March was another good fundraising month for former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is running for the Miami city commission seat in District 1 and has raised more each month for a total of $142,000 in 90 days.
The next biggest bank belongs to Miguel Angel Gabela, but he loaned himself $100K so he’s only raised $34,130 — about a fourth of ADLP’s contributions. Local favorite Horacio Aguirre raised $69,135 and the other four candidates haven’t raised that much between them, so let’s not worry about them for now.
Read related: Alex DLP keeps bunching bundles of special interest campaign money
The Dean came out of the gate swinging with $40,000 in January and topped that with $45,380 in February and then topped that with $56K last month, according to the last campaign reports that were filed.
Just as in the past two campaign reports, ADLP’s March advantage comes with bundles, or contributions made from the same source through family members or companies. Bundles generally indicate more than just a casual interest in a candidate’s position or vision. They are usually special interests.
March’s special interests include the developers of Riverside Wharf, who gave Diaz de la Portilla $5K in five maximum $1,000 donations, and Steve Perricone, who gave him $4,000. He also got $5,000 from Jayme Halli and $3,000 from Miguel Mouriz, both of whom are involved in retail investment and development.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if all these people are working together on a common project.
Read related: Alex DLP bolts out of Miami gate with a campaign cash advantage
Gabela doesn’t have any obvious bundling in his campaign report, sans a couple of paired contributions. He does have maximum contributions from former State Rep. Gus Barreiro — not surprising since the Barreiros and the DLPs are feuding fams — and from former Miami Commissioner Mark Sarnoff, a little more surprising because he used to be a DLP friend. Something must have happened there because Sarnoff, who helped the Dean in his county commission run last year, also gave $2,000 from two of his political action committees.
He also has $1,000 from lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez‘s New Leadership Network political action committee.
Aguirre raised $26,500, with no new bundles, which is harder.
As reported earlier, he already had bundled contributions — at least $10,000 from Terry Zerby and his family and partners in the marine terminal business, another $8,000 from Sara Babun and her related companies and $6,000 from Emmanuel Pacin, a real estate and marine guy. All $24,000 of it is Miami River money. Much of District 1 runs along the river.
Among Aguirre’s expenses are more than $3,000 to political consultant Dario Moreno, another ex DLP ally.

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Former State Sen. and current Miami city commission candidate Alex Diaz de la Portilla had another stellar month for fundraising in February, more than doubling his total to almost $86,000.
But at least half of the $45,380 raised in February, according to the campaign financial reports filed last week, was through bundles, which generally indicate donors with more than just a passing interest.
That includes $2,250 in 11 contributions from real estate development companies tied to Sergio Pino, $5,000 in five maximum contributions from real estate development companies controlled by Henry Torres, $3,000 in three maximum gifts from property management companies held by Lewis Swezy, $3,000 from lobbyist Eric Zichella, another $5,000 from real estate and development companies controlled by Rolando Delgado, $2,500 from former State Rep. turned lobbyist Eddy Gonzalez and $2,500 from hotel developer Richard Meruelo.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if these folks want a piece of the Miami Freedom Park Pie, the mega shopping/office/retail complex disguised as a soccer stadium that is planned for Melreese Golf Course. It’s got room for a hotel, too. The Dean — whose first month was also marked by a bunch of bundles and lobbyist dinero — is running for the seat vacated by the termed out Commissioner Willy Gort, who opposes the mega complex as planned.
Read related: Alex DLP bolts out of Miami gate with a campaign cash advantage
The open seat has drawn a number of candidates.
The only one with more money than Diaz de la Portilla is Miguel Angel Gabela, who loaned himself $100K. He raised another $17,000 but has spent more than half of that so far. Horacio Aguirre has spent the same $8,575 or so, but he has raised a total of $42,425. Eleazar David Melendez, the former aide to Commissioner Ken Russell, raised $4,442 in February, but spent $3 more. He has a total bank of $22,165. The only other person to have raised any funds is Yanny Hidalgo with $12,087, and spent $2,561 of that.
Former congressional candidate Michael Hepburn has withdrawn from the race and none of the other three candidates have raised a dime.
