BY OSCAR CORRAL

 Mayor Joe Carollo, one of Miami's most controversial politicians, was shown the exit door by voters on Tuesday, bringing to an end a leadership style in City Hall that his admirers say was gutsy -- but his many foes called divisive.

 As he leaves office, Carollo says there is one memory from his four years as mayor he will keep with him until he dies: the federal seizure of Cuban rafter Elián González in 2000.

 ``When he was being taken away, I got woken up during the raid by one of the people there,'' Carollo said. ``The look and the tears on Lázaro González's face when we embraced. He and Marisleysis and others there were choking from the tear gas. The way that house looked will stay in my mind.''

 SYMBOLIC MOMENT

 The moment has symbolic importance for Carollo because he saw it as his duty to represent his fellow Cuban Americans during the tense debate over the boy's fate.

 But what he viewed as sticking up for his people, others saw as creating a chasm between the Cuban Americans and everyone else.

 ``I've never denied that I'm very proud of being a Cuban American,'' he said. ``I don't think the Cubans are going to get better representation than Joe Carollo . . . ''

 He stopped in the middle of his sentence and thought for a moment, then added, ``or for that matter anyone else.''

 Whatever Carollo's self-conception, many -- both non-Hispanic and Hispanic -- believe he increased ethnic tensions in Miami.

 EVERYONE AFFECTED

 Florida International University Professor Kevin Hill said Carollo's divisive personality affected everyone at some point, not just blacks and white non-Hispanics.

 ``He is a polarizing figure, not just ethnically but within his own community,'' Hill said.

 CLASHING OPINIONS

 From the moment he entered the Miami political scene in 1979, as the youngest Miami commissioner ever at 24, he personified the clashing opinions between Cubans and others. But even so, he was never able to claim with credibility that he spoke for all the Cubans.

 In the end, it was his propensity to personalize politics that did him in, Hill said.

 ``He would take pretty extreme positions,'' Hill said. ``He's someone who has very strong views about the world, and tends to see the world in black and white in terms of him and his enemies.''

 Carollo's political career was controversial from the start. At 20, he went to work on the 1976 presidential campaign of George Wallace, one of the biggest foes of the civil rights movement.

 Elected city commissioner on an anti-communist platform, he helped push for the firing of Miami's first black city manager, Howard Gary. He compared Miller Dawkins, a black commissioner, to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

 During that term, he also had a falling out with Police Chief Ken Harms, and called him a ``two-bit punk.''

 As during his later mayoral term, he warred with everyone, including then-Mayor Maurice Ferré, who is again running for mayor this year.

 The Ferré-Carollo antipathy reached a memorable climax during the election of 1983, when Ferré, thinking he had patched things up with his volatile rival, called a press conference so Carollo would endorse him. Instead, Carollo stood before the microphone and denounced him.

 In 1986, he was challenged to a duel by Jorge Mas Canosa, a revered figure to many in Miami's Cuban community, because of Carollo's position against a Mas Canosa deal to develop Watson Island.

 When asked to choose between swords or guns, Carollo instead chose water pistols, diffusing the situation.

 COMEBACK IN 1996

 After a period in the political wilderness, Carollo became mayor in 1996 after Mayor Steve Clark died of cancer. He went to court following the 1997 election to challenge Xavier Suarez's victory and convinced a judge that the election was tainted by massive absentee vote fraud. An appeals court subsequently put Carollo back in office.

 As mayor, he clashed repeatedly with Commissioner Arthur Teele Jr., and saw his one-time close ally, Cuban-American Commissioner Tomas Regalado, turn into a bitter political foe.

 Following the Elián raid, he fired City Manager Donald Warshaw, alienating white non-Hispanic voters. As it turned out, Warshaw was subsequently convicted of stealing money from a children's charity, and is serving time in prison.

 And no matter what the criticism, Carollo is proud of his record. Under his watch, the crime rate dropped, the city recovered from a financial crisis, and development
 boomed.

 FUTURE PLANS

 But with so much political baggage, some believe it is unlikely Carollo will seek office again. However, Carollo is four years younger today than Ferre was when he was last mayor, in 1985.

 While Carollo didn't say what he plans to do now, it is possible that he will turn to international business, tapping into a list of contacts that he made during his years as mayor.
 

                                    © 2001 The Miami Herald