Longtime Miramar Mayor Lori Moseley Loses
BY BUDDY NEVINS
In an election that illustrates the changing demographics of Broward County, the last white political figure in Miramar – four-term Mayor Lori Moseley – was defeated Tuesday.
Moseley was beaten by black Commissioner Wayne Messam on Tuesday by roughly 38-34 percent.
Wayne Messam, new Miramar mayor
Moseley was first elected in 1999 as Lori Cohen Moseley. Tuesday was her fifth election.
There were local issues and maybe some voters were just tired of Moseley. But ethnicity played a big role, too.
So on Tuesday Miramar joined Lauderdale Lakes as a Broward city with an all-black commission. Lauderhill and West Park are almost there.
Just three decades ago, things were different in West Broward. Miramar, Lauderhill and Lauderdale Lakes were dominated by white residents and West Park didn’t exist.
In the middle part of the last century, white middle class and middle age families settled Miramar. They dominated city hall.
Lauderdale Lakes was controlled in the 1970s and 1980s by middle class and largely blue-collar Jewish retirees from the New York City area.
Lauderhill once had mostly Jewish and Italian retirees, and blue collar families. Parts of the city (Inverrary) in the late 1970s and 1980s were more upscale than almost anything in Lauderdale Lakes and Miramar at the time.
Lori Moseley: Victim of Demographic Change
Then many of the white retirees died off and others moved out. Blacks moved in.
The influx of blacks, many from the Caribbean, to the relatively low cost housing in Miramar, Lauderhill and Lauderdale Lakes altered those cities dramatically starting in the late 1980s.
As the demographics changed, so did the political structure.
What happened in West Broward is natural. When one ethnic group becomes preeminent, city hall quickly becomes a reflection of that group.
It has occurred many times over in this country — first with Irish, then with Jews and Italians and now with a polyglot collection of groups each dominating their own community.
It is ethnic politics and it was in play again in Miramar on Tuesday.
March 11th, 2015 at 12:36 am
Buddy – you nailed it most astutely – one word – Demographics. Old timers know it. Semi- newbies suspect it. Newcomers are clueless with no inkling of history.
Disbeliever – go to wiki and look at Broward, FLL, etc.
The past is long gone.
March 11th, 2015 at 7:47 am
I’m hearing Henry Rose is demanding a recount due to voter fraud. He has a new poll showing Lori Mosely with 78%. It is impossible for her to lose — especially with the black vote split between two opponents.!
On serious aside: did Rose ever reveal the name of the pollster who conducted his “poll” a month ago? My guess: it was a totally dishonest press release with no actual poll conducted. How amateurish. Rose is going to give Jack Shifrel and Barry Harris a real run for “worst campaign manager” in Broward.
March 11th, 2015 at 8:57 am
Moseley had the option some years ago to support an effort to elect commissioners by districts in Miramar and ensure the city had a diverse city commission. She refused because she didn’t want a diverse city commission. She ended up with diversity and then some. All chickens come home to roost.
March 11th, 2015 at 9:36 am
Speaking of the Lauderdale Lakes Commission………..seems the Commission has forgotten how it was in the beginning as their governing today mirrors yesterdays…….,,,,
March 11th, 2015 at 11:50 am
looks like Messam received support of African-Amercians, while Davis was left with the smaller (but growing) Caribbean demographic. Next time Henry Rose should work on demographics instead of phony polls
March 11th, 2015 at 12:19 pm
Yep. You live by at-large district demographics; you die by at-large district demographics.
Here’s a city that is not even majority black, and has an all-black commission. There are actually almost the same amount of Hispanic residents in Miramar, and only one HIspanic bothered to even run this time (and he has run 80,000 times before).
Whites have no standing to bring a Section 2 Voting Rights Act claim under Thornburg v. Gingles to force single-member districts, but Hispanics do. Of course their abysmal (nearly non-existent) turnout and their failure to consistently run more than one flawed candidate will make it a bit easier for the city to defend against an S2 case.
Kevin.
March 11th, 2015 at 2:20 pm
I heard Moseley paid Davis to get into the race to split the vote and it backfired. I hear Ian Richards was out campaigning hard for Messam.
