FLORIDA POLITICS
APRIL 30, 2024
Poll: Miami-Dade Voters Disapprove of County Direction, $2.5B Bond Plan
By Jesse Scheckner
Sixty percent of respondents said economic and affordability issues were their top concerns.
A supermajority of Miami-Dade voters aren’t happy with conditions in the county and most oppose Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s proposed $2.5 billion bond plan, new polling shows.
Miami-based public research company Inquire spoke with 500 likely November voters in Miami-Dade this month and found just 23% said things in the county are going in the right direction.
Nearly half said things were off-track, while 30% were unsure.
The survey, commissioned by Coral Gables consulting firm Miranda Advocacy, had a 4.3% margin of error and was stratified by precinct, demographics, party registration and educational attainment.
It also included a 4% overshare of Democratic respondents. But majorities or pluralities of every key voter group expressed disapproval about the state of the county.
Alex Miranda, principal of Miranda Advocacy, is an adviser to Levine Cava’s campaign. He also worked for her in 2020.
Sixty percent of survey respondents said economic and affordability issues were their top concerns. Of them, 35% said housing and property insurance costs were most problematic, while 20% said inflation troubled them most and 6% pointed to taxes.
Eleven percent cited crime and safety as the biggest problem — the only other issue to break double digits.
Concerns about overdevelopment (7%), public corruption (7%), illegal immigration (6%), environmental resiliency (5%) and abortion (4%) trailed after.
Most respondents (52%) said they would vote “no” on Levine Cava’s proposed bond issue, which she announced she would postpone for 18 months in early April. The borrowing plan is intended to pay for affordable housing, park enhancements, resiliency, land conservation and infrastructure upgrades. Inquire included that the bond issue would be repaid through increased taxes on Miami-Dade homeowners.
Only 38% of respondents said they would vote “yes.” Of them, 62% identified as Democrats, 36% said they were independents and 12% said they were Republican.
The new survey’s finding is similar to that of a GOP-skewed poll conducted in March by Miami consulting firm Dark Horse Strategies, which is working on the county mayoral campaign of Republican Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid.
It found that 83% of Republicans, 52% of independents and 24% of Democrats in Miami-Dade did not approve of the bond issue — a 53% share of the county’s voter population.
That conflicted with a poll Levine Cava’s campaign commissioned in January from Oakland-based consulting firm EMC Research, which found that 79% of likely Miami-Dade voters either strongly or partially supported the bond plan. However, the survey omitted the fact that homeowners would be saddled with repaying the debt.
The EMC poll also showed Levine Cava, a Democrat, held 63% support among county voters.
Six people are running to unseat Levine Cava this year. Four are Republican: Cid, ex-Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger, social media influencer Alex Otaola and actor Carlos Garín, who previously sought seats in Congress and on the Miami-Dade Commission.
Democratic trapeze artist Miguel “el Skipper” Quintero and no-party candidate Eddy Rojas are also running.
The Miami-Dade Mayor’s race is technically nonpartisan, meaning all candidates will be on the Aug. 20 ballot if they qualify. If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, the two with the largest vote shares will appear on the Nov. 5 General Election ballot.