partisan elections. And so it begs the question: why does it have a Republican mayor and a majority-Republican commission?

Most politically active people I pose this question to point to the fact that these races are nonpartisan, and therefore voters are unable to differentiate between the candidates.

That’s wrong. Anyone who has ever volunteered for a campaign for one of these nonpartisan elections knows that the first question out of a voter’s mouth is usually, “What is the candidate’s party affiliation?”

These voters aren’t dumb. They learn a candidate’s party affiliation one way or another, oftentimes from a mailer sent by the candidate’s opponent.

Off-year elections

The right answer to the question of why a blue city like Miami has a red government is that the population of voters who show up to vote for mayor or commissioner in off-year elections like the one happening Tuesday night is dramatically smaller and politically unrepresentative of the population that shows up to vote for governor or president.

Citywide, registered Democrats vastly outnumber registered Republicans. Democrats also hold registration advantages in 4 of the 5 commission districts. These are the ingredients for having a progressive city government.

However, because the city elects its leaders in off-year elections when younger voters (who tend to register as NPA but vote blue) tend to not show up, the political composition of the commission and mayor’s office do not reflect that of the population at large. The electorates in off-year elections only favor Democrats in 2 districts, just short of a legislative majority.

This is what I mean when I say that the City of Miami government is illegitimate. That is not to say that Francis Suarez or Joe Carollo broke laws to attain their positions. They did not. Both were elected in accordance with the laws established in the city charter.

To say that the City of Miami government is illegitimate is to say that the laws in the city charter that require off-year elections result in elections where only a small, unrepresentative fraction of the city’s voters show up to vote. These laws may be legal, but they are undemocratic, and therefore they result in illegitimate elected officials.

And by the way, that goes for the two Democrats on the commission, as well. Both were elected with about 15% turnout in their district.

The solution

Fixing this legitimacy problem is straightforward: amend the city charter to require the mayor and all five commissioners to be elected when turnout is naturally at its highest — during presidential or midterm elections.

Such an amendment would have to be approved by voters during a general election. And the amendment has two routes to get to the ballot: either 3 of the 5 commissioners must vote to place it on the ballot, or an independent petition campaign has to collect enough signatures to get it on there.

I don’t think there are enough votes on the commission for the first route for a reason that should be obvious: several of these commissioners would be jeopardizing their own career if they had to be elected in a year with higher turnout.

We therefore should not waste time on this option. 2020 is around the corner. Now is the time to begin growing the movement, gathering the petitions, and raising the money necessary to reach the voters. Now is the time to fight for a government that is representative of the people. Who among us will step up to the challenge?

Little Haiti continues to be gentrified and its culture erased.

As we enter another decade in which we will likely continue having a divided federal government that does not address our country’s biggest problems and a state government that doesn’t even believe in them, the value of local government will only rise during the next decade, especially here in Florida.

We could have a local government that actually cares about black people and doesn’t allow the culture of our Haitian neighbors to be erased. We could have a government that takes bold steps to address the housing crisis. And we could have a government that doesn’t drag its feet on transitioning to 100% renewable energy in the city most threatened by climate change.

    Julian Santos

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