But, wait, there’s more. Because Alex DLP’s political action committee — the one he used for the senate race and then the county commission race — has raised almost $22,000 since October. He’s also spent almost $10,000, including $3K to Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador.

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Don’t think that former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla is not a true threat in the Miami District 1 race this year. While some think this three-time loser is unelectable, it’s best not to underestimate The Dean.
Especially when he is raising more campaign money than anybody else.
Read related: After loss in Senate, Miami-Dade races, Alex DLP may try Miami
Diaz de la Portilla tapped into his list of lobbyist buddies so they could bundle for him and he could come out with $40,400 in the first month. That’s just a couple K over the next highest amount, $38,000 by neighborhood fave Horacio Aguirre, who has been raising money since October.
Sure, it shows that Mike Gabela has raised $112,000 but he loaned himself $100K of that so he’s only raised $12K in a whole year. That’s worst than Yanny Hidalgo‘s $10,337, raised since October.
Eleazar Melendez, who also announced in January, raised $17,723, which wouldn’t be bad for someone without a rolodex full of lobbyists who owe him. Except he loaned himself $12K of that.
Read related: Neighbor vs neighbor in Miami District 1 as Eleazar Melendez files
Which means that a week before the second campaign report is due, just looking at January’s reports, Diaz de la Portilla is winning the money race thanks to his lobby pals.
He got at least $9,000 from former State Rep. and lobsterman Manny Prieguez, Jr., and his business and family interests as well as at least $5,000 each from Ron Book and his companies and Miami Beach parking czar Rafael Andrade and his companies. Add $1,000 each from Hugo Arza, Juan Mayol and Felix LaSarte and more than half the cash is lobby money.
There’s another $4,000 from Anibal Duarte-Viera, an attorney who is also a real estate developer and deal maker — and possibly a slumlord. Google him.
Read related: Bank foreclosed on ADLP, who ‘moves’ to run for Willy Gort seat in Miami
We don’t have long to wait to see if DLP — whose house is being foreclosed on and who “moved” in September into the district that is being vacated by termed-out Commissioner Willy Gort — was able to keep the pace in February, because those campaign reports are due next week. Ladra, for one, can’t wait to see who he taps into next.
Aguirre has some bundling of his own, with at least $10,000 from Terry Zerby and his family and partners in the marine terminal business and address in Oklahoma City and North River Drive. There’s another $8,000 coming from Sara Babun and her related companies and $6,000 from Emmanuel Pacin, a real estate and marine guy. All $24,000 of it is Miami River money.
Much of District 1 is along the Miami River, a newly booming area of development in the city.
Aguirre’s best month might be March, with his official campaign kick-off fundraiser Thursday hosted by former Mayor Tomas Regalado, Rev. Guillermo Revuelta and ten others at the new Miami Police Benevolent Association Hall.
There are two other candidates, Michael Hepburn, who just lost in the Democrat congressional primary, and Francisco Pichel, but neither have raised any money yet.

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The District 1 race for the city of Miami commission is getting more interesting every day.
Only hours after Ladra wrote that former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who helped Commissioner Joe Carollo in his comeback, had filed to run for the seat vacated by the termed-out Commissioner Willy Gort, a onetime aide and chief of staff to Commissioner Ken Russell filed to run.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a few months,” said Eleazar Melendez, who most recently worked on the campaigns for gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine and former Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson — both of whom lost.
Melendez filed paperwork Jan. 18 indicating he opened a bank account to start fundraising.
The most interesting thing about this is not that it pits a known Democrat Party operative against a veteran GOP political gun. It’s not that Melendez would be the first Puerto Rican elected in Miami since Maurice Ferre. No. What’s most interesting about it is that Melendez and Diaz de la Portilla are neighbors.
Next door neighbors, to be exact.
Read related: Bank forecloses on ADLP, who ‘moves’ to run for Willy Gort seat
Melendez, 33, lives in the same building, on the same floor in unit 1802, the unit next door to where Alex DLP, 54, says he lives in unit 1801 at the Terrazas on SW South River Drive. “I’ve never seen him,” Melendez said. He has seen baby brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla, twice — once in the lobby and once on their shared 18th floor hallway.
