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Alex Penelas (born December 18, 1961) is the former mayor of Miami-Dade, Florida.
Academic and Family life
Penelas, a Cuban-American, was born in Miami and has lived there all his life; he attended college at St. Thomas University and, in 1985, received his law degree from the University of Miami, where he was inducted into the university's prestigious Iron Arrow Honor Society. Penelas and his wife, Lilliam, have two sons, William, 9, and Christopher, 6, who attend a public elementary school in Northwest Miami-Dade County. Lilliam obtained a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Barry University in 1994.
Political life
Penalas has served on the city council of Hialeah, Florida from 1987 to 1990. In 1990, he became the youngest county commissioner in Dade County's history. On October 1, 1996, Penelas became the first Executive Mayor of Miami-Dade County.
In 1999, People Magazine named Penelas "America's sexiest politician."
Unlike most Cuban-American leaders in Florida, Penelas is a member of the Democratic Party. During the Elián González controversy in 2000, however, Penelas defied the wishes of the Clinton administration by refusing to cooperate with federal authorities in the repatriation of the Cuban boy. Later, during the 2000 presidential race, Penelas refused to campaign alongside Al Gore, and made no comments during the controversy over Miami-Dade County's ballots in the aftermath of the election. This led many Democrats to criticize Penelas as a Republican turncoat.
In June of 2004, Gore criticized Penelas as "the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America." Sen. Bob Graham came to Penelas's defense shortly after the incident.
As a candidate in the U.S. Senate election, 2004, Penelas stressed his opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and focused much of his campaigning on the Latin American communities of southern Florida, pointing out that he would be the only Hispanic senator if elected. However, he was unable to match the popularity or fundraising levels of rivals Betty Castor and Peter Deutsch into the August primary season, and his campaign was made more difficult by his ongoing commitments as mayor. He lost the primary on August 31 with only ten percent of the vote.
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