Miami 2013 Mayoral Race Won By Tomas Regalado

Regalado took 78 percent of the vote in the November 5th election. End Quote

Miami, FL (1888PressRelease) November 09, 2013 - Tomás P. Regalado, the 33rd Mayor of the City of Miami, has just won his reelection for Mayor on November 5th, 2013. This will be Regalado's second term in office with a 78% win.

Regalado took 78 percent of the vote in the November 5th election. His closest challenger was Jeff Benjamin with 10 percent, followed by Williams Armbrister with 8 percent and Tom Baumann with 4 percent. Regalado and his administration voted early that morning and spent the rest of the day visiting polling places thanking poll workers and speaking with voters.

"Today, the residents of Miami have sent a clear message," said Regalado who gathered his family and supporters at Coral Way's Our Lady of Lebanon Church for the vote count and to celebrate the start of his second term. "Thanks to your support, we celebrate a victory for fiscal responsibility and sustainable growth; a mandate for increasing services without increasing taxes. We begin this new term ensuring our children and grand children will have an international city whose priority is an ever increasing quality of life."

When Regalado was first elected in 2009, he inherited a $118 million deficit. His administration faced the daunting challenge of stabilizing Miami's economy while improving the quality of life for all residents. Regalado focused on implementing policies aimed at closing the city's wealth gap and strengthening Miami's middle class while increasing services. During his first term, Regalado's administration reduced the City's budget by over one hundred million dollars while lowering taxes for residents and increasing services. Regalado, through his financial prudence and cutting government salaries and pensions (including his own), proved that with proper financial maintenance and cutting of unnecessary government spending, recovery was possible.

"We have not only recovered our city from the verge of bankruptcy," added Regalado. "We have also recovered the confidence in our voters and the confidence of our community."

Regalado's strategy throughout his campaign has been to continue his major pro-growth first-term accomplishments, ranging from: preserving and restoring of historic places; working with the Department of Justice to improve the vetting process for police officers; partnering with the private sector and establishing a gun buyback program that removed over 500 weapons from Miami streets; presenting this year's budget, which adds more police patrol officers while lowering taxes; establishing a free trolley service that will continue to expand and connect areas of transit with neighborhood centers; and saving the Olympia Theater from closing its doors.

"We're not done yet," said Regalado. "Miami has emerged as a brand at so many levels given our geographical location, our increasing world-class arts and cultural facilities and events, international visitor destinations, ethnic diversity, quality healthcare and small businesses. As a community, we have been moving closer to my goal of having Miami become one of the leading forces in this hemisphere in the area of international business and economic development. There is a lot in store for the next four years including a new programming initiative with Google, the continuation of restoring historical locations, and becoming the third government-owned EB-5 regional center in the United States; a project that will bring millions of dollars of investment, new jobs every year and aid Miami's burgeoning tech industry."

For more information about Mayor Tomás Regalado and his administration, please visit http://www.tomasregalado.com/; http://www.miamigov.com/home/; "Like" on Facebook or "Follow" ( @ ) Tomas_Regalado on Twitter; or call (305) 250-5300 dot

About Mayor Tomás Regalado
Tomas P. Regalado is the 33rd and current mayor of Miami, Florida. Since assuming the mayor's office in November 11, 2009 and reelected November 5, 2013, Mayor Regalado has focused his political career on growing Miami's cultural reputation. He's also made commitments to fiscal responsibility during one of the shakiest economic moments in Florida's history.

Regalado began his career as a journalist/reporter in the 1970s and covered international news, such as the civil war in Angola, the riots in Soweto, South Africa and the civil war in Mozambique. In 1974, Tomas became a reporter for WLTV Channel 23 (Univision) but returned to radio in 1977 as the News Director in charge of all programming for La Fabulosa, WFAB. Regalado later decided to leave the news desk and became the station's first international news correspondent. In 1983, Regalado became the first Cuban American member of the White House Press Corps, and traveled with Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton, covering international summits, presidential campaigns and national party conventions from 1983 - 1993. As a war correspondent, he documented the Civil war in El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Israeli conflicts. Regalado also spoke several times before the U.N's Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland against human rights violations in Cuba. He won a United Press International Award for his documentary in Angola.

After his auspicious career in journalism, Regalado turned his attention to politics. He successfully ran for Miami City Commissioner in 1996 and was reelected three times to that office before stepping down to serve as Miami's Mayor.

Regalado was elected Mayor of Miami in November 2009 with a 72% majority, succeeding Manny Diaz. He won reelection for a second term in office on November 5th.

For more information about Mayor Tomás Regalado and his administration, please visit http://www.tomasregalado.com/; http://www.miamigov.com/home/; "Like" on Facebook or "Follow" ( @ ) Tomas_Regalado on Twitter; or call (305) 250-5300.

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