Political yard signs usually highlight a promise or throw out a catchy slogan: Smith for Jobs or I Like Ike! Not too many politicos have spent cash to highlight their escape from felony cases.
Only in Miami would you find the kind of yard signs that have been popping up all over Liberty City this week, celebrating newly reinstated city Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones's walking on two corruption counts (and maybe rubbing it a bit in State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle's face).
A half-dozen of the signs are staked in grass medians on NW 62nd Street near I-95, trumpeting Spence-Jones's not-guilty verdict after prosecutors dropped their last remaining count last week.
Spence-Jones has thus far been muted in her response to the failed case, which kept her out of office for 22 months and left her facing prison time if convicted.
She hasn't put Rundle or her corruption team on blast, other than telling Banana Republican last week that it "was totally wrong for the State Attorney's Office to even make that accusation."
Spence-Jones didn't return Riptide's calls to see if she had paid for the signs, but we'd like to imagine her chuckling at the image of Rundle cruising past the bold blue-and-red message whenever she's in the neighborhood.
Here's a closer look:
Spence-Jones has already begun moving back into her Dinner Key offices. Christina Fernandez, a City of Miami spokeswoman, tells Riptide that no swearing-in ceremony will be held for the newly re-installed commish.
"[She] does not need to be sworn in because the governor only had to terminate the suspension and restore the commissioner to her office," Fernandez says.
The city still has some serious fallout from the failed prosecution, though -- Spence-Jones is likely owed nearly $190,000 in back pay.
Her temporary replacement, Rev. Richard Dunn, wants the city to shell out $200,000 for the remaining three years of his term, which he won't actually serve now.
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