He move in in March, which would be about six months before ADLP registered to vote at the address.
“Living in the district, you see the condition of the infrastructure and the services provided versus Ken Russell’s area, which is wealthier. It’s night and day,” Melendez said. “I want the people here to understand these are basic things that we deserve.”
The Miami Freedom Park measure to turn the Mel Reese golf course into a mega retail complex with a soccer stadium passed in District 1 by two thirds, and Melendez said he has to support the people’s will.
“But we need to make sure it’s a good deal, that it’s not a giveaway,” he said, adding that he would like to see some kind of technology incubator incorporated.
Read related: Miami Commission should kick no-bid soccer shopping center out of Melreese
He is optimistic about his chances given the election last year of Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, an underdog who beat two big Cuban American veteran politicians, including ADLP in an overlap district.
“That idea in Miami that you have to vote for a Cuban politico so he can understand your issues, that has been changing,” Melendez said. “Ten months ago, there was a special election here, including areas in this district, and none of the Cuban-Americans running won. They lost against a liberal democrat.”
The other candidates in this race, so far, include Miguel Gabela, right, who came within 10 points of beating Gort last time and has loaned himself $100,000, Horacio Aguirre, who appears to have some of the establishment support, Michael Hepburn, who came in last in the Democratic primary for the 27th Congressional district with 6% of the August vote, and attorney Yanny Hidalgo.

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Hey! Alex Diaz de la Portilla! You just lost two elections, one for Senate and one for county commission, and the Little Havana house you were born in was foreclosed on last week by the bank, which is putting it up for sale because you owe them $638,000. What are you going to do next?
Why, run for city commission, of course!
Four days after Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch Mortgage foreclosed Thursday on his house at 1519 SW 19th Street, Diaz de la Portilla — a political consultant who helped Miami Commissioner Crazy Joe Carollo get elected in 2017 — filed paperwork on Monday to run for the seat that will be vacated by Willy Gort this November.
Read related: After loss in Senate, Miami-Dade races, Alex DLP may try Miami
The final judgement on foreclosure is against both him and his ex-wife Claudia Davant, who is also on the hook for the mortgage they apparently got when they were married. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Beatrice Butchko gave them until May 13 to pay the debt or the house will be sold at auction to the highest bidder for cash toward that debt.
Which means Claudia could still be on the hook for the balance.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if ADLP’s poor and mistreated parents and his often neglected dogs Elvis and Priscilla are going to go live in Coral Gables with his big brother, former Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, whose campaign for re-election Alex lost in 2016. They’d be much less comfortable in Alex DLP’s new home (on paper), a 967-square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit on the 18th floor of the Terrazas Riverpark Village Condo, 1861 NW S River Dr. Especially since his brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla, a former School Board member and state rep, is also registered to vote at the riverfront flat; although it’s hard to believe these two could live together.
ADLP’s voter’s registration changed on Sept. 15, which gives him the necessary year he needs before qualifying, which ends this Sept. 21. Ladra reported it in October, predicting that he would run for this very seat.
But he sure is a hypocrite. Because after Carollo’s victory, Diaz de la Portilla went on a crazy rant on the Nextdoor social site, calling Alfie Leon an “interloper” because he had only lived in Little Havana for a year before he almost beat Carollo for Miami City Commission. I guess it’s okay for him to be an interloper himself.
Read related: ADLP hit by attacks in all negative Senate 40 GOP primary campaign
This will be ADLP’s fourth attempt to return to public office, not his third, as most media outlets are reporting. They mention the run for commission last year, where he came in third, and the run for Senate in Westchester/East Kendall, where he lost the primary to State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz (who then lost to Democrat Annette Taddeo) despite the help from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and family (that’s CJ Gimenez to his right during early voting in the pic). That race was brutal with negative attacks against him, including one that disclosed his relationship with CJ’s wife, Tania Cruz, and how they cozied up in a Boston hotel room, chain smoking in a non-smoking room late one night and getting belligerent with police after they were called to throw them out.
