Blast from the Past - Romano and Ramiccio

ROMANO OUSTS PROTEGE RAMICCIO
NEWCOMER ALSO WINS AS VOTERS SEEK CHANGE
March 14, 2001
BYLINE: Scott McCabe, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
SECTION: LOCAL, DATELINE: LAKE WORTH

The master thumped his pupil.
Former mayor Rodney Romano easily bested his protege and former friend Tom Ramiccio in Tuesday's bitter mayoral combat. With every vote counted, Romano earned 60 percent,

The incumbent also lost in the District 1 race, where political newcomer Scott Maxwell knocked off three-term city commissioner Retha Lowe, Lake Worth's first and only black elected official. With every precinct counted, Maxwell had 50.5 percent, Lowe 49.5 percent. About 25.8 percent of the city's 14,572 registered voters participated. The mayor serves two-year terms and is paid $5,200. Commissioners serve two-year terms and are paid $4,200 annually.

The miniscule margin of Lowe's defeat was not miniscule enough to pull her within the one-half of one percent that would would have automatically triggered a recount. Late Tuesday, she was too upset to come to the phone, someone who answered the phone at her home said.

The mayoral race pitted mentor vs. protege, friend vs. friend, church lector vs. church lector. But in the end, Romano, 47, proved his name still carried the clout it had when he was mayor from 1993 to 1997. He convinced voters that he could make things better.

Ramiccio's spotlight-grabbing personality provided Romano fodder. Most damaging, the Florida Commission of Ethics cited Ramiccio for threatening to discontinue city use of a flower shop because the owner displayed his opponent's campaign sign.

Ramiccio was stunned at how soundly he was beaten."I guess negative campaigning works," Ramiccio, 39, said." (Romano) was able to distort my positive attributes." Romano couldn't be reached late Tuesday, his wife Lynnette said. The new mayor was on his way to give his condolences to Ramiccio.

Romano, an attorney, once worked with Ramiccio to turn the struggling city around. Ramiccio, owner of Dixie Carpet & Vinyl, joined the council in 1995 and took Romano's baton two years later. Together they were formidable. Romano was the forceful leader, Ramiccio, the energetic cheerleader. But the two had a falling out when Romano announced his plan to retake the mayor's job. He blasted Ramiccio for "resting on my laurels" and said Lake Worth's resurgence "would have happened had a monkey been in office."