Fort Lauderdale Elects its First Gay Mayor
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| Dean Trantalis Celebrates his win |
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Voters in Fort Lauderdale elected the city's first openly gay mayor Tuesday.
{{By Peter Burke - Local10.com Managing Editor}}
Dean Trantalis defeated Bruce Roberts in a runoff election to replace longtime Mayor Jack Seiler.
Trantalis received more than 5,800 votes than Roberts.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor
100% of Precincts Reporting (69/69)
✓
Dean Trantalis
12,906 VOTES
64% » Winner
Bruce Roberts
7,082 VOTES
35%
Trantalis, 64, has been serving as a city commissioner since 2009 and is a longtime champion of equal rights.
Roberts, a former Fort Lauderdale police chief, is the current vice mayor. The 70-year-old was first elected commissioner in 2009 but is facing term limits.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates Gwen Graham and Philip Levine took to Twitter to congratulate Trantalis, as did U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida.
A decade ago, then-Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle made headlines after he said the city needed to buy single-occupancy public toilets on the beach to "reduce homosexual sex in bathrooms." He also opposed a plan to put a collection of gay and lesbian literature in a public library. It was ultimately approved.
Naugle's comments drew the ire of gay residents, including Trantalis, who became the city's first openly gay elected official in 2003. Trantalis decided not to seek re-election in 2006, but he was an outspoken opponent of Naugle's anti-gay message.
Trantalis previously ran for mayor in 2009 but lost to Seiler.
Steven Glassman, who is also openly gay, handily defeated opponent Tim Smith for one of the city's two open commission seats.
From Miami Herald:
In Fort Lauderdale, Dean Trantalis, 64, a Wilton Manors attorney, defeated Bruce Roberts, 70, the city’s former police chief, to replace longtime mayor Jack Seiler, who could not run because of term limits. Trantalis will be the city’s first openly gay mayor.
Trantalis, who served on the commission from 2002 to 2006 and was elected again in 2013, garnered about 65 percent of the votes. Roberts received about 35 percent.
In Hallandale Beach, five people vied to fill a seat left vacant by Anthony Sanders, who resigned in August after the Broward Inspector General’s Office accused him of funneling nearly $1 million into his non-profit organization.
The candidates included Mike Butler, Ann “Annie” Henigson ,William “Bill” Julian, Thomas W. Sands and John Stassi.
Butler, a political newcomer, received 61 percent of the vote. Julian was the second closest with about 23 percent of the vote.
Mike Butler won a seat on the Hallandale Beach City Commission, Tuesday, March 13, 2108.
Butler will join a Hallandale Beach commission embroiled in controversy. In January, Mayor Joy Cooper was arrested on felony charges including money laundering and campaign finance violations. After she was removed from office, Vice Mayor Keith London became the city’s mayor, leaving his seat open.
Tuesday’s vote means Butler will serve until November, when Sanders’ term would have ended.
Meanwhile, Coral Springs and Pompano Beach asked residents for millions of dollars to fund infrastructure improvements. In Coral Springs, voters rejected all three of the ballot questions, totaling $77.8 million. In Pompano Beach, voters approved all three projects totaling $181 million.
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