Both Zoraida Barreiro and Joe Carollo filed their first campaign finance report
in their race for the same city of Miami commission seat and they must be a tad disappointed.
Sure, $14,000 (Barreiro) and $10,000 (Carollo) is respectable — for any novice, first-time no-name. But Barreiro is wife of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, who must not have tapped his donor pool yet (he raised $140,000 last year before he ended up with no opposition). Maybe he’s not 100% on board? And Joe Carollo is the former mayor of Miami, a former city manager of Doral and a buddy of Carlos Gimenez — or at least a member of his 2016 campaign team, at $6,000 a month for a total of $144,000 billed to the mayor’s PAC.
You think he could loan himself more than the $100 he reported earlier this month.
Read related story: Crazy Joe Carollo adds twist to crazy Miami commission race
But both of them did have significant bundling in their reports, as measly as they were. 
Half of Barreiro’s contributions come from companies owned by former School Board Member Demetrio Perez and $3,000 came from Lanzo Construction. Carollo got $3,000 from Robert Patino, $2,500 from the guy who owns Dade Outdoor Advertising and $2,000 from Norman Braman and his wife, which is kind of weird since Braman supported Raquel Regalado against Gimenez.
But these two aren’t the lowest scoring candidates in what is already a clusterbunch race with seven candidates so far, and qualifying isn’t even ’til September. This is the open seat in District 3, being vacated by Commissioner Frank Carollo, Joe’s baby bro, who is termed out and, reportedly, running for mayor, though he hasn’t filed any paperwork yet. The other candidates and their paultry little piggy banks are:
- Alex Dominguez, with $4,650, has been fundraising for almost two years.
- Olidia “Lee” Hernandez loaned herself $1,000, but she only just filed on Jan. 27.
- Alfonso M. Leon has raised $36,978 — a lot of it in $27 and $40 and $100 and $200 checks.
- Miguel C. Soliman has raised $27,530 — all of it but $1,000 in the first month reported, May.
- Daniel Suarez, who filed in December, hasn’t raised a dime but just loaned himself $55.
Soliman is the only one with any evidence of bundling, which are multiple donations from the same person — using relatives or different corporations — to maximize impact (and access or investment). He got $6,000 from Luis Garcia, who owns Adonel Concrete and several real estate holding companies.
Read related story: Mr. and Mrs. Sarnoff give up seat to Ken Russell, sans runoff
As has been pointed out before, money is not necessarily a sign of who is going to win the election. Commissioner Ken Russell beat a far better financed Teresa Sarnoff in 2015. But it does tell you who has more ability to get their message out. And if the donations come from residents rather than corporations, it could also indicate voter support.
Of course, it’s early yet. And we still don’t know if there are any PACs involved. Only one is listed on the city’s website. But A Stronger Miami, which filed documents in October, has not raised a dime.
So its doing worse than even any candidate.
Fundraising slow for Joe Carollo, Zoraida Barreiro added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
