There is likely to be a runoff in the Coral Gables commission race after Tuesday, where none of the four candidates are likely to pull away with more than 50% of the vote.
And when former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera is headed for round 2, as expected, he may be better prepared than whoever the other candidate is: Cabrera would head into Tuesday’s election with more cash on hand than any of the other three hopefuls.
The latest campaign finance reports filed Friday show that Cabrera and attorney Jorge L. Fors are practically neck and neck on the bankroll, with $129,470 for the former commissioner and $122,250 for the Jorgie-Come-Lately with the illegal homestead exemptions.
Read related: Development interests fund campaign for Raul Valdes-Fauli
Both have some development money in their latest reports. Cabrera got $7,000 from Armando Codina, who is building a 16-story luxury condo on Salzedo Street and $5,000 from Agave, developers of The Plaza on Ponce de Leon Boulevard (the old Spanish Village). Earlier, he reported $3,000 from a group of developers on South Bayshore Drive.
There is a huge difference between the fraction of development dollars in Cabrera’s bank and mayoral incumbent Raul Valdes-Fauli, who has tens of thousands in sneaky bundles from developers and development interests. Only a small percentage of Cabrera’s campaign funds are tied to development.
The developers came to him, Cabrera said, because they respect his position and vision for the city. “It’s about the fact that I’m accessible. I may not always agree with them, but I’m always going to tell them the truth,” he told Ladra.
And the former commissioner has far more contributions from non developers, including, notably, $1,000 from the political action committee of Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, $500 from former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and $300 from Gonzalo Sanabria, a Gables rabblerouser (and failed commission candidate) who was originally supporting another Carmen Olazabal in this race.
Fors has some development money, too, but fewer bundles. He has several maximum $1,000 gifts from seemingly separate real estate development and construction interests, including $2,000 from Allen Morris. He also got $1,000 check from former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers, who lost his own commission race two years ago and is still licking his wounds.
But Fors also has more money from outside of Coral Gables, including contributions from Miami Lakes Councilman Josh Dieguez and former Miami Lakes Councilman Nelson Hernandez, who lost his bid for mayor. Most of Fors’ outside money is from lawyers in Miami, which might be expected of the past president of the Coral Gables Bar Association.
Read related: Ralph Cabrera’s commission race advantage — others are unelectable
Former interim city manager and compulsive liar Carmen Olazabal doesn’t have much development or attorney money because, well, she doesn’t have much financial support at all. Olazabal is a distant third with a total of $42,098 collected, much of it from relatives in Puerto Rico.
But both Olazabal and Fors are burning through their cash faster — spending $111,330 and $40,222, respectively — than Cabrera, who has spent less than $70K as of April 4.
That means that Olazabal has about $2,000 to spend between now and Tuesday. Fors has $11,000 or so and Cabrera has about $60,000.
If he keeps the trend, Ralph might have a nice nut to hit the ground running on April 10.

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Whoop! There it is!
The latest campaign reports are in — the last ones before the Coral Gables election on Tuesday — and, just as expected, Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli got a windfall from real estate developers and the construction industry.
More than $80,000 in seven days! That must have set some kind of campaign record in Coral Gables. Not all of it is development — there is some healthcare bundles in there, and Versailles owner Felipe Valls gave $3,000 — but most of it is related to the industry: Developers, real estate investors, architects, engineers, property managers, vendors and subcontractors.
Read related: Mayoral race in Coral Gables is a do over on over development
That last report, covering March 29 through April 4, brings the mayor’s total to $254,125. More than half of that has been collected in the last two reports, or since March 15. And it’s where the development money has come out. All but $5,000 has been reported in the last week, after nearly 4,000 people voted via absentee ballots.
Perhaps Valdes-Fauli wanted thousands of people to vote absentee before they knew the building industry was funding his re-election.
And boy are they coming out now to rescue Raul. It’s almost as if they’re afraid that former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick will beat the incumbent and try to stop or curb the upzoning of properties to maximize developers’ profits.
One of the special interest contributors bundling maximum $1,000 donations was NP International, the developer behind both the Gables Station and Paseo de la Riviera projects on U.S. 1 — the latter is going up now and photographed here — which were given height and density variances and have drawn much residential ire. NP had only contributed $1,000 as of the last report through March 28. But in one week, they made up for any lack of enthusiasm with another $6,000 from multiple companies and their two officers in Minnesota.
Ladra can’t help but wonder how much more they will give Valdes-Fauli in the next four days that we won’t hear about until after everyone has voted.
It’s not the only out of state money. This latest report has another $13,000 coming from real estate investors in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas.
