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1639-32 Politics THU NOV 07 1985 ED: FINAL SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 13D LENGTH: 20 . 91" MEDIUM ILLUST: photo: Alex DAOUD SOURCE: CRAIG GILBERT Herald Staff Writer DATELINE: MEMO: SOUTH BEACH POWER MAKES A COMEBACK IN NEW COALITION An old power in Miami Beach politics resurfaced this week and propelled challenger Alex Daoud into the mayor' s office: the South Beach vote. South Beach ' s elderly Jews, a group that is shrinking in size, and its younger Latins, a group that is growing, combined to make Daoud a winner over Mayor Malcolm Fromberg. Daoud' s margin in the city' s depressed south end, including all the precincts south of Dade Boulevard, was 1, 757 votes. He won citywide by 1, 756 votes . "That was our strategy, our base -- Hispanics and elderly, " said Daoud' s campaign manager Gerald Schwartz. Schwartz believes a new coalition is replacing the once dominant elderly bloc in South Beach. "I think what' s happening is that the Latin and elderly Jewish interests are coinciding as populist interests: crime, dirty streets, taxes and so forth, " Schwartz said. "We played to those issues. " It ' s clear where Daoud got his support Tuesday. Why he got that support was still being debated Wednesday. Schwartz said the voters backed Daoud because they rejected Fromberg' s basic message -- that the city, after years of decline, has succeeded in turning things around. But voters also re-elected all five incumbent commissioners Tuesday, two of whom ran campaigns identical to Fromberg' s. Daoud, sworn in as mayor Wednesday, attributed his victory to his "open door policy, the feeling of my going out and listening to the people. " Fromberg' s supporters gave Daoud credit for being more dynamic on the stump, for having an awesome get-out-the-vote operation on election day and for successfully appealing to senior citizens -- still a majority of Beach voters. "Alex had the edge as a champion of the elderly and as a very strong street campaigner who appealed to that segment of the people who really didn't think things were improving that much, " said Norman Frank, co-chairman of the Fromberg campaign. Fromberg left town Wednesday morning on vacation and couldn't be reached for comment. "I think it was basically a question of personality, " said former Mayor Harold Rosen. Daoud and Fromberg offered Beach voters a dramatic contrast of styles and visions: Daoud?; an energetic commissioner and highly visible campaigner who harped on the ,city,' s problems, and Fromberg, a much more businesslike, aloof politician who emphasized the city' s progress. Their appeal to voters proved to be just as divergent: Daoud won the north and south ends of town, which include the city' s poorer neighborhoods. Fromberg won in the central portion of the city and the islands, home to the city' s most affluent neighborhoods. Daoud did better among Latins. Of the five precincts that are more than a quarter Hispanic, Daoud won four. Daoud did better among the elderly. Of the 28 precincts where senior citizens are the majority, Daoud won 23 . Of the 10 where they are the minority, Fromberg won six. It ' s just as clear that the city was strongly divided over the election . Most neighborhoods either went heavily for Daoud or heavily for Fromberg. Of 38 precincts, only four were decided by five percentage points or less. As heated and hard-fought as it was, the race for mayor involved something short of political control over the city. In Miami Beach, the city manager runs the day-to-day affairs. The mayor presides over and votes on a seven-member commission. While Tuesday' s vote produced a new mayor, it also returned to office six of seven commission members. The seventh winning candidate, Abe Resnick, was elected to Daoud' s open seat. Many of the returning commissioners frequently differed with Daoud when Daoud was a commissioner. Most are opposed to Daoud' s plan to remove City ' Manager Rob Parkins. "I definitely feel I 'm going to have an impact on the commission, " Daoud said Wednesday. Commissioner William Shockett had another view. "I don't think there ' s going to be a whole lot of change, " he said. ADDED TERMS: mb election result analysis END OF DOCUMENT.