Susan Haynie is the New Mayor of Boca Raton

By: Quezia Salgado

Susan Haynie is the victor is the race for Mayor of Boca Raton, winning with 57.03% of the votes against her opponent and City Council colleague Anthony Majhess, who took 42.97% of the votes. Haynie’s years of service on the City Council and her vast experience and knowledge of the City budget, growth management issues and neighborhood concerns, are what made her the people’s choice to become the new leader of this city.

The election night watch party was held at Biergarten in downtown Boca Raton, where Susan greeted and thanked supporters: “I am so thrilled and so overwhelmed by the support; the citizens have spoken and have chosen me to lead the city forward. It is an honor and it is beyond belief; I’m so thankful.” There was an atmosphere of energy and enthusiasm, as well as hope for the future of Boca. The number of people who took the time to vote on this election, turned out to be nearly twice that of the last Municipal elections, with almost 11,000 voters.

Now former Mayor Susan Whelchel expressed why she believes Haynie came out victorious: “Susan Haynie, Mike Mullaugh and Robert Weinroth, represent fair and honest government. I want to thank the people of the city of Boca Raton for being able to see through negative campaigning.” Re-elected to remain in his position in city council seat B, Michael Mullaugh took 52.23% of the votes against his opponents Mohamed Abdulla, Craig Ehrnst, and Eric Gooden: “I feel very vindicated; I’ve been on the council for 5 years and I felt that if I simply ran on my record and talked positively about what I have done, and didn’t attack anyone, the people would vote for me based on that, and they did, and I am very happy.”

Co-owner with her husband James of Investments Limited, Marta Batmasian was very happy to have been one of the people who supported Susan Haynie. As someone in the field of development and investing, she was very aware of who she was voting for: “We want to have a modified community that will provide a work, play, and live atmosphere, and that is the reason we’ve been supporting Haynie. I am certain that she is going to be very fair; I don’t think she is biased towards developers because she voted against us in our development project; so I don’t want people to be misled that she is going to arbitrarily accept any and all development; she is a very sensible person. I am sure we have better times ahead of us.”

Susan spoke highly of her grassroots team and thanked everyone who donated: “This victory is not about me, it’s about the community; we fought long and hard and it’s been quite a journey. I thank my family and everyone who has been with me. This is a wonderful city and it is my honor to lead you forward in this new season.”