With less than two weeks before qualifying ends, Coral Gables Commissioner Mike Mena still has no opposition in his group in April’s upcoming election. 
And chances are it will stay that way because of his war chest.
Mena has amassed $111,650 in contributions since last April, according to the last campaign reports filed this week. That includes $31,950 just in January, his second best month and the best since July.
This is someone who, again, has no challenge at all.
Having spent only about $10,000, Mena is holding onto a fat 100K to unleash on anybody who dares run against him (qualifying ends Feb. 22). It’s smart. He’ll have to return or donate the money to charity if he is elected unopposed, but not before he sends everyone a big thank you and spends some of it gratuitously on furthering his next political aspiration.
In the only real race for the group 4 seat vacated by Commissioner Frank Quesada, former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera also had his best month, with $21,650 collected in January for a $31,620 total. This includes $1,000 from former City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez, $250 from former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick and $250 from David Bolton, the late great Roxcy Bolton‘s son.
Cabrera, who has spent a little more than $6,000, is running against former 
Interim City Manager Carmen Olazabal, who has raised a total of $22,871, including nearly $9,000 last month, and attorney Jorge L. Fors, who has proven himself quite the rainmaker with $11K more in January for a grand total of $81,775 so far.
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At least half of Olazabal’s money is from outside Coral Gables, and a lot of it comes from family and friends in Puerto Rico. She also has a $250 from former city manager to anyone Merrett Stierheim, who made $50,000 as a city manager’s consultant when Olazabal was in charge.
Meanwhile, she has spent the most of the three candidates in the open race, with $11,500 or about half her total — already out in expenses that include fees for “consultant” Dario Moreno, who is really a pollster and data guy who gets paid publicly while Carmen Cason, the former mayor’s wife, does much of the ground work.
Fors has only spent $2,360.
It is also notable that Fors, a newby — whose contributions include a $1,000 gift from former Commissioner Wayne Withers (ouch Ralph!) — has raised more than Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, who has raised $80,800, including $13,350 last month.
Read related: Newby leads cash race in Coral Gables 3-way contest in open seat
Valdes-Fauli — who only won by less than 190 votes last time — has also blown more than half of his wad, spending more than anybody else by far. Last month he spent more than $17,000 on holiday cards, media and campaign 
literature, through the company of his campaign manager Jorge de Cardenas.
This means he has less than $40,000 in hand, which means there’s still time ladies and gentlemen. This would not be a hard race to win. Valdes-Fauli is a crybaby who is hugely unpopular, even the people who pretend to like him. He disappeared for 13 years after leaving office in 2001 and suddenly wants to be relevant again. Yawn.
But, so far, it’s not like he has much to worry about. His only challenge is from perennial candidate Jackson “Rip” Holmes, who sounds like a crazy person when he talks about aliens behind the Boston bombing and “sacred Jeb Bush” — who he has apparently forgiven for sending him to prison for 3 years after he made a threat — has only been able to get money from himself.
He has loaned his campaign $615 and spent nearly $500 on a voter’s list and a logo. Holmes does not list any expenses for his website so Ladra wants to know who his server is. He apparently is going to run the campaign on a shoestring budget of iphone videos.
In Coral Gables money race, unchallenged incumbent is leading added by Ladra on
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