Alex Penelas (born December 18, 1961 in Miami, Florida) is the former mayor of Miami-Dade, Florida.

Academic and Family life

Penelas, a Cuban-American, attended college at St. Thomas University. In 1985, he 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 and Christopher.

Political life

Penalas served on the city council of Hialeah, Florida from 1987 to 1990. In 1990, he became the youngest county commissioner in Dade County 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 openly 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, 2004, Gore criticized Penelas as "the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America." Sen. Bob Graham immediately came to Penelas's defense.

As a candidate in the U.S. Senate election, 2004, Penelas was unable to match the popularity or fundraising levels of rivals Betty Castor and Peter Deutsch in the August, 2004 primary, and his campaign was made more difficult by his extensive commitments as mayor. He lost the primary with ten percent of the vote.

Penelas serves currently as a political analyst for Spanish-speaking Univision television.