There’s a crowded ballot in the race to replace suspended Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi, who was arrested last 
month on charges of bribery and extortion after a two-year FBI sting in which he allegedly accepted kickbacks for facilitating a bogus grants application.
But only two of the hopefuls are experienced candidates with money to get out their message.
Councilman Nelson Hernandez and activist David “Doc” Bennett have almost the same amount, at $12,372 and $10,171, respectively. But Bennett is totally self-financed while Hernandez has collected contributions for all but $300 of his booty.
His contributors are interesting, however. Only a quarter of the total is from Miami Lakes, including $250 maximum from his parents and from former Hialeah Councilman Alex “The Professor” Morales, who lives in Miami Lakes when he is not running for office in the City of Retrogress.
But the contributions from outside are more interesting. And I don’t mean the one from San Diego, Philadelphia or Austin, TX. I mean the $500 he got from Michael Joblove , partner at Genovese, Joblove and Battista lobbying firm and his wife, Cherie, the $250 from Sen. Rene Garcia, one of his benefactors, and the $250 from former State Rep. Carlos Lacasa, who now calls himself a consultant.
He also got $100 from former State Rep. Juan Carlos Planas — who should be able to afford more after representing so many electeds and wannabes, including Miami Beach millionaire mayoral candidate Philip Levine — and $2,275 from people in Hialeah, which is almost as much as he got from people in the city where he’s running for office.
Hernandez has more cash in hand though. Bennett has spent almost all the money he lent himself so far (he can go back for more) with $8,374 in expenses as of Friday’s reporting deadline. Most of that has gone to consultant Emiliano “The Dark Horse” Antunez, who has already produced two mailers for Bennett and is probably phone banking daily. Hernandez, meanwhile, has only spent about $1,600 of his bankroll, half of that on signs and another $450 on printing.
But that’s from his campaign report. Ladra also knows that Hernandez’s consultant, David Custin (who is also running Levine’s campaign on the Beach) has a PAC that he uses for this kind of thing. The Citizens for Ethical and Effective Leadership has about $120,000 still available, according to its report filed after June 30. Some of that has ostensibly been used in the Beach campaign already, but there may also be new contributions pouring in since then, too.
The other three candidates in the Lakes mayoral bout are barely registering a blip in fundraising and better hope they get more votes than they did checks.
Retired firefighter Luis Espinosa could, perhaps, start to sell some of the calendars he’s famous for creating. So far, he’s only got $1,660. His first check was $100 from former Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Seijas, who has been a friend for a long time.
Founding Mayor Wayne Slaton loaned himself $2,000 and raised $1,000 more and Edwin Romero loaned himself $265 basically so he could pay the qualifying fees, which is usually a sign of a plantidate, or a planted candidate put in the race by one of the “real” candidates in order to steal votes from and/or be the attack dog for someone else.
Some think Espinosa is a plantidate, but whose camp would he hail from? The firefighter-turned-high-school teacher could steal anti-incumbent votes from Bennett, sure, but he could also steal Hispanic votes from Hernandez. So his involvement could help either one. In fact, more think his involvement will help Bennett more.
And this election is a winner take all race — which means there is no run-off. Whoever gets a majority in the five-man contest wins the prize.
Which means Slaton’s abysmal 32 percent last November in his loss to Pizzi could be heaven this November.
Miami Lakes campaign cash: slow and mostly self-propelled added by Ladra on
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