According to the Miami Herald on JANUARY 13, 2023

Fifteen people have qualified to seek the District 2 seat on the Miami City Commission.

The city will hold a special election Feb. 27 to choose who will succeed Ken Russell, who had to resign following an unsuccessful bid for Congress. Potential candidates had until 6 p.m. Friday to qualify to run. Under the city charter, the person with the most votes will win the election. There will be no runoff.

District 2 covers most of the city of Miami’s coastal neighborhoods, including Coconut Grove, Brickell, downtown Miami, Edgewater and Morningside.

One surprise candidate emerged Friday: Eddy Leal, an attorney in Mayor Francis Suarez’s office. Leal has advised Suarez since April 2019. He was once accused of improperly lobbying during public hearings over a zoning issue in Brickell, but the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust found no probable cause for wrongdoing and dismissed the complaint.

The candidates are:

▪ Sabina Covo, former television journalist and director of Hispanic media relations for Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

▪ Michael Goggins, wealth management professional.

▪Javier Gonzalez, real estate agent and previous District 2 candidate in 2019.

▪ Lior Halabi, digital marketing professional.

▪ Alicia Kossick, proprietor of Polished Coconut in the Grove.

▪ Eddy Leal, attorney on Miami mayor’s staff.

▪ Max Martinez, founder and creative director of marketing agency Maxfuture and a former mayoral candidate in 2021.

▪ Lorenzo Palomares, attorney.

▪ Renita Ross Samuels-Dixon, former Coconut Grove Village council member.

▪June Savage, real estate agent and Miami Beach mayoral candidate in 2017.

▪ Kathy Parks Suarez, auto dealer.

▪ Christi Tasker, business and marketing consultant

▪ James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance.

▪ Mario Vuksanovic, a former homeless outreach worker for the city.

▪ Martin Zilber, a former Miami-Dade judge who resigned from the bench in May 2021 amid allegations of misconduct. A state judicial committee investigation was dropped when he resigned. A 2022 Florida Bar inquiry found no probable cause to sanction Zilber.