In Florida’s primary election Tuesday, incumbent Miami-Dade Mayor (and VoteWater endorsee!) Daniella Levine Cava cruised easily, with 58 percent of the vote. Our other endorsee, Cindy Lerner, is headed to a November runoff as neither she nor incumbent Raquel Regalado got 50% of the vote in the race for the county commission District 7 seat.

Further north, in Martin County, we were thrilled to see dirty tricks and dirty money backfired!

Six-term county commissioner Doug Smith, who raised $178,000 and is infamous for using “ghost” candidates to close primaries, got slapped (electorally) by challenger Eileen Vargas. Reckless growth was the top issue.

Likewise, in the City of Stuart, two incumbent commissioners, Becky Bruner and Troy McDonald, were defeated handily by Laura Giobbi and Sean Reed, respectively. Again, growth was far and away the biggest issue.

And in St. Lucie County, incumbent county commissioner Linda Bartz lost the District 3 race to challenger Erin Lowry, even though Bartz raised twice as much as Lowry. Guess what one of the big issues was?

Despite big spending by the “sprawl” industry, voters in these communities said they’ve had enough. Now, elected officials in these areas need to pay heed, and those who back the sprawl industry – not just developers and builders but the chambers of commerce, even the Realtor community – needs to understand that the wind has changed direction – and they need to change with it.