{"id":76810,"date":"2025-12-09T10:24:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T10:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/76810\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T10:24:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T10:24:19","slug":"monica-matteo-salinas-monique-pardo-pope-square-off-in-miami-beach-commission-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/76810\/","title":{"rendered":"Monica Matteo-Salinas, Monique Pardo Pope square off in Miami Beach Commission runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early voting is underway<\/a> in Miami Beach ahead of a Dec. 9 runoff that will decide the city\u2019s only open Commission seat \u2014 a head-to-head contest between Monica Matteo-Salinas and Monique Pardo Pope for the Group 1 seat.<\/p>\n

Matteo-Salinas, a Democrat and longtime City Hall aide, finished first last month with 23.2% of the vote. Pardo Pope, a Republican lawyer, advanced with 20.1%.<\/p>\n

They outpaced four other candidates<\/a> competing to succeed outgoing Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez last month, but neither captured a large enough share of the vote \u2014 more than 50% \u2014 to win outright.<\/p>\n

The runoff has sharpened into a choice between two contrasting r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, platforms and campaign narratives along with a late-cycle revelation about Pardo Pope that has drawn national headlines.<\/p>\n

Voters are heading to the polls for the second time in just over a month as Miami Beach faces turbulence on multiple fronts, from state scrutiny over finances<\/a> and charges that a local ordinance<\/a> conflicts with Florida\u2019s homelessness law to the removal of cultural landmarks<\/a> due to their so-called \u201cwoke\u201d significance and accusations<\/a> of pay-for-play<\/a> policymaking.<\/p>\n

Matteo-Salinas, 46, has consolidated establishment support for her campaign, which centers on a promise to work on expanding trolley service, increasing the city\u2019s affordable housing index and establishing a new \u201cwater czar\u201d position in the city, paid by resort taxes.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s earned endorsements from several local pols, including Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Miami Beach Commissioners Alex Fernandez, Laura Dominguez and Tanya Bhatt; and former Miami Beach Dan Gelber.<\/p>\n

Groups backing her bid include the Miami Beach Fraternal Order of Police, LGBTQ groups SAVE Action PAC and Equality Florida Action PAC, and the public-safety-focused neighborhood group SOBESafe.<\/p>\n

Pardo Pope, 45, has centered her messaging on public safety, investing in mental health, backing school choice initiatives, supporting homelessness services, encouraging \u201csmart, thoughtful development\u201d that preserves Miami Beach\u2019s character while addressing flooding and roadway congestion, and alleviating cost-of-living issues for longtime residents and first-time homebuyers through \u201cfair taxation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she has touted her guardian ad litem work as evidence of her temperament and commitment to service, that part of her record has drawn renewed scrutiny<\/a> in recent weeks. A review of Pardo Pope\u2019s case records with the Miami-Dade Clerk\u2019s Office shows her listed as a guardian ad litem on just three cases \u2014 one of which she was discharged from<\/a> after trying to get the mother in the case jailed.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also been the subject of negative attention for omitting that her father<\/a> was the convicted, Nazi-adoring serial killer Manuel Pardo, to whom she wrote several loving social media posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pardo Pope has said that she forgave him in order to move forward with her life and asked voters to judge her on her own life and work.<\/p>\n

Her backing includes the Miami-Dade Republican Party, Miami-Dade Commissioner Ren\u00e9 Garc\u00eda, state Rep. Alex Rizo, former Miami Beach City Attorney Jose Smith, Miami Realtors PAC, the Venezuelan American Republican Club and Teach Florida PAC<\/a>, a Jewish education group.<\/p>\n

Two of her former Group 1 opponents, Daniel Ciraldo and Omar Gimenez, are also backing her.<\/p>\n

Matteo-Salinas raised about $133,000 and spent $82,000 by Dec. 4. Pardo Pope raised about $190,000 \u2014 of which 29% was self-given \u2014 and spent close to $170,000.<\/p>\n

Early voting runs through Sunday at four locations<\/a> citywide. Election Day is Monday, Dec. 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early voting is underway in Miami Beach ahead of a Dec. 9 runoff that will decide the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3675,123,1642,23581,125,124,16443,6256],"class_list":{"0":"post-76810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-election-2025","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-beach","11":"tag-miami-beach-commission","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-monica-matteo-salinas","15":"tag-monique-pardo-pope"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76810","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=76810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}