Peter Schorsch
In the Miami Beach Commission race for Kristen Rosen Gonzalez’s vacated seat, Brian Ehrlich is proudly waving the developer’s flag — especially the Airbnb developer’s flag.
And yes folks, he isn’t just running for office. He’s running for the developer lobby’s PAC purse.
Let’s be blunt: Ehrlich has raised north of $100,000 in his first fundraising sprint, with more than $60,000 funneling through his political committee, *Miami Beach in Focus.* Real estate interests account for nearly 20% of his campaign haul—and a whopping 57% of his committee’s funds.
Those checks aren’t coming from beach cruisers; they’re coming from tower builders, hotel execs, and the folks who think Miami Beach is best saved by stacking more floors. Not exactly the cheeriest origin story for a “neighbor first” candidate.
But here’s the kicker: Ehrlich brands himself not as a politician, but as “your neighbor.” Meanwhile, he’s literally built a career on Airbnb-style hotel conversions — flipping permanent housing into tourist one-night stands. Before that, he worked for the Related Group, one of Miami’s most prolific and visible developers.
In a city where affordable housing is as rare as a clear zoning application, that’s not just a résumé. It’s an albatross. And one that Ehrlich’s fellow Commission candidates — of which there are many — will have no problem with hanging around his neck.
Expect that one candidate in particular, Daniel Ciraldo — the preservation advocate and former head of the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) — will make Ehrlich’s professional career and political funding a campaign issue.
Ciraldo has made resisting development his career, stepping down from his MDPL role amid concerns about developer money muddying preservation battles. He’s branded massive towers and dense upzoning as threats to Miami Beach’s identity, and he’s not afraid to call out transactions that should trigger alarm bells with Beach residents and activists.
But it won’t just be Ciraldo holding Ehrlich’s feet to the fire — bashing Airbnb is a more popular sport than pickleball in Miami Beach and everyone is going to line up to take a whack at the short-term rental developer. It’s just smart politics.
Ehrlich clearly knows this. His campaign has gone out of its way to brand him as the petition-gathering, board-serving “neighbor” who just wants to give back. It’s clever politics. But scratch the surface and it looks less like neighborly service and more like a carefully constructed inoculation campaign against the very obvious — that his business and his donors present a real liability among Beach voters.
In Miami Beach, the tension runs deep: Residents desperately want affordability, character, and walkability — not towers and conversions. Ehrlich is walking a tightrope with the Miami Beach electorate. When mailers start pouring into homes after Labor Day, anticipate that his fellow candidates are going to do everything they can to make him slip.
