Rematch! Jeannett Slesnick will jump into Gables mayor’s race

What looked like a sleepy, mismatched mayoral race and incumbent slam dunk in Coral Gables has turned into an exciting rematch and likely turnover: former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick has decided to run again.
Slesnick, who lost her first mayoral bid two years ago by a scant 187 votes, has made an appointment with the city clerk to file her paperwork for the mayor’s race Friday morning, just before the deadline (’cause that’s how she rolls).
Boom! Crack! That sound you just heard was Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli passing out and falling down.
Because Election Day in 2017 was during Spring Break for many Coral Gables voters, who were out of town or otherwise preoccupied. Election Day is after Spring Break this year (the last week in March) and add to that two years of Valdes-Fauli’s inept leadership and bully attitude toward residents and we have a whole ‘nother picture.
“I’m going to give people a choice,” Slesnick told Ladra Thursday. “I want someone at City Hall that respects our residents’ opinions.”
The workaholic real estate sales queen often wears a button that says “Make America Kind Again,” and says she wants “a kinder, gentler atmosphere in Coral Gables where people and business owners are respected.”
Whispers about a possible run have been swirling since Slesnick picked up an election packet at City Hall on Tuesday. People she knew and some she didn’t had been pressuring her to run for weeks. They pull her aside at Publix and at the dry cleaners and ask her to run.
Slesnick told Ladra weeks ago that she wanted to serve, but didn’t want to campaign. That’s probably because Valdes-Fauli invented some ethnic bias that doesn’t exist last time and made the race really ugly. He shouldn’t get away with it this time. Voters shouldn’t let him.
This race is also likely to center around development. A Business Monday story in the Miami Herald about how the Gables has changed due to a lot of recent development has a lot of people buzzing. Slesnick is known for her opposition to over development, having voted against height variances and the PASEO project, for example.
Developing story. More to come.
 

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