Allan Morris donated another $5,000 through his companies and Jorge Perez of Related gave at least $2,000.
Valdes-Fauli has spent $221,389 of the bank, leaving at least $32,000 for expenses in the next four days.
Slesnick has the whole $100K nut she loaned herself, which she hasn’t touched really. She has spent $73,000 of the $82,000 she raised, $20K in the last week — not an easy task when you do it $100 and $200 at a time with a $500 thrown in now and then from all different people rather than in bundles of $1,000 from the same dozen dudes.
And while there may be some related “development” money through real estate interests and the supporting industry, Slesnick’s contributors are also almost exclusively Coral Gables residents — another good sign for her on Tuesday.
Because the developers in Minnesota, Texas, North Carolina, New Jersey and New York who gave to Valdes-Fauli can’t vote for Valdes-Fauli.

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Looks like the third time is the charm for former Coral Gables Commissioner Ralph Cabrera. Even if it’s just through the process of elimination.
Cabrera, an insurance consultant, has tried to get back on the dais twice since he left office in 2013. But both times he ran for mayor against Jim Cason. This time he is running for commissioner because, after all, it’s a city manager run government where all votes are equal. And because it was an open seat.
But because it was an open seat, it also attracted some people who would never even think of running against a sitting commissioner. And Cabrera — who is running on his experience and has the endorsement from the police union, the firefighters union, Gables Commissioner Vince Lago and SAVE — has the clear advantage in this election, which ends Tuesday.
Because the other three candidates are basically unelectable.
Read related: Ralph Cabrera outraises opponents in 4-way Gables commission race
The first to write off is Jackson “Rip” Holmes, an, um, colorful downtown property owner who has run unsuccessfully a bunch of times and whose single mission is to bring a department store to Miracle Mile.
But he has baggage galore: Holmes, who can barely finish a thought let alone a sentence, has a 2008 domestic violence charge, later dismissed, from one of his two mail order-type brides and a conviction in 1988 of threatening Jeb Bush, whose father was president at the time, that landed him in federal prison for three years. He has since said the whole thing was a misunderstanding and lavishes Bush with praise on his website, www.ripholmes.com.
Also, Holmes believes the Boston Marathon bombing, the Sandy Hook tragedy and other horrible attacks were inside jobs done by or with the assistance of extraterrestrials. And he has uploaded more than 500 videos to YouTube, the most recent of which are campaign related. Check them out. Cheaper than going to the movies.
Next we can lose former interim city manager and Cason crony Carmen Olazabal, who carried Pat Salerno‘s water and helped him lie to the commission about public safety. Olazabal learned everything she knows from Salerno. She doctored a document from the police department to indicate that there wasn’t an increase in accidents on Ponce de Leon Boulevard due to some palms planted on corners.
Read related: Commission candidate Carmen Olazabal can’t rewrite ugly past
Turns out there was. The cover-up ended with Salerno’s forced, on-the-spot resignation and the uprooting of several palm trees. Olazabal’s exit, not by choice, came months later. But not before she gave herself a 10% raise. Employees dislike her and distrust her so much, most of them are supporting Cabrera.
Today, Olazabal, who is basically running on her gender, has her own government consulting business, working on specific projects (read: no-show jobs) for municipalities, which could present a conflict of interest if she is elected. She was hired by Miami Lakes, for example, to manage the FDOT funded completion of a 1.5 mile route between an elementary and a middle school.
Olazabal is really looking for a job. The four-year commission term pays $31,585 a year.
The last to cross off is attorney Jorge Fors, who has never been involved in any Gables civic life and suddenly wants to be a commissioner because, he says, he had a baby. In truth, Jorgie Come Lately was recruited by the outgoing Frank Quesada, who endorsed his friend despite the fact that Fors has actually claimed an illegal Homestead exemption on a Little Havana condo he didn’t live in for almost a decade each and every year.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal homestead exemption
“I’ve known Jorge a long time and we’ve had cases together, he’s a great guy,” Quesada said in a text message last month after he declined to accept or return my calls. “When he discovered the homestead issue he resolved it.”
Except he didn’t just “discover” the homestead issue. He paid the back taxes, interests and penalties in January because he was running for office and after Ladra started sniffing around and pulling public records.
It’s not like he claimed a false homestead exemption once by mistake and forgot about it. Every year, before March 1, property owners have to claim their exemptions. For eight or nine years, every year, Fors checked the box to claim an exemption on a 5th Street condominium he admits he never lived in. The whole time, he voted in Coral Gables, not the city of Miami.