But the mainstream media forgot his first loss, the run for state rep 112 in his real neighborhood in 2012, which he lost against an up and coming politician named Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is now a state senator. That was gut wrenching and he has struggled to recover from it since.
The Dean, as Ladra likes to call him because he loves to teach — perhaps he should do that and stop running for office — joins four other candidates who have already opened campaign accounts for the District 1 race: Horacio S. Aguirre, chairman of the Miami River Commission; Michael Hepburn, a former University of Miami academic adviser who ran in the Democratic primary for Florida’s 27th Congressional District; Miguel Angel Gabela, a businessman who has twice lost to Gort in past elections but came close once; and attorney Yanny Hidalgo.
Gabela, who is the clear front runner of the bunch and will likely end up in a runoff if ADLP pulls off anything at all, thinks he has Carollo’s support. He told Ladra Thursday that the commissioner told him so as recently as two weeks ago. “I consider him to be a friend,” Gabela said, adding that ADLP “is lying to people con el lio de Carollo.”
Read related: Willy Gort challenger Mike Gabela runs on one issue: Crime
But remember, this is a man who is known for stabbing folks in the back. Carollo did it with Maurice Ferre, at a press conference where he was supposed to endorse him for mayor  and instead turned against him, and he did it again last year, telling former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro that he would support his wife in the county race and then helping ADLP.
Besides, there is still Paella Gate. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has not finished their investigation of Carollo using public money and his taxpayer paid staff to hold Paella parties for ADLP at senior public housing locations during that special election. Carollo can’t turn on ADLP yet, while he could still provide state’s evidence.
Either way, Gabela — who has been campaigning since June and has already run in the same district twice — is confident that his neighbors will realize that Diaz de la Portilla is a narcissistic “career politician” carpetbagger.
“He’s running because he doesn’t have a job,” said Gabela, who has lived in the district for 30 years. “If there’s a dog catcher election, he’ll run for it because he doesn’t care about the people.”
True: Less than a year ago, ADLP was knocking on doors in Westchester and telling voters there that he would represent them in Tallahassee. He abandoned them for the voters of county commission District 5.
“Y a estas alturas he’s interested in this district? You really have to be an ignoramus to believe it,” Gabela said.
Yeah. But, unfortunately, a lot of ignoramuses apparently vote.

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Former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who just lost special election for county commission in June on the heels of a loss in a special Senate race, has moved from his room in his parent’s house in Little Havana to a riverfront condo next to Sewell Park so he can run for city commission next year.
Dean DLP’s new digs on the 18th floor of the Terrazas Riverpark Village Condo, at 1861 NW S River Dr., is a 967-square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit purchased in 2016 for $345,000 by Josefa Ortas, whose mailing address is in Madrid.
It also happens to be in Senate District 37 and Florida House District 111, but it is doubtful that anyone in the Diaz de la Portilla family wants to go up again against Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who has beaten both Alex and big bro Miguel. And it’s hard to believe ADLP would make este sacrificio more than two years before the next state race.
Besides, las malas lenguas say he is definitely eyeing the city seat so he can conspire with BFF Commissioner Joe Carollo, who he campaigned for and supports. Carollo also campaigned with ADLP in city of Miami senior housing complexes and is reportedly under investigation because of allegations he used city resources trying to elect his friend.
Read related: Gimenez family hit in Senate campaign… ADLP’s wag the dog
But the burning question is: Does Alex really live at Terrazas, where the typical rent for a 2/2 on a high floor — like the one with this view in this picture — is $2,100 a month, or is he pulling a Carollo?
To remind readers, Carollo wants us all to believe that he lives in a small Brickell apartment and not in his mansion in Coconut Grove. His residency was challenged in court by the second place finisher who sought to prove that Carollo did not live in the district for a year before qualifying, as required.
The judge ruled in favor of Carollo, who signed the lease for the Brickell Station Lofts unit on Sept. 22, 2016. The deadline to qualify for the ballot in that election was Sept. 23, 2017.
ADLP changed his voter’s registration address on Sept. 15. The qualifying period for the Nov. 5, 2019 Miami city election is from Sept. 6 to Sept. 21.

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