As expected, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez raised a boatload of money in October, his first month of fundraising — almost $800,000 since 
he officially opened his re-election account last month.
But the curious thing isn’t that huge $781,771 figure collected. After all, Gimenez is a strong mayor incumbent with deep ties to special interests and lobbyists and he has already collected $1.5 million in his political action committee.
It’s almost surprising, in fact, that there isn’t $1 million in the kitty already.
Well, wait a Little Havana minute. The total for October is actually $1.2 million if you count the $420,000 collected for Miami-Dade Residents First in October. The PAC now has a coll $2 million collected (though $324,000 is spent). That’s gotta be some kind of record. Brian Goldmeier, the mayor’s rainmaker, must be smiling ear to ear.
But if they were doing so well all along, why did his campaign basically lie — or mislead supporters, anyway — in a fundraising email sent on Oct. 29. Ladra got one.
In it, the mayor or someone speaking for his pitches for donations, almost desperately, to meet their goal for the month of October. That goal? The email stated it was $10,000.
Yeah, I choked on my tostada, too.
It also said that the campaign had only raised $8,221.
“We are less than $2k from the goal. Anything you can do to help is appreciated,” 
the email says, signed by Carlos.
But now we find out that on Oct. 29, the same day as that email was sent, Gimenez’s total was closer to $686,000. He only collected about $95,000 in the last three days of the month.
So why the lie? Maybe he just can’t help himself.
Ladra reached out to campaign manager Jesse Manzano, but he never calls me back. Someone else close to the campaign told Ladra that the $10K goal was for online fundraising and that it was a pretty common ploy to get more small donors to give. But Gimenez has very few small donors and it is not immediately clear which are online donations and which are checks picked up by Goldmeier in person. I don’t think Gimenez got $95K online.
The email also did not make that distinction.
“Hitting this goal is critically important for us and ultimately for the residents of Miami-Dade County. A good report will give pause to those who seek to undermine the progress we’ve made,” Gimenez or his message person wrote in the email. So, it would not have been a good report without the $10,000 of “online funds”? And someone told me that the goal was $500,000, which they had reached about the middle of the month.
The email was supposed to drum up small online donations to back up the camp’s claims that Gimenez has wide support from the everyday Joe Voter. Because that’s one of his main probems, even according to an independent poll done months ago: That the mayor is too beholden to special interests and lobbyists. 
And, in reality, the campaign report shows that he has a lot of bundled donations from entities who do business or want to do business with the county. In addition to the countless attorneys, construction companies, engineers and others who individually gave to the campaign are multiple bundlers.
It’s easier to reach $800K or $1 million, which he will eventually surpass, when you get $12,000 here from one healthcare management conglomerate and $18,000 there from real estate holdings in Hallandale Beach. It really adds up when you get $17,000 here from Turnberry Development and $23,000 there from the Hollywood Falic family in retail.
Maybe they want something at the airport? Or the mega mall?
There are other bundles. Some bigger, some smaller. Developer Armando Codina gave at least $5,000. Healthcare mogul Mike Fernandez has given $4,000 so far. But Ladra has not taken a close look at the 993 individual contributions, yet, so we’ll follow up with a little more detail.
The big money scare tactics might work with Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who has been flirting with a possible mayoral race but collected far less in October than he expected too (more on that later). But I doubt that Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado is going to “give pause.” She only raised $23,775 for her campaign in October, for a total of $2,has known all along that Gimenez would outraise her. And she says that’s not what her campaign is about.
One can still beat money. Look at what Ken Russell did in the city of Miami against Teresa Sarnoff, who had more name recognition and outspent him 5 to 1 in last week’s election. He still pulled almost twice as many votes as she did.
And remember how Gimenez first came to power in 2011? He beat former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, the original king of bundling contributions, who outspent him at least 3 to 1.
All but $320 (for printing) of the $10,800 spent so far by Gimenez was for event expenses. Apparently several lobbying firms have already held fundraisers. They include Ballard Partners — where his former chief of staff, Genaro “Chip” Iglesias now works, and LSN Patners (Alex Heckler/Marcelo Llorente).
The also bundled at least $3,000 to the campaign.
Carlos Gimenez rakes in $800K in first month for $1.2 mil total added by Ladra on
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