For a lawyer, he seems to have a disdain for the law. Because that’s not the only one he broke. He has a traffic history a mile long and was arrested for open containers and underage drinking in college. And he’s been caught parking in the handicap space — twice. He is trying to make annexation a campaign issue, using fear tactics to get votes, even though it was supported by a majority of the commission as well as the police chief.
So, we got a nut job, an opportunist liar and a scofflaw cheat fearmonger on the ballot with Cabrera, who may rub some people the wrong way with his brutal honesty but has definitely proven himself as a public servant. He didn’t go along to get along but why would any interested voter want that?
Read related: PAC says it did NOT send hit piece on Ralph Cabrera — so who did?
During his 12 years on the dais, Cabrera lowered taxes twice, brought free wifi and Giralda Under the Stars to the downtown, created the citywide traffic advisory committee, sponsored new residential zoning to fight against McMansions, strengthened the valet parking ordinance, spearheaded an insurance RFP process that saved the city 30% on renewals,  created a local vendor preference program and did a lot more you can find on his website. He actually has a good track record.
Next to the others, he’s a poster boy candidate. So strong are his chances that he is the only candidate being attacked by negative mailers that have no factual base and paid by unknown campaign operatives and donors, which becomes another reason to vote for him.
This should be Cabrera’s year. Not before a runoff with either the liar or the cheat. But he should win that, too.

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The mayoral race in Coral Gables is a rematch between Raul Valdes-Fauli and former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick. But some people really see it as a do-over of 2017, a second chance to make things right.
“Let’s not make the same mistake again,” is not just the headline of an email sent by the Gables Neighbors United group of Riviera neighborhood residents. It’s also the mantra of people who don’t like the development boom they’ve seen in the City Beautiful and people who don’t like how incumbent Mayor Valdes-Fauli handled the battle between the city manager and the popular police chief.
And people who thought Slesnick had it in the bag in 2017 and didn’t vote.
Valdes-Fauli won two years ago by a scant 187 votes. That’s not exactly a mandate. But there were a bunch of factors that don’t exist this year. The last election was during spring break. Many families were away. Spring Break this year is over. All of Slesnick’s friends will be here.
Also, the big developments she voted against — like Gables Station on Douglas Road and the gigantic Paseo de la Riviera project going up where the Holiday Inn used to be across from the University of Miami (photo, right) — are either finished or going up.
“Now people can see what I was worried about, these monstrous buildings looming over us,” Slesnick told Ladra. “Now they see it. And they don’t like it.”
So, two years later, the contest is still centered on development and the rapidly changing character of this Miami-Dade suburban paradise and that gives Slesnick the upper hand. The former commissioner, wife of former Mayor Don Slesnick and real estate pro has been talking about reigning development in for years, both on the dais and in her Jeannett’s Journal publication. It is the reason she ran for commission in 2015 in the first place.
Read related: Rematch! Jeannett Slesnick will jump into Gables mayor’s race
“Coral Gables is fragile. And its been overrun by developers and all these mega construction projects it doesn’t need,” Slesnick said. “Ninety-nine percent of the calls I get are about development.”
Valdes-Fauli counters that hers is a single-issue campaign.
“She has a negative campaign. She’s running on one issue,” the mayor whined in a short, terse telephone interview. “I’m running on my record. I didn’t have a record the last time.”
But that’s not really true, is it? Valdes-Fauli was voted out of office in 2001 by voters who disagreed with his plan to pave over and close off Biltmore Way and build a huge, 60,000-square-foot annex to historic City Hall. He was beaten by — drum roll please — Don Slesnick, who Valdes-Fauli blames for the development boom.
And while some of the big developments that have been criticized over the last couple of years were approved during Mayor Jim Cason‘s tenure, Valdes-Fauli — who has Cason’s endorsement — has said that he would have voted for all of those projects. He may have told the Miami Herald he would not have voted for the Paseo project, but that is not what he told the Riviera Neighborhood Association when they met the newly elected mayor right after the 2017 election.
He says he is for “smart” development in the downtown and along the U.S. 1 corridor to go with the Underline park that is being developed underneath the MetroRail. He says “smart” development does not add traffic.
But it looks like he has not voted against a single development since elected, including the 9-story Venera project for 165 apartments on a property owned by a developer of student housing, despite significant opposition from residents. Not sure how “smart” that project is.
“We fight so much to downscale projects,” Valdes-Fauli told Ladra, “reducing height from 160 feet to 140 feet or lot coverage.”
