Mayor of the Beach

Just across Biscayne Bay from Mi ami is the city of Miami Beach. It is scarcely more than a spit of sand held together by a string of hotel resorts, but Miami Beach (pop. 69,000) is big enough to have its own $3,000-a-year mayor, and last week it elected a new one. According to one newspaper, the winner was "the tall, rather pudgy" Elliott Roosevelt, 54, "five times mar ried, four times a business failure, and second son of a famous father."

Most Miami Beach residents obvious ly did not think of Elliott in these terms.

Currently a management and investment consultant, he has been active in civic affairs, launched himself into Florida politics last year by running successfully for Democratic state committeeman. In February he decided to run against Incumbent Mayor Melvin Richard, 53.

The issues, such as they were (tourism, Miami Beach's relationship to Dade County), never got discussed very much. Instead, Mayor Richard made it a point to go around denying that he had ever called Elliott a drunk or that he had made nasty cracks about Elliott's sprightly marital career. For his part, Roosevelt did not exactly try to hide the fact that he was a Roosevelt. His campaign mailings were posted with the commemorative U.S. stamp depicting his late mother; the envelopes were decorated with the legend: IN A GREAT

TRADITION, ELECT ELLIOTT ROOSEVELT.

Said Mayor Richard's wife Janet rather enviously: "If we had stamps with our father or mother on them, we'd probably have used them too."

More to the point, Elliott concentrated on the city's South Beach district, home of thousands of retired people who had grown to adulthood during the Depression. To these people, Elliott was simply a Roosevelt, the son of the father of social security. Old pensioners grasped his hand and kissed it, crying, "It's Mr. Roosevelt, God bless him!" As it turned out, South Beach's voters went for Elliott by a 2 to 1 margin. That made all the difference to Roosevelt; he beat Richard by 1,409 votes--10,110 to 8,701.

To the very end, Elliott insisted that his name was more of a detriment than a help. "Being a Roosevelt costs you dearly," he explained earnestly. "My last name didn't help me in this campaign for mayor one bit. Look at my brother Jimmy--he ran for mayor of Los Angeles two months ago, and was beaten 2 to 1. And he has the same last name I have."

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