August 10th came and went and there were no campaign finance reports filed in Florida for state candidates. Or for county candidates. Or for city candidates.

Did anybody else notice this had happened?

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Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, whose term ends in November, has raised $640,000 for his political action committee, Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade. But we still don’t know if he’s going to use those funds for a re-election campaign — he has not yet filed any paperwork for that — or a mayoral run, which is what everyone knows he really wants.

Only $8,000, all from the electrical workers union — with which The Dean has a special relationship — came into the account in February. That means the other $633K was raised in two months — $287,500 in March and $345,523 in April.

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By the time the Coral Gables mayoral race is over on Tuesday evening, the two candidates will have spent at least a money fallinghalf a million dollars, maybe more. Ladra is not sure but is willing to bet that’s a record.

The six candidates in the two commission seat races raised almost exactly the same amount of campaign cash combined as of the last reports available, through March 28: $474,000. You just know that by April 11, that number will go up — making it a total of more than $1 million spent on this Gables election cycle.

Read related story: Jeannett Slesnick winning Gables mayoral money race

Obviously the two cash cows are in the mayoral race. Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick and former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli have each raised almost a quarter of a million themselves — $jeannettraul247,819 for Slesnick, and $246,494 for Valdes-Fauli between his campaign account and his political action committee, Coral Gables First. Practically every dime of the $73,794 contributed to the PAC is from outside Coral Gables and most of it is development and real estate money — like the $10,000 in bundles from developer Sergio Pino‘s mulitple companies — except for $20,000 from a Mercedes Benz dealership in Brooklyn that seems to come out of nowhere.

But Valdes-Fauli has been burning through his piggy bank faster than the commissioner. Slesnick still has more than $107,000 to spend next to his $60K as of March 28. That could make a big difference in the last two weeks.

Read related story: In Coral Gables election, only a clean sweep will change course

The next heavy hitters are incumbent Commissioner witherskeonPat Keon, who has raised almost $222,000 to former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers‘ $39,411 as of March 28 (but Ladra doubts he will catch up). Also on that date, she had about $125,000 left to spend while he had about $14,200.

In the open seat race that Slesnick had to resign from, the four candidates have raised $211,800. Well, three candidates, since Serafin Sousa has only raised $1,000 and we don’t even know if he loaned it to himself or who gae it to him because he doesn’t know how to fill out a campaign finance report and nobody cares enough to ask him to fix it. So, its $211,800 between three candidates — and more than half of that belongs to land use attorney Mike Mena.

Mena, who was reportedly recruited by Commissioners Frank Quesada and Vince Lago, has raised $136,540 as Gables4wayof March 28. He had spent a ton of that ($119,178) and only had about $17,362 left as of Matrch 28. Meanwhile, retired police officer Randy Hoff has been far more thrifty and had $18,497 left from his $53,666 booty on the same day. Activist grandma Marlin Ebbert hasn’t even spent that much, with $12633 of her $21,595 going out, leaving her with just under $9,000 to get her to election day, unless she picks up a few contributions.

Read related story: Mucho mailers mean to mislead in Coral Gables election

Ladra knows that it’s not a guarantee that the candidate with the biggest bank gets to win on the ballot. Look at Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez. But it helps.

If the money helped them get the message out, then Keon and Mena might be sittine pretty tonight. If anti development forces were able to rally the troops and get their turnout up, then, and only then, it won’t matter.


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No matter how they feel about the presidential results of last week’s election, the victory over the proposed and solarhousesmisleading solar choice amendment, which was soundly defeated, and the 72% turnout in Miami-Dade will be celebrated Wednesday when the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County gets together for a post-election gathering.

“I know that we are all dealing with the election results in our own way and within our respective organizations,” wrote League President Susan Windmiller in an email Monday.

“However, we should take some comfort in knowing that the voter turnout in Miami-Dade was 72%! and that we defeated Amendment 1 re: solar energy, a real David v. Goliath victory!”

She also wants to focus on the impact that the presidential election results could have in increasing popular participation in politics. The non-partisan group, famous for its voter registration drives, also takes on policy issues and is currently focused on advocating campaign finance reform.

“The League believes that there is tremendous opportunity for engagement in democracy like never before and we very much look forward to working with you in the weeks ahead,” reads the email announcing the post-election Cocktails and Conversation event, which begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Made in Italy in Wynwood, 10 NE 27th St.