What he didn’t say is that 140 feet was still over what’s allowable via the city’s zoning and master plan, which keeps being ignored.
And voters are catching on to the bait and switch where electeds beholden to developer money tell their sponsors to ask for more height and more density so it can look like a compromise when they meet somewhere in the middle.
Valdes-Fauli has the support of the development community through dozens of campaign contributions from developers and builders in suspicious bundles that indicate it’s more of an investment than support for his public policy. This includes $10,000 in 10 separate $1,000 maximum checks from Armando Codina and his companies, $5,000 from developer Tibor Hollo and his companies, $5,000 in 10 checks from Sergio Pino, at least $6,000 from Carlos Marquez and his multiple construction companies, $11,000 from real estate investor Hugh Culverhouse and at least $1,000 from NP International USA, the developer behind the Paseo project and Gables Station (photo).
Read related: In Coral Gables, campaign cash goes out as quickly as it comes in
Perhaps more will be reported in the next campaign report. All but the $5,000 from Hollo were reported in the last campaign report, covering contributions from March 15 to March 31, when Valdes-Fauli collected almost $52,000, more than a quarter of his total $173,325 bank.
“We believe that Valdes-Fauli is bought and sold by developers,” said Sue Kawalerski, an active Riviera neighborhood resident and member of both the Gables Neighbors United and the RNA. “We do not trust Valdes-Fauli.
“Jeannett was the only one who stood by us with Paseo,” Kawalarski said. “Jeannett would never vote for something that would disrupt a residential neighborhood. She is accessible. She listens to us. She represents us.
“We have to stop the madness.”
Voters see a vote for Slesnick — who is not taking any developer money for her mostly self-funded campaign — as a vote for some very much needed balance to the board. Her critics say she did not accomplish much in her two years as a commissioner before she abandoned the seat to run for mayor. But her champions say she was a consistent vote against over development and that made her an outsider who was “punished” with a lack of support.
The other big issue that could hurt the incumbent is the lack of leadership he showed during the former city manager’s campaign against Police Chief Ed Hudak. Valdes-Fauil talked a big game when he was campaigning about changing the city manager, but once he was elected he let Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark run over Hudak with administrative baggage and a bogus investigation that she tried to use to hurt the police chief — even after it exonerated him. Valdes-Fauli let that saga drag on for months.
He argued that he did provide leadership — by putting the item on the agenda seven times. One of those times, he called it “The boil in Coral Gables.” He is proud of that because he made sure to remind Ladra. But seven times? Some might call that all talk and no action.
“We resolved the issue in a very legal and adequate manner,” the mayor insisted. Yeah, sure. Ask the police officers who were used for the city manager’s vendetta if they thought it was handled in an adequate manner.
Read related: Bob Graham, others host huge campaign gig for Jeannett Slesnick
His supporters are counting on an ethnically divided contest. Part of the reason Valdes-Fauli won last year was because of an ethnic whisper campaign about alleged discrimination that does not exist. They still believe that he has his base, the Cubans, and she has hers, everybody else. But Coral Gables Cubans are not Little Havana Cubans or Hialeah Cubans who vote along ethnic lines and can get spooked by campaign propaganda about the hidden “communists” among us.
In fact, several prominent Hispanic Gables voters are supporting Slesnick. Raul Mas Canosa and Ana Permuy-Mas, Frank and Maria Elena Gonzalez and Sergio and Maria Concepcion recently hosted a very well-attended fundraiser at the Concepcion home.
Slesnick, who made commission town halls a thing in the Gables, has made civility part of her campaign: “People deserve a mayor who treats them with respect and courtesy and not ignore them and impose his will, which is what we have now at City Hall.”
Valdes-Fauli is known to be rude and arrogant and makes misogynistic comments on the regular, saying at one forum that his opponent sounded like a nagging wife. He welcomes the developers and vendors to commission meetings and calls them Mr. This and Mrs. That. But he berates, belittles and bullies residents and tells them to “sit down and shut up” when they’re time is up if he doesn’t like what they’re saying.
Not that he is listening to what they are saying. Valdes-Fauli often stands up, leaves the dais and walks out of commission chambers in the middle of the discussion — that’s if he is not playing his Dominos app on his cellphone while residents speak.
A few voters who supported him last time told Ladra they would not vote for Valdes-Fauli again. They see this election Tuesday as a second chance to get it right, they said.
 

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Longtime Democrat political operative Christian Ulvert — who helped put Sens. Jose Javier Rodriguez and Annette Taddeo, Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine-Cava and Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber into office — wants a seat of his own now. Ulvert is running for city council in Miami Shores and had his kick-off earlier this month.
