Lauderdale-by-the-Sea elects Edmund Malkoon as Mayor, new Commissioners Richard DeNapoli, John Graziano

Three elected posts were up for grabs in the small town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and every one of them went to candidates backed by outgoing Mayor Chris Vincent and the Broward County Republican Party.

With all three of the town’s precincts reporting, Edmund Malkoon, the town’s Vice Mayor, won a close three-person race to win the mayoralty.

He secured 40% of the vote, outpacing first-time candidate Ann Marchetti and Town Commissioner Buz Oldaker, who took 35% and 25% of the vote, respectively.

“It is an honor to have been (chosen) by so many,” Malkoon said in a statement. “I’m truly grateful for the (opportunity) to continue serving our amazing town (and) all the amazing people of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.”

Malkoon, a real estate executive, will replace Vincent.

In the lead-up to Election Day, he said he wants to ensure that a privately owned spot called Anglin’s Fishing Pier is repaired. He said he fished there as a child.

For Seat 2 on the five-seat Town Commission, longtime civic leader John Graziano defeated Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Chamber of Commerce Chair Howard Goldberg with 58% of the vote.

The win rewarded Graziano’s persistence. A retiree from New York who unsuccessfully ran for Mayor in 2020, he vowed, if victorious this year, to prioritize undergrounding town utility wiring and require all future developments to do so.

Former Broward GOP Chair and current Broward State Committee member Richard DeNapoli turned in the strongest performance among the three winners on Election Day. In a head-to-head contest with first-time candidate Kenneth Brenner, he secured 61% of the vote to win Seat 4.

DeNapoli thanked the outgoing Mayor and the town’s residents for their support.

“Together with the new Mayor Edmund Malkoon and other new Commissioner John Graziano, we will keep our town on the right track!” he wrote on Facebook. “And thanks to all my volunteers and supporters — I couldn’t have done it without you!”

DeNapoli later told Florida Politics he especially wanted to “thank the voters for giving me the honor of serving them,” adding, “I won’t let them down.”

He will replace Oldaker, a Democrat, flipping the seat red.

A lawyer and certified financial planner, DeNapoli told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel he wants to maintain building height limits while making the town more fiscally responsible.

Malkoon will serve a two-year term, while Graziano and DeNapoli will both serve for four years.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, all three were the subjects of attack mailers from a secretive group calling itself “Concerned Citizens of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea,” whose tactics run afoul of Florida election law.

Vincent decried the flyers as “divisive, delusional, illegal and intellectually responsible.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 6,100 people live in coastal Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. The town, located 33 miles north of Miami, is 76% non-Hispanic White and 16% Hispanic or Latino.

Eighteen percent of residents are mixed-race, and more than a quarter of those living in the 1.57-square-mile municipality are foreign-born.

The median household income is $67,569. Fewer than 7.5% of residents live at or below the poverty line.