March 11th, 2015 at 2:32 pm
Lori is a class act.
She has put her heart and soul into representing Miramar residents throughout the State of Florida. She put Miramar on the map.
She will always be remembered as an effective and positive leader.
Much luck Lori and keep involved and look at other possibilities to continue your public service.
March 11th, 2015 at 6:29 pm
Two thirds of the city wanted a different Mayor. There’s no other way to read this election.
March 11th, 2015 at 8:48 pm
Hmmm I saw someone that sure looked like Judy Stern at the Messam victory party.
March 12th, 2015 at 12:58 am
Buddy buddy why is it so hard for you to tell the truth 32-34% my nose hairs. Messiam beat Lori by 313 votes to be exact thats 4.30% period.Mosely got 34.11% of the vote and Messam and his house size signs got 38.41%..Face facts the DNC supported no one….the RNC and BREC supported no one. This was a free for all. I know cause I ran…What turned the tide was the Broward County PBA period…They were out in huge force suporting Riggs, Mosely, Chambers all the screnings were a class a joke one winner showed up in dungarees…..Money is what drove this race demographics did not at all….go check the stats…The huge debt the city is now saddled with was created by Davis, Messam,Colbourne..who all received at least 30 donations by construction companies thats why all these lame brain construction projects appeared from all the hold baskets in Mr Zombecks dept…anything to get money projects for the 3 people who held up the starting of the new Police Dept Hq over demanding 25% of the sub contractors be minority owned. …There are 73,969 reg voters in Miramar. Only 7,163 voted for Mayor….and seat 1 6,873 voted at all and seat 4 out of 73,969 voters only 6,873 even bothered to fill out a absentee ballot or even went to the polls at all….realize less than 20% of the city voted at all…
March 12th, 2015 at 8:09 am
The life of anyone elected is always limited. Maybe it’s by choice and maybe it isn’t.
I read somewhere that the average life expectancy of someone locally elected is around 5 years. Lori served admirably for 15 years as Mayor. That would mean she has served 3 times the average. That’s amazing and among the longest.
You can’t say she didn’t have her time to serve and that she didn’t have an opportunity to make an impact. It only means that it is time to move on and let someone else continue, good or bad, right or wrong, mistake or better.
To anyone who is elected, that is what happens and they have to accept it. It’s the reality of the journey they started at one time and now has come to an end. It’s part of the bargain.
Good luck to you Lori in the future and maybe we will see you serve again sometime.
FROM BUDDY:
Five years if you don’t consider Congress and state office, which has an eight year term limit.
I agree Moseley should be applauded for her long public service. She has other roles to play.
March 12th, 2015 at 1:59 pm
@hmmmm – Judy Stern was NOT at the Messam party. Perhaps you confused her with Sheriff Israel’s chief of staff Lisa Castillo, who was there at the Messam party.
March 12th, 2015 at 3:44 pm
I get a kick out of the new trend with losing candidates and their supporters of trying to diminish their loss by claiming only XYZ percentage of overall City, District etc voted.
Get over it losers, you lost. It is a political campaign, one wins and the rest lose . It is so silly to blemish a win by a winning candidate on low voter turnout. If the loser was so great, obviously the turnout would have been better.
March 12th, 2015 at 3:51 pm
Let me get this right. According to the article when Jewish retirees dominated she was Lori COHEN Moseley but when goyim came in she was Lori Moseley a goyische name. So we should be verklept because she didn’t get enough of a tan in the Bahamas or seycelles to pass for a Caribbean black? I mean if she was as good a mayor as some claim she could get black votes to win. Don’t always think a black candidate wins solely on race it usually involves more than that like ignoring minority needs
March 12th, 2015 at 4:55 pm
You never know maybe Judy Stern was keeping an eye out for Ian Richards who rumor has it may run against Judge Carlos Rodriguez.
March 12th, 2015 at 5:33 pm
Judy Stern on her best day on earth couldn’t be compared to, let alone be mistaken for Lisa Castillo.
FROM BUDDY:
Nor mistaken for Runsey Castillo….but what about Lou Costello?
March 14th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
Look at what Inverray has turned into. The onetime prestigious racquet club is now a dilapidated waste land.