How many chips you think he’s gonna cash in?
While the municipal election April 9 is non partisan, Ulvert has been a major player on the blue team in Florida for years. In addition to helping Levine Cava, Taddeo and Gelber gain their seats, he also worked on the gubernatorial campaigns for former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and, after he lost, former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who also lost.
In 2017, the American Association of Political Consultants named Ulvert one of the 40 under 40 when it came to the best campaign pros in the country. But when it came time to announce his own bid for public office, this campaign pro did it pretty quietly, on Facebook:
“I’m excited to share that I’ve decided to take on a new challenge and embark on a journey to serve my community. I have filed to run for Miami Shores Village Council because the opportunity to achieve some great things for our Village is extremely exciting. I also reflect on one of my favorite quotes by Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has…” as a basis for my run- I’m ready and eager to be part of the positive change that comes through public service!
I will need your help though as no campaign is a journey done alone. We are getting our website ready and our volunteer operation underway- in the meantime though, if you are able to donate, no amount is too small, please click on the link. With your support, we will be able to do great things for Miami Shores!”
Ulvert told Ladra he was encouraged to run by friends and neighbors who (1) felt someone with his government experience and connections to Tallahassee would serve village interests well and (2) said there was no gay candidate and no gay council member to represent an increasing demographic. He and husband Carlos Andrade have lived in Miami Shores for two years.
“There’s just so many things going on in our little village. It’s a very diverse community and there are no gays running,” said Ulvert, adding that he has no work or clients in the Shores. Furthermore, it is an unpaid position with no committee meetings. Council members meet once a month on a Tuesday.
“Folks just wanted diversity. And a voice,” Ulvert said.
Four of the seven council seats are up in the election. They currently belong to Mayor Mac Adam Glinn and Council Members Alice Burch, Jonathan Meltz and Steven Zelkowitz.
Zelkowitz is moving so he is not seeking re-election and Glinn is moving also and ending his term early. Burch and Melch are running for re-election. Ulvert is not the only hopeful joining them on the ballot. Also running are Stephen Loffredo, Julio Martinez, Miryam Rojas and Crystal Wagar.
The four top vote getters will win seats and the candidate with the highest number of votes serves as mayor for the first two years of a four-year term.
Naturally, Ulvert is leading everybody by far when it comes to the campaign warchest, thanks in part to buddies like Gelber and Levine, who gave $500 and $1,000, respectively, and a bunch of lobbyist friends. In his first month raising funds, Ulvert reported $21,440 in contributions in February — that’s almost twice as much as the next candidate, which is Wagar — the former chief of staff to former Miami-Dade Commissioner Jimmy Morales — with $11,500.
Ulvert also has a political action committee called Engaged Florida that has about $35,000 on hand, $25K of which was raised last month.

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Former Coral Gables Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick — in a bitter mayoral rematch race against Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli — got a big endorsement Wednesday when former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who served 1987 to 2005, gave her his support.
Graham — who was also Florida’s 38th governor from 1979 to 1987 — and his wife Adele were among the hosts of a reception for Slesnick on Wednesday along with Raul Mas Canosa and Ana Permuy-Mas, Frank and Maria Elena Gonzalez and Sergio and Maria Concepcion, who opened their Santa Maria Street home for the fundraiser.
Read related: Rematch! Jeannett Slesnick will jump into Gables mayor’s race
The bartender said there were at least 150 people there. That’s more than three times the number of people who RSVPed.
Concepcion, who is in real estate also, said some nice things about Slesnick being one of the first people he met in the Gables and how he now goes to her for market advice because nobody knows more about Gables real estate than Slesnick.
The election is less than two weeks away and people have already been voting. Of the 7,546 absentee ballots that have been sent, 1,931 received had been received as of Wednesday, representing a 25.59% turnout so far, according to Miami-Dade Elections spokeswoman Suzy Trutie.
Every single vote counts since Valdes-Fauli only won by 187 votes in 2017.
Meanwhile, Valdes-Fauli has the endorsement of former mayor Jim Cason and the current Coral Gables Commission — the same people who dragged their feet and stood by while the former city manager and her henchman from Hollywood made the police chief’s life a living hell and who rubber stamped most of the zoning variances to allow out-of-scale development that many voters believe has gone overboard. No surprise here.
What happened to Jeb? Former Gov. Jeb Bush had endorsed Valdes-Fauli in 2017, very early on in the election.
Ladra guesses Jeb is as disappointed in Valdes-Fauli two years later as the rest of the Gables is.

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