 


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Not many people were surprised by the Miami-Dade County Commission’s decision Wednesday to Miami-Dade commissionignore the petition of 127,000 voters who clamor for campaign finance reform in our pay-to-play county government.

And it’s not like they didn’t have good reason.

Even the petition gatherers — a group calling itself An Accountable Miami-Dade — had already filed a lawsuit in the court. Even before Wednesday’s meeting, the county attorney had already said last month that the language for the ballot question that the petition was based on was legally insufficient — a term used to discredit the work done by dozens or perhaps hundreds of volunteers.

The group itself was also discredited. Exposed as part of a national phenomenon with labor and Democratic Party interests at the wheel rather than the grassroots effort it claims to be, Accountable took a beating on the dais Wednesday. Perhaps they deserve it a bit. The connect the dots to special interests is undeniable and they did try to pass themselves off as just one of us.

Read related story: After stalling, Miami-Dade Commission to meet on ballot issue

“I love to have people get involved and engaged and the fact that they signed these petitions is aJuan Zapata good sign. But I have to question the motivation,” said Commission Juan Zapata, who wasn’t keen on having “outside interference” drive the effort.

Commissioners had legitimate questions about how the petition may have targeted black voters in certain neighborhoods or intentionally had it set up to go to commission during their break for a distracted, smaller group.

But others had questions about the county’s own process. The Accountable group got approval from the county clerk for the language of the petition and had no reason to think it was legally insufficient, some commissioners said.

“These people went out and collected signatures based on what they believed was sufficient. And we let it happen,” said Commissioner Barbara Jordan.

If passed, the measure would have cut maximum contributions from $1,000 to $500 and would have prohibited gifts from anyone doing business with the county. There was also some language about matching public funds for some candidates.

Ladra could never really get behind the petition itself. The language seemed insufficient for other pacmoneyreasons, not legal. Of course, once the signatures were gathered, they had to be counted and verified. But we told Juan Cuba months ago that this measure, if passed, would only make PACs and non-profits stronger and more prevalent. If people can’t collect contributions one way, they will find another. And who has the most access to PACs and non-profits? The professional politicians. The insiders and incumbents. Not the newcomers. On the public money front, Ladra thinks that there are a whole lot of other things that need to be addressed with our tax dollars and that candidates, by the very nature of being candidates, ought to be able to stand on their own merits. Money doesn’t always buy elections. Look at Miami City Commission Ken Russell.

Read related story: Mr. and Mrs. Sarnoff give up seat to Ken Russell sans runoff

Of course it helps. But getting contributions is also a sign of viability. If you can’t get anybody to support you by putting their money where their mouth is, then why are you even running? Wouldn’t this, as one commissioner suggested Wednesday, encourage every nut, loony-tunes and wacko to run for office?

Unfortunately, the merits of the petition are not what we are talking about now. The commission squashed that when it squashed the referendum in a 9-4 vote.  But it should still be part of the conversation.

The commission can, all by itself, move an ordinance forward that would accomplish the same thing — more or less — on the campaign finance reform. At least the thing that we really want — which is to limit contributions from those who do business with the county. Something logical. Something sensical. And stand alone. Let’s not tie public financing to it.

Yes, hundreds of people worked really hard to make the petitions happen. But if the county wants to squirm out of it in some legal way, trust me, they will.

They don’t pay their legal staff millions of dollars for nothing.

What An Accountable Miami-Dade should do now is apply pressure directly to the source — until the commission puts forth something on its own.

And there is, indeed, hope that they will. Even though not immediately. After all, many of them are termed out four years from now. The rest are termed out the election cycle after that.

What do they have to lose?

 

 

 


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Imagine this: A bi-partisan group of leaders and activists from different social and economic backgrounds get accountabletogether and decide they are going to step up. They are going to do what they can to stop the growing influence of special interest money in political campaigns.

They write a petition and thousands of volunteers spend three months collecting signatures. At malls. At festivals. At movie theaters. At MetroRail stations. And door to door. It’s pain-staking work.

They need about 52,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot in November. They get more than 127,000, just in case. Each petition has the legally required and previously-approved summary and charter language, with strike-outs petitionsincluded, in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Each petition is 30-some pages long as a result. Each petition may only be signed by a single voter. Only registered voters can collect the signatures. And each petition must be notarized on the same day they are signed.

Whew! It’s enough to make anyone wanna say fuggedaboutit.

Luckily, these leaders and activists, calling themselves An Accountable Miami-Dade, didn’t give up. This happened. Because they felt it was all worth it, this group of people actually collected enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to cut maximum contributions in half, limit campaign contributions to political candidates from special interests doing business with the county and give first-time candidates a more level playing field.

