Coral Gables Group 2 race goes from clusterbunch to 3-way along ethnic lines

There are seven candidates in the Group 2 race in the Coral Gables election. But, really, there’s only three. Everyone watching knows the fat votes will go to Rhonda Anderson, Tania Cruz-Gimenez and Jose Valdes-Fauli.

As the only gringa in the race, Anderson is almost a shoe in for the runoff. She might have the charisma of a cardboard box but this is Gables politics and it can still get ethnically divided.

Just ask former Commissioner Jeannette Slesnick.

This dynamic could be magnified in this race when the Gables could be looking at an all Cuban commission for the first time in history.

And, yes, that has come up — and some people don’t like it.

Anderson, who has been vocally opposed to the controversial zoning update and at every virtual meeting, is almost sure to get a majority of the white non-Cuban and old-schoolers vote. That alone could secure her a place in the runoff, while the other two front runners split el voto latino.

She’s also counting on the anti-dynasty vote: “I’m not a politician and there’s not a politician in my family,” she told Ladra.

That means the April 13 ballot could be a race for the second runoff slot between the brother of current Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli and the daughter-in-law of the former county mayor, Congressman Carlos Gimenez.

And each hopes that voters don’t hold their relatives against them.

Valdes-Fauli is leading the money race, according to the latest campaign finance reports through Jan. 31. But it’s by less than $5,000, which is exactly how much he loaned himself. So is he really leading? The latest campaign reports show that he’s raised $69,690 in a year while Cruz-Gimenez raised $65,350 in two months.

And that doesn’t count the checks Cruz-Gimenez picked up at her kick-off fundraiser at Zucca last Thursday. Ladra predicts she will take the lead in February, but we won’t know until after March 11.

So far, the Gimenez contributions are not what one might suspect. No real obvious bundling, except couples and a few standouts already reported.

But Papi’s money may still be coming. Cruz-Gimenez, a New Jersey Democrat, has been knocking on doors with the Republican former First Lady of Miami-Dade, Lourdes Gimenez, which indicates an uncanny ability to feel comfortable with and reach people at both extremes. That might be helpful in an increasingly partisan community.

Valdes-Fauli’s new campaign report is also free of any obvious bundling, except for two maximum $1,000 contributions from the Agave project on Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

Which doesn’t help him with the anti-development voters that he is already not connecting with.

Valdes-Fauli’s biggest weakness is his brother. The mayor is a rude, selfish, insensitive and rather brusque bully who yells at, challenges and silences residents — or walks out of the room if he doesn’t get to shut them up. Jose says he is nothing like Raul. So do his friends. An openly gay retired banker, the younger Valdes-Fauli is an arts advocate que le cae bien a todo el mundo.

But the fact that he’s been unwilling to publicly call his brother out on both the public verbal abuse and the Miracle Mile zoning update that the mayor promoted could be a problem for him. People mention it quite a bit.

So much so, in fact, that he’s had to publicly try to distance himself from his brother. After a particularly nasty commission meeting last week, where the mayor alternately berated people and condescended them, Jose Valdes-Fauli was forced to defend himself in the Miami Herald.

“My brother is my brother, I adore him. He was always like a father figure to me,” he is quoted as saying. “But he and I are two totally different individuals.”

He repeated almost exactly the same thing to Ladra and people around him intimate that the two are not close.

But blood is thicker than water and they may be more brotherly than the candidate wants to admit. Jose posts Raul’s defensive op-eds on his Facebook page, and the two served together as board members of Illuminate Coral Gables, South Florida’s first art + light exhibition, which features eight projects that incorporate video projections, sculpture and art installations. It opened on Friday and runs through March 14.

And he did write he an opinion piece in Gables Insider that opposed the Miracle Mile zoning change, but it doesn’t mention his big bro and it didn’t come until Jan. 31. He also hasn’t spoken at any of the virtual community meetings with 200 or so residents attending, including other candidates who have been regulars.

The biggest hurdle for Cruz-Gimenez is Claudia Miro. This county library employee and onetime president of the Miami Republican Women’s Club Federated is actually raising more funds than Anderson (with $11,300 as of Jan. 31), for the number three slot in the bunch, at $27,750 (what Cruz-Gimenez raised last month). But she can’t hurt Rhonda.

Miro is only expected to peel votes away from the two Hispanic candidates, y un poquito. Not a lot. And, because she’s a woman, she may take more from Tania.

But she doesn’t have a lot of money to do that with. Miro has already spent $14,128 — including close to $12K to political consultant Steve Marin — leaving her with $13,622 in hand. The only mailer Ladra has seen so far is a Happy Holidays piece with big photos and few words. Cruz-Gimenez, meanwhile, has sent at least two mailers with details about her position on the issues, which she says are traffic mitigation, controlled development, revitalization of the downtown and environmental sustainability.

And it’s not like Miro has any momentum.

While Miro came out strong with $20K in her first month of October — propelled by friends in Miami — she has since dropped down to just over $2,000 in January, including $1,500 from lobbyist Ron Book, who is apparently hedging his bets (donating $1,000 to Cruz-Gimenez).

Cruz-Gimenez has only spent $13,500 — including $11,465 to political consultant Emiliano Antuñez — leaving her with more than $50 in the bank, which is expected to grow again in February.

The other three candidates — if they are still candidates by qualifying deadline Feb. 26 — raised $500 between them and are not worth much mention except for the comic relief Ladra expects them to provide at the debates.

Get the popcorn ready, ’cause they could start as early as next week.

Jose Valdes-Fauli, Rhonda Anderson, Tania Cruz-Gimenez

Coral Gables Group 2 race goes from clusterbunch to 3-way along ethnic lines added by Ladra on February 15, 2021
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