Nation: Exile for Elliott

He should have been a shoo-in. His first two-year term as mayor of Miami Beach had been honest and productive. He had become a popular, familiar figure about town. More important, in a city where more than 40% are old enough (the median age: 59) for the welfare benefits initiated by his father, Elliott Roosevelt had a magic name.

Nonetheless, Miami Beach voters last week rejected Elliott by a vote of 10,692 to 8,455 in a nonpartisan runoff, electing in his place a political novice, Attorney Jay Dermer, 37. Roosevelt (whose losing margin roughly equaled his winning ratio in 1965) may have...