Gimenez elected Miami-Dade mayor

The Miami Herald reports: Carlos Gimenez, a former Miami city manager and county commissioner who touted himself as the candidate with the experience to solve the most nettlesome problems, will be Miami-Dade County’s next mayor after defeating former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina by a slim margin.

With all precincts reporting, Gimenez won 51 percent to Robaina’s 49 percent.

The difference for Gimenez proved to be early votes, where he fared better than Robaina. The two essentially fought to a draw for absentee and Election Day votes.

“I am happy,” said Gimenez, after learning he won. “But I also know that come tomorrow I have a lot of work to do.”

The vote ends a two-and-a-half-month campaign to pick a replacement for former county mayor Carlos Alvarez, who was ousted in March in the largest recall of a local politician in U.S. history.

Gimenez — an often lone, critical voice of the government he’s now charged with leading — confronts a host of challenges that must be addressed quickly and he will have little time before voters are given a chance to judge his time in office. His term runs until November 2012 — the balance of what would have been Alvarez’s term — and he must face voters in the regularly scheduled August 2012 primary.

The to-do list for Gimenez over the next year includes closing a budget gap that could be more than $300 million, reorganizing a county government widely considered bloated and inefficient, renegotiating 10 labor contracts, and initiating a host of reforms, including eight-year term limits for county commissioners.

The race results will become official Friday, when the vote is certified by the county canvassing board.