But instead of getting a pat on the back or a medal, for that matter, they get the cold shoulder from the very elected officials who live off those special interest contributions, who are able to thwart any challenger by the sheer vastness of the war chests provided by the lobbyists and vendors that want their ear. Literally a cold shoulder. The initiative is held up because our county mayor and commissioners are dragging their feet, no other reason. And of course they are dragging their feet! They don’t want to kill their cash cow.

The Miami-Dade County Commission called a special meeting after the petitions were delivered to the county petitions2elections department on Aug. 2 — and in two U-haul trucks because, again, each one had to be 30 pages long. But they couldn’t get a quorum when Commissioner Barbara Jordan — one of the seven commissioners who agreed to attend a special meeting — called at the last minute and said she had a doctor’s appointment she had forgotten about. The commission doesn’t meet again until Sept. 7, but the charter says the petitions must be counted and verified within 30 days after they were submitted Aug. 2.

Enter Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Or exit Carlos Gimenez, if you prefer (and I do). Because he does have the executive power to tell his department head to do her job. The county attorney says he doesn’t. But the county attorney will say whatever he wants her to say. Have you ever seen the county attorney’s office give an opinion that the mayor or a commissioner didn’t want? Anyway, the charter clearly provides for executive power during the summer recess, especially when inaction will cost the county. And the petitioners could sue. Worse even: If they have around 100,000 valid signatures they can force a special election, at the cost of $5 million.

Otherwise they’d have to wait until 2018. And that’s the whole idea, isn’t it? That’s why the quorum wasn’t reached and why the mayor won’t act. The group protested at County Hall, flooded social media with #StartCounting, filed a lawsuit in court and requested public records on emails about the matter, the latter of which the county wanted to charge $22,000 for, an artificially inflated figure that they have since backed off on. (Sidenote: Please keep on them for those records because the price tag seems to indicate there is something of value there.)

A second special commission meeting has been set for Monday to hear the item after protests from the activists and much pressure from the community to just let the people vote on this.

If passed, the measure would cut maximum contributions to candidates in county races from $1,000 to $500, or moneyman$250 per election cycle. It would also provide for more matching public dollars for under-funded first-time non-incumbent candidates and prohibit contributions to candidates for county office from any company, individual or group that has a contract of at least $250,000 or more with Miami-Dade county government. If passed, the measure would end the quid pro quo climate that has become so common place at County Hall and that has only grown and become more powerful under the administration of Carlos Gimenez.

In fact, some might think that this whole movement is a result of watching Gimenez amass more than $4 million between his campaign account and his PAC, much of it from entities that either do business or have applications to do business before the county.

“People are tired of corruption, and what they see as a rigged system,” New Florida Majority Executive Director Gihan Perera said to the press. He is one of the advisory board members on An Accountable Miami-Dade, quite an illustrious group that means business. The others are:

  • Maribel Balbin, President League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade and Vice President League of Women Voters of Florida, former chair of the Miami Dade County Commission for Women, and a special projects administrator with Miami-Dade County.
  • Juan Cuba, Executive Director of Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
  • Marlon Hill, former president of the Caribbean Bar Association, former Vice Chair of The Miami Foundation, and a board member of the Orange Bowl Committee and Miami Book Fair International.
  • Cindy Lerner, Mayor of Pinecrest, former Democrat state representative, environmental activist, attorney and past president of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities.
  • Phil Levine, Mayor of Miami Beach and chair of this advisory group, an interesting member of the group since his own PAC colleted more than $1 million from city vendors and contractors.
  • Ed MacDougall, former Mayor of Cutler Bay, one-time Republican Congressional candidate, former chair of the Trump for Miami-Dade Campaign Committee, Vietnam veteran and former Miami-Dade Police Sergeant.
  • Ken Russell, City of Miami Commissioner and Vice-Chairman and son of the yo-yo inventor.
  • Sara Yousuf, Chair Engage Miami, Miami-Dade Public Defender’s office, and co-founder of Sweat Records and Emerge Miami.

Former Doral Vice Mayor Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera serves as chairwoman and Monica Russo, president of the Florida SEIU Council, is vice chair. Christian Ulvert, who was Levine’s campaign consultant, is a spokesman for the group.

And they are pretty determined. Look for many of these people, if not all of them, to speak at Monday’s meeting.

Let’s see how commissioners try to stop it now.


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