Sarnoff, Gort Both Hold Onto Miami Commission Seats
MIAMI (CBS4) - After all the votes were counted, Miami commissioners Wilfredo "Willy" Gort and Marc Sarnoff kept their seats in Tuesday's General Election.
Long time commissioner Gort retained District 1 seat with 68% of the vote over Shawn Selleck, a former community development consultant who campaigned full-time. Selleck earned 32 % of the vote.
In District Two, Sarnoff narrowly avoided a runoff to win a second term, winning 53% of the vote against four challengers: Kate Callahan came in second place, earning 19% of the vote. Sarnoff was also running against Williams Armbrister Sr., Donna Milo and Michelle Niemeyer.
Sarnoff told CBS4's Maggie Newland that he is relieved.
"Probably a good thing for me to go through this election as hard as it was as brutal as it was, it probably was a good thing," said Sarnoff. "I just wish the election didn't have to be so negative. There's no reason for people to tear at each other. If you want to tear apart the issues, debate them. There's never a reason to go personal and it got personal very quickly and I think we have to grow we have to learn from this."
But he said the nasty election would not change the way he does his job.
"Politics has taught me you forgive and forget and you move on. Somebody who was absolutely against you before could be absolutely with you in a whole other issue and you really do forgive and forget in politics," said Sarnoff. "If you don't, you just collect enemies and collecting enemies is a brutal way of living."
COMPLETE ELECTION DAY RESULTS AND COVERAGE
