In his bid for the nomination to the Congressional race in District 26, Miami-Dade School Board Member 
Carlos “Crybaby” Curbelo spent close to $1 million for the 47% primary victory Tuesday.
But a lot of that money went to firms and consultants outside of Miami-Dade.
While certainly the bulk of the money was spent locally, the biggest checks listed Curbelo’s campaign finance reports, which only cover expenses through Aug. 6, were mailed to New York, Virginia and Illinois. About a third of his $670,000 in expenses reported through Aug. 6, went to firms outside Florida.
The biggest of those is OnMessage Media, the political firm specializing in online advertising that worked for 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, which earned just over $107,000 on the Curbelo campaign. So far. All of it, by the way, was before Curbelo announced the Romney endorsement on Aug. 11, as early voting started. The last check, for example, was for $20,000 paid Aug. 4.
Ladra can’t help but wonder how much of that went to Romney’s airfare and other expenses to bring him to Miami for his little dog and pony show last week.
Read related story: Did Carlos Curbelo pay for Mitt Romney’s endorsement
New York-based MacLaughlin and Associates, which conducted two polls — one of which has been kept secret — was paid $46,900. And Gridiron Communications, an Illinois firm that also specializes in political advertising, got close to $38,500.
The only Florida company to get the big ticket checks is National Victory Strategies, the consulting firm owned by Sen. Marco Rubio‘s nephew. He billed a total of 113,000. So far.
Campaign finance reports are fascinating, aren’t they? From them you learn so much. Like that Curbelo also paid a DC campaign attorney $8,400 and a DC fundraiser around $9,000. He spent $8,850 on a Jacksonville Beach company for voter outreach and $11,000 on opposition research by Strategic Information Consultants in Tallahassee to try to dig up dirt on his Republican primary opponents.
Curbelo spent lots of money at home, too. Islas Canarias is obviously a favorite eatery, perhaps because it is close to his campaign office. Expenses there range from $2 to $41 for a total of $337, but why did he take Romney to Vicky Bakery, then? And are the owners of Islas Canarias pissed off?
But Ladra is more intrigued by some of the other more obscure expenses, $2,600 for Jorge Mas Canosa, who I thought had passed but maybe its the foundation, and $53 for a ride with Uber.
These are expenses total $670,000 through Aug. 6 and almost half of that, or $295,000 was from July 1 through Aug. 6.
We all know that there was a few hundred thousands more thrown in the last 20 days, especially in expensive media buys. We saw them. We heard them.
So, when we get the next expense reports due Sept. 15, we will know how much more over $1 million Curbelo spent on getting those 13,800 votes.
Carlos Curbelo spends big bucks outside South Florida added by Ladra on
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