NEWSHOLE[dot]INFO

By: Frank Maradiaga for Miami SunPost

CANDIDATE ACCUSES HER OPPONENT’S CAMPAIGN MANAGERS OF HARASSMENT AND VERBAL ABUSE AT THE POLLS.

Campaigning can be a nasty ordeal as this cycle in Miami Beach has proven. So too can be sign holding.

As residents head back to the polls this weekend and on Tuesday to decide the winners of the runoff, one candidate spoke with the SunPost on how ugly it can get outside of a voting precinct.

Elsa Urquiza says she was verbally abused multiple times by Micky Steinberg’s campaign managers while they all stumped for votes in the first election. Urquiza and Steinberg are now locked in a head to head runoff.

“There were actually many incidents,” Urquiza said. “The people involved were the Micky Steinberg people, and the two of them claim to be their campaign managers.”

Urquiza identified Jeremy Kozyak and David Carcache Guzman as the central actors.

In one instance Urquiza says Guzman came up really close to denounce her integrity.

“He came up to me, touched me with his shoulder to my shoulder, and called me a ‘corrupt old woman’, and called me trash in Spanish,” she said.

“He said it was about time the residents got rid of corruption in Miami Beach, and that I was a corrupt old woman,” said the candidate. “Very very close, to an inch of my face.”

Read the rest at The Miami SunPost

By: Frank Maradiaga for Miami SunPost

BEACH VOTERS READY FOR CHANGE AS LEVINE IS ELECTED NEW MAYOR LATE FRIDAY.

Late on Tuesday night, Roger Abramson worked the P-lot in his usual gregarious manner. He had crossed the street from the entrance to the Botanical Garden,where a hoard of sign holders stood, and was the first person voters came in contact with as they exited their cars and walked towards the polling station. Abramson rushed to get a greeting out, introduce himself as a candidate for Group 3, and ask for support -all before the voter walked off the narrow slab of sidewalk. To those who would accept it, he handed them a postcard that encapsulated his candidacy; it came with a mint.

Some wouldn’t even break their stride as Abramson came up to them for a word, but would attempt to exchange pleasantries while on the move.

“Good luck” one man said over his shoulder while he quickly crossed the street.

Another man didn’t even bother to fake interest when Abramson approached him, “they gave me a list,” he said while patting his shirt’s pocket.

“They gave me a list?” Abramson murmured to himself, “what does that even mean?”

That man walked across the street and kissed Abramson’s rival, Joy Malakoff. It made sense now.

It was a couple of hours before the polls closed and the votes were trickling in at City Hall and the Botanical Gardens; the demonstration-size crowd were mostly campaign workers; a cub reporter the Miami Herald sent to get color was struggling to find an actual voter to speak with. Still candidates like Abramson, Dave Crystal, Michael Greico, Michael Gongora, and Joy Malakoff prowled the labyrinth of sign holders for the chance to change one more mind, one more vote that could help secure a ticket to the second round, the probable run-off in two weeks. With so many candidates, it was almost a sure thing.

A woman walked out dejected when she didn’t quite make the 7:00 PM cut off. Before a single vote had been counted, Greico told her she’d have another shot in two weeks.

And she will.

Finish reading at Miami SunPost