Carlos Gimenez camp pushes, begs to show big money

• Tweet
• Sumo

• Tweet

We’re drawing a close on the first month of campaign finance reporting for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the camp is really pressing to show a big start.

Don’t know why. He already has raised $1.6 million in his Miami-Dade Residents First PAC (and spent $300K of that), and we don’t even know how many millions in the non-profit Business Advisory Council.

Must be emulating former Gov. Jeb Bush who had to cut expenses in his presidential campaign this month after his early big spending.

Maybe the Gimenez camp wants to make up some of that spent dough with his personal campaign account, which he opened at the beginning of this month. Maybe they want to show strength out of the gate.

Especially since so many of his people have been mocking Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado‘s ability to raise funds. The only declared candidate against him, Regalado has raised just over $208,000 as of the end of September. Of course, she has another $200K more in her own PAC, Serving Miamians.

And a third candidate, Robert Ingram Burke, hasn’t raised a dime.

That means Gimenez has so far outraised his onlly opponent at least four to one. So why does he feel he needs to ramp it up?

Could it be to intimidate Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who has yet to announce whether he will run or not but has shown some fundraising chops in the past?

First came the “It’s Time” email blast sent out on Monday, with five days to go before he cuts off the first reporting deadline. It’s pretty straight forward and par for the course with these things.

“As you might have read, earlier in the month, I opened my re-election campaign.

Since then, many of you have reached out to show your early support, and many of you have already contributed.

In 5 days, we close the books on our first month, and our first report.  If you’d like to help us show strength, and you haven’t already donated, it would be great to have you as one of our earliest contributors.  Please donate here if you can.

This county has grown stronger, year after year – but there are still areas were we can continue to work together to improve our quality of life and that of our next generation. My goal is to continue to deliver strong, consistent leadership for all our residents.

Please help us get off to a strong start by making a contribution to the campaign. 

Thank you for your support.”

Later, his campaign rainmaker, Brian Goldmeier, sounded a little more desperate:

“Facebook Family,

I hope you can help me out with a quick honor…. my longest standing client and the person who really made my career is up for his final re-election and we just opened up our campaign account.

We have to raise alot of money for our initial campaign report for the month of October. It would personally mean a lot to me if you could consider a contribution in any amount: $5, $10, $25, $50, $100….. anything up to $1,000 would be the world to me for you to consider…. you can make your contribution by clicking her: http://www.gimenezformayor.com/ Let me know if you have any questions and thanks again for the consideration. If not for me, do it for Miami-Dade County since he is the right guy leading the way!!”

Really? Contribute and support the mayor so that me, his fundraiser, can keep working? Is that going to be the gist of the campaign?

It seems odd to me that Goldmeier would take to his Facebook page to beg for donations.

Maybe they don’t think they’ll perform as well in the first month as they expected? Or are they close to some milestone instead? Like half a million already or something.

A large chunk of the first month’s reported checks might come in on Thursday, when the mayor kicks off his campaign, officially, at a big Biltmore Hotel event hosted by almost every lobbyist in the universe and one union boss who seems way out of his element.

We’ll find out in about two weeks: The deadline for October’s reports is Nov. 10.

  Carlos Gimenez, Miami-Dade Mayor 2016, Raquel Regalado