The first campaign finance reports for the special election to fill the vacancy in the city of Miami’s District 2 were filed Thursday — three days after absentee or mail-in ballots were sent to voters.
Former Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Martin Zilber, who has been pushed by Commissioners Joe Carollo and Alex Diaz de la Portilla and endorsed by Chairwoman Christine King this week, reported the most in contributions with $88,000. This includes a few bundles from real estate investors: $10,000 from Nir Shoshani, $8,000 from Alfredo Xiques, $5,000 from Jorge Luis Salazar and at least $4,00 from Jeffrey Hoyos.
The judge, who resigned after an ethics investigation found he was cutting work and mistreating his staff, also loaned his campaign $1,500.
Zilber’s total was three times as much as the next highest, which belongs to Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres, who reported $28,975. Former TV journalist and communications professional Sabina Covo came in right after with $28,851. But Covo has more in the bank because she’s only spent just over $1,600 while Torres has spent $6,500, about half of which went to a mailer.
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Torres had one small bundle of $5,000 from Meir Shai Ben-Ami, a real estate investor and $1,000 from restauranteur Monty Trainer. Covo’s contributions include $250 from former Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried, who the candidate worked for at the state, and $150 from onetime gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink. She also got $1,000 from Ruth’s List.
Attorney and Trump man Lorenzo Palomares loaned himself $20,000 of his $22K total take and Lior Halabi loaned himself $17,450 of his $20K total. His largest donation is $555 from an art gallery in Pompano Beach.
June Savage loaned herself $5,100 and got another $3,000 in checks just in January. She had been raising money last year for a November run, which she transferred to this campaign, and spent more than the $8,200 she collected last month, including $7,900 to her campaign consultant, Emiliano Antuñez, which was for mail and text messages.
Eddy Leal loaned himself $2,000 and got another $14,750 in contributions. All but $3,250 came from real estate interests. Javier Gonzalez didn’t loan himself anything but collected $10,699 in checks, including $500 from onetime commission candidate Kate Callahan. He has paid his campaign consultant, Pedro Diaz, $2,500 and spent $412 on signs.
Read related: Two of 15 candidates out of Miami District 2 race as campaigns start
Max Martinez, who ran against Mayor Francis Suarez in 2021, loaned himself $2,300 and collected another $2,600+ in small checks. The largest contribution to his campaign was $485. And Christi Tasker loaned herself $5,000 and that is the total of her take so far.
The other wannabes didn’t raise enough to even be mentioned.
This is only the first campaign report. The next finance report will be filed Feb. 16, 11 days before the election, and Feb. 23, four days before.
Political action committees are on a different calendar and don’t have to be filed until the 11th of each month. That means that nobody will know what was spent on the election by PACs until March 11.
Voters may need to request their absentee or mail-in ballots again. A new law went into effect this year that purges the list after two elections. The last day to request an absentee ballot is Feb. 17. Do it here.
Miami D2 candidates file first campaign finance reports for special election added by Ladra on
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