Election 2025: A Robust Turnout

Voters elect Vince Lago, Rhonda Anderson, and Richard Lara

A highly contentious and barb-filled election season has finally come to a close, with three Coral Gables Commission seats having been filled, one after going to a run-off. Mayor Vince Lago and Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson were both re-elected in the first round of voting April 8, while Richard Lara was elected in the April 22 runoff.

The April 8 election saw a historically high turnout of 29.62 percent (10,123 voters) of registered Coral Gables voters casting ballots. This was up significantly from 2023’s 20.91 percent (6,905 voters) turnout. In fact, it was the highest voter turnout since 2001.

Lago took a decisive victory in the mayoral race, winning reelection with 55.47 percent of the votes over Kirk Menendez (37.72 percent) and Michael Anthony Abbott (6.82 percent). Menendez must now vacate his seat on the Commission, where he has served as Commissioner since 2021.

Anderson won even more decisively with 58.24 percent of the votes and a sweeping victory in all 16 of the city’s precincts, beating out opponents Felix Pardo (37.29 percent) and Laureano Cancio (4.47 percent).

In the April 8 vote, both Richard Lara (47.2 percent) and Tom Wells (39.23 percent) far out- paced Claudia Miro (13.57 percent) for the Group III seat abandoned by Menendez, though neither was able to win the coveted majority of votes needed to bypass a runoff. That race was won in the April 22 runoff by Lara, claiming victory with 4,352 votes (55.4 percent of votes cast) over Wells with 3,504 votes (44.6 percent of votes cast). That contest saw another record turnout –23.1 percent of registered voters – a largest turnout of any Coral Gables runoff election.

With the Commission having been split into two factions since last election, when Commissioners Ariel Fernandez and Melissa Castro were elected and soon turned Menendez to their way of thinking, the election and the runoff were seen as a vindication of the agendas of Mayor Lago and Vice Mayor Anderson. These included fiscal responsibility, managed growth, lower taxes, expansion of green spaces, protection of the tree canopy, environmental sustainability, and greater voter participation, among other issues.

Lara, the executive vice president and general counsel for Spanish Broadcasting System, was endorsed by the Mayor and Vice Mayor, while Wells, also an attorney, was considered a candidate who could supplant Menendez while keeping power in the same Fernandez/Castro camp. He also serves on the city’s Charter Review Committee.

Both candidates’ campaigns centered largely on the issue of incivility within the Commission, with both pledging to restore order. However, Wells also made his disdain for Mayor Vince Lago apparent. He had been endorsed by former Commissioner Menendez, while Claudia Miro endorsed Lara, encouraging the 1,356 residents who voted for her to support the winning candidate.

With the election now over, citizens can expect a return to an orderly City Hall and to the progressive legislation and competent governance that has been the hallmark of the Lago/Anderson admnistration.

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Revisit where the race began in our January preview: The Upcoming Elections: Candidates New & Old.