1639-29 Politics SUN JUN 30 1985 ED: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 4B LENGTH: 13.64" MEDIUM
ILLUST:
SOURCE: TOM FIEDLER Herald Staff Writer
DATELINE:
MEMO:
ROLLER-COASTER POLITICS
THREW ROOSEVELT FOR LOOP
Few would deny that the Miami Beach mayor with the most famous political
name was Elliott Roosevelt, second son of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
But unlike his father, who held the presidency for 15 years, Elliott
Roosevelt managed only a single, two-year term. In many ways, he remains a
classic example of the perilous, roller-coaster nature of Beach politics.
Roosevelt moved to Miami Beach in 1963 to establish a business
consulting firm. He almost immediately became immersed in state Democratic
politics, easily winning election as Florida' s representative on the national
committee.
Upon announcing to run for Miami Beach mayor in 1965, he appeared
invincible. The all-powerful elderly vote, concentrated in the South Beach
tenement hotels, idolized the man, especially after he promised to remove the
admission charge from the weekly dances so they could better enjoy `"the golden
years . "
Some say that many of the elderly actually thought he was his father,
who by then had been dead for 20 years. Others reject that assertion.
"They weren't confused at all, " says Revy Wikler, who covered that
election as a reporter for a Beach paper. "They said to Elliott, 'Your father
helped us, now we ' ll help you, ' " she says.
Roosevelt waltzed into office, beating a veteran city councilman. By all
accounts, he performed admirably in advocating the redevelopment of South
Beach, hammering on inefficiency in government and persuading the Republican
Party to hold its 1968 convention there.
Yet performance is rarely the overriding issue in Beach politics.
Roosevelt fell victim to bad timing and the back- street rumor mills that
flourish in election seasons.
The campaign came only weeks after the 1967 Six-Day War in which Egypt
launched an unsuccessful sneak attack against Israel. The Beach reacted with
pro-Israeli fervor, most of which benefitted a young lawyer named Jay Dermer.
Not only was Dermer a Jew, but his wife, Yaffa, was Israeli. Street-
level politicos spread the word that "a Jewish city should have a Jewish
mayor" in such times.
Roosevelt also was smeared by a leaflet campaign alleging that his
father, while president, had been responsible for turning away a ship full of
Jewish refugees trying to escape Nazi Germany. The ship, en route back to
Europe, was sunk and many refugees died, according to the bogus charge.
And finally, according to Wikler, there was the silverware incident. A
few days before the election, Roosevelt and his wife Patty invited the heads
of the Beach' s senior citizen clubs to lunch. Afterward, however, Patty
demanded that some of the wives open their purses because she suspected they
had pocketed some silverware, Wikler recalls.
Although Elliott overruled her demand, the incident so insulted the
senior citizens, they voted in a bloc for Dermer.
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