Jesse Scheckner
Political consultant Willis Howard added $11,500 more in June toward his bid to become Miami-Dade County’s first voter-chosen Supervisor of Elections since the 1950s.
Most of it came from his own bank account.
That sum, plus another $6,000 he’s poured into his campaign account since April, makes him the current financial front-runner in what is now a three-way race.
He’s reported no spending so far.
Howard, who owns and operates the consulting firm Urban Initiatives, gave himself $10,000 last month.
Another $750 came from South Miami-based personal injury law firm Reyes O’Shea & Coloca P.A. The rest came through six personal checks of between $50 and $250.
A longtime Democratic operative, Howard previously worked as a campaign consultant and Chief of Staff to suspended North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, who was arrested last month on felony charges of illegal voting. A 2021 Miami Herald story describes Howard as someone “who has been paid by almost every elected official in North Miami Beach to help them win their seats.”
He’ll face at least one Democratic Primary opponent: elections lawyer and former state Rep. Juan-Carlos “J.C.” Planas, who filed for the contest last week. In what may have been a preemptive knock against Planas, who confirmed last month that he was considering a run, Howard has described himself as a “tried-and-true Democrat” who has “never switched” political parties.
Planas changed his registration from Republican to Democrat in response to Donald Trump’s attacks on voter rights and lies that the 2020 election was stolen.
Also running is GOP candidate Ruth Swanson, a 2020 election denier who last year mounted an unsuccessful Primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez.
Neither Planas nor Swanson have reported any fundraising yet.
Former Democratic state Rep. Joe Geller, an election lawyer too, said he may also run.
Miami-Dade’s currently appointed Supervisor of Elections, Christina White, confirmed in June that she will not seek election next year. She has held the job since 2015, when Giménez, then Miami-Dade’s Mayor, named her to run the county Elections Department.
By the time White made her decision public, Howard had been running for her job for about two months.
In 1957, Miami-Dade voters abolished several constitutional officers — including Supervisor of Elections, Tax Collector and Property Appraiser — through the adoption of the county’s Home Rule Charter. The charter delegated those offices’ powers to the Miami-Dade’s top executive official, now the county Mayor, who appoints people to those positions.
But in 2018, Florida voters — including 58% of Miami-Dade voters — approved a constitutional amendment requiring every county in the state to elect those officers, as well as a Sheriff, by Jan. 7, 2025.
Candidates faced a Monday deadline to report all campaign finance activity through June 30.
The 2024 Primary Election will be held Aug. 20, followed by the General Election on Nov. 5. Candidates for the countywide office of Supervisor of Elections have until June 14, 2024, to qualify for the race.
