Mayor Carlos Alvarez was thrown from office last night in a recall vote. 88% of voters agreed they were fed up with the tax-hiking mayor.
The revolt was spearheaded by billionaire car dealer Norman Braman.
It wasn’t even close.
(Click to enlarge)
NBC Miami reported:
A rise in taxes raised the temperature of many Miami-Dade County voters.
Tuesday they got a chance to express their anger in historical proportions, ousting Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas from office in the first successful recall vote in the county’s history.
Oust might not be the right word gauging from the results. Thrown out on his rear end might be the more accurate description.
With about 75 percent of the polls reporting, more than 88 percent of the voters agreed that they were fed up with Alvarez, who was overwhelmingling voted in for his second term in 2008.
More… Ramus sent in this on the vote:
The commission voted to raise the millage rate to pay for the rise in the salaries of county employees (including the mayor’s staff) and for police and firemen. People who saw the value of their properties decline by as much as 30% since 2008, were now seeing their property taxes rise. All the commissioners who voted “yes” to the rise are being subject to a recall vote. The petitions to recall them have been approved and court challenges by the mayor and commissioners have failed. The Mayor and this one commissioner were the first to be voted out. Others will follow in special elections to be held later. What the Herald also fails to mention is that this is fundamentally an anti-union vote, not an anti-Alvarez vote (even though he lost a lot of support after the tax millage rate rise.) The unions have come out en masse to support these two. They failed. The people won.
