District 8 race passes $600K mark — for a $6,000-a-year job

“More than 900 donors have contributed generously with their treasure,” said Levine campaign manager Andrew Nelson. Who? Well, he may be a stand-in for Christian Ulvert, the Florida Democratic Party’s new political director and the new chairman of the board at SAVE Dade who worked the Phillip Levine mayoral campaign in Miami Beach) in a statement thanking supporters.

And yeah, Nelson used the word treasure.

“We wish that money did not play such a large role in the political process. However, your investment is vital to help us bring our message to the voters across District 8,” Nelson said.

Expect that message to be pro-labor and anti-lobbyists. But so far the one thing that is coming through loud and clear is that Levine wants this job so badly she will move to a new home in the district and get her friends to pony up $200K for her efforts.

Bell has money to spend on her message, too, which I bet will include some of what Ladra just said. Apparently scared into action when Levine raised $130K the first month out of the gate and beat her efforts in the time frame, the commissioner — a former Homestead mayor — stepped up her game and raised another $150,000 last month. She now has more than $400,000 in her campaign account and her PAC, Good Government Now, according to a Miami Herald story that quoted her campaign manager, lobbyist Jose Luis Castillo, who has not returned several calls and text messages from Ladra. The next campaign reports will be due Monday.

But according to their campaigns, the two women together have amassed about $620,000 — which is a good indication, five months before election day, that they may reach the million dollar mark in this commission race. Would that be a first time? Anyone know? It’s more than some state House races, most countywide judicial races and, perhaps, more than all the candidates will spend in this year’s property appraiser’s race (unless more of them come out; and more on that later).

To compare, Bell’s first election in 2010 was won with a $122,000 — less than half of what she has collected this year already. Of course, she’s an incumbent now. That always greases the wheels.

But, while it takes funds to get a candidate’s message across and name in voters’ heads, lots of money doesn’t always translate to a victory. Not if the opponent, like in this case, has decent funding of her or his own. Look at the recent race where Homestead’s new mayor, Jeff Porter, beat Bell’s husband, hotelier Mark Bell, with a third of the funds. Bell raised and spent $124,700 while Porter was elected with $44,700, according to final reports filed with the city clerk in January.

And we have the crazy 2011 recall mayoral race where former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina lost to then Commissioner Carlos Gimenez even though he had waaaay more money — both in the campaign account and in the PACs. Robaina had $1.6 in his campaign account to Gimenez’s $900K, but everyone knows he spent around $3 million to Gimenez’s $1.5 or so when you look at the PACs.

If you want to compare apples to apples with another incumbent, look back at 2010, when former Commissioner Dorrin Rolle raised more than three times as much as then candidate Jean Monestime, with almost $390,000 in his booty for the 2010 election. Commissioner Monestime, beat him with $106,700

Now the incumbent, Monestime had close to $210,000 in his campaign account as of the end of January while Rolle really has no shot at a comeback, so far anyway, with $8,800 collected in comparison, of which he had spent about $7,700.

Because I never say you didn’t need any money.