{"id":358142,"date":"2026-07-30T22:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358142\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:37:07","slug":"a-no-brainer-5-of-7-miami-beach-commission-members-say-fabian-basabe-should-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358142\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A no-brainer’: 5 of 7 Miami Beach Commission members say Fabi\u00e1n Basabe should resign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Fabi\u00e1n Basabe vowed ahead of the 2024 election, on video<\/a>, to resign if it was ever proven he sexually harassed, battered and defamed a pair of former employees who accused him of doing so.<\/p>\n

Now, most of the elected officials in his home city want to see him follow through on that commitment.<\/p>\n

Five of the Miami Beach Commission\u2019s seven members believe Basabe should vacate his House District 106 seat after a jury found him liable<\/a> and ordered him this month to pay $450,000 to the two men who sued him.<\/p>\n

They join a growing list of elected officials demanding he leave office.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Laura Dominguez, whom Basabe attacked<\/a> ahead of her landslide re-election<\/a> last year, said the Republican lawmaker and one-time City Commission candidate \u201cmade clear in his own words that if a court found him guilty in any form, he would resign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny independent jury has now done so,\u201d she told Florida Politics, \u201cand he should carry through his promise and resign immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Alex Fernandez, another target of Basabe\u2019s ire who has sponsored multiple measures at City Hall calling out the lawmaker\u2019s behavior, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it isn\u2019t already obvious from the 2023 resolution I sponsored calling out Fabian Basabe and condemning his voting record for failing to represent our city, the resolution I later joined censuring him<\/a>, and my refusal to endorse his re-election as reported by Florida Politics last December,\u201d he said, \u201cI firmly believe he should resign immediately, and Election Day can\u2019t come soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt took to Facebook to share her thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime to resign,\u201d she wrote. \u201cOr is that just another promise he won\u2019t keep?\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner David Suarez told Florida Politics by text, \u201cHe should resign,\u201d adding that taking that position \u201cseems like a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Monica Matteo-Salinas, the City Commission\u2019s newest member<\/a>, feels the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should resign like he promised he would,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Two other officials who sit on the City Commission \u2014 Mayor Steven Meiner and Commissioner Joseph Magazine \u2014 did not share their thoughts.<\/p>\n

Meiner, who faced accusations<\/a> in 2024 that he made unwelcome romantic advances toward three former female employees while working for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, did not respond to Florida Politics\u2019 query.<\/p>\n

Magazine said he was on vacation and had disconnected from most media in an effort to \u201ctune out from all the noise and drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaven\u2019t followed (the Basabe story) other than a headline I\u2019ve seen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dominguez, Fernandez, Bhatt and Matteo-Salinas are Democrats, while Magazine, Meiner and Suarez previously belonged to the Republican Party, but now have no party affiliation.<\/p>\n

Notably, Basabe was a frequent agitator at Miami Beach City Hall, where he accused officials<\/a> of running afoul of Florida\u2019s anti-campaign law by enforcing the city\u2019s homelessness ordinance. In December, he successfully pushed for Florida lawmakers to approve a state audit<\/a> of Miami Beach\u2019s government operations, prompting a censure from the Commission later that month.<\/p>\n

The resignation calls from officials in Miami Beach, where Basabe has listed his primary residence since 2021, follow multiple endorsement rescindments by prior supporters of his 2026 re-election campaign.<\/p>\n

They include Kissimmee Democratic Rep. Jose Alvarez, Sunny Isles Beach Vice Mayor Jennifer Viscarra, Surfside Commissioner Ruben Coto, Sunny Isles Beach Commissioner Alex Lama and Bal Harbour Council Member Buzzy Sklar.<\/p>\n

Florida Politics has asked every official who endorsed Basabe this cycle whether they still support him in light of the July 15 court verdict and will continue to report on the matter as they respond.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Basabe \u2014 who represented himself in the sexual harassment trial, against advice from the court and conventional wisdom \u2014 asked the Judge<\/a> who ruled over the case for a new trial or to reduce the six-figure verdict.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Peter Ticktin, a high school friend of President Donald Trump whom Basabe has hired along with two other lawyers from Ticktin\u2019s firm, filed the 25-page motion<\/a>, which among other things criticizes the exclusion of material from two House investigations that previously cleared Basabe, finding \u201cinconclusive<\/a>\u201d and \u201cno evidence<\/a>\u201d of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Basabe\u2019s accusers, former aide Nicolas Frevola and former intern Jacob Cutbirth, through their lawyer, Cindy Myers, have filed a separate lawsuit against the House, accusing its GOP leadership of insufficiently investigating their claims.<\/p>\n

That case remains pending.<\/p>\n

In a written statement he said he composed while he \u201cwas driving,\u201d Basabe said he \u201cwill continue serving \u2026 while this legal process moves forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

HD 106<\/a> covers a coastal strip of Miami-Dade County between Miami Beach and Aventura. It is considered to be among Florida\u2019s most flippable districts, having gone to Trump\u00a0by 9 percentage points in 2024 and to former President\u00a0Joe Biden\u00a0four years earlier by 10 points, according to\u00a0MCI Maps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Basabe, a former reality TV personality and socialite, defeated former Bay Harbor Islands Mayor\u00a0Jordan Leonard\u00a0in 2022 by\u00a0less than a percentage point<\/a>\u00a0to succeed term-limited Democratic Rep.\u00a0Joe Geller\u00a0\u2014 who has since replaced B\u00e1ez-Geller, no relation, on the Miami-Dade School Board \u2014 in HD 106.<\/p>\n

He won re-election by a 4-point margin two years later.<\/p>\n

This cycle, former Miami-Dade School Board Member Lucia B\u00e1ez-Geller and lawyer Ashley Litwin Diego are competing in an Aug. 18 Democratic Primary for the right to challenge Basabe in the Nov. 3 General Election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Fabi\u00e1n Basabe vowed ahead of the 2024 election, on video, to resign if it was ever proven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2561,16437,8184,16438,44740,16441,123,1642,125,124,16443,16445,78960],"class_list":["post-358142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-alex-fernandez","tag-david-suarez","tag-election-2026","tag-fabian-basabe","tag-joseph-magazine","tag-laura-dominguez","tag-miami","tag-miami-beach","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-monica-matteo-salinas","tag-steven-meiner","tag-tanya-katzoff-bhatt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}