Martin Zilber outraises, outspends all candidates in Miami special election

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Martin Zilber outraises, outspends all candidates in Miami special election
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Former (read: disgraced) Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Martin Zilber has outraised and outspent every other candidate in the special election to fill the vacancy in the Miami Commission District 2 seat. He collected $275,000 in contributions between his campaign account and his political action committee, Beautify Grove Miami.

More than everyone else combined.

According to the latest campaign finance reports, Zilber has raised $129,260 in his campaign report, almost three times as much as the next highest banker, which is Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres, with $48,325. Former TV journalist and communications consultant Sabina Covo is right behind Torres with a total of $43,926 raised. Eddy Leal, the Miami city attorney on unpaid leave to run for this seat, raised $28,125.

According to some local poll that Ladra keeps hearing about, these four frontrunners are joined by Javier Gonzalez, with $16,096 in contributions, and June Savage, with $21,750 for the top voters’ choices. Everyone else is wasting their time and money, since many of them are self funding.

Read related: Miami D2 candidates file first campaign finance reports for special election

Zilber collected $40K in January, including a few new bundles: $8,000 from real estate investor and developer Sergio Rok, at least $4,000 tied to real estate investor Pierre Heafy, $3,000 from Aabad Melwani, operator of the Rickenbacker Marina and $2,000 from former county mayor Alex Penelas and his company.

Yeah, Penelas is supporting Zilber, the judge who resigned rather than face any discipline for his ethical lapses, and Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla‘s hand-picked puppet. Ain’t that something?

But the big money is in the PAC. Beautify Grove — which uses Alex Miranda, the same consultant as Zilber — reported $234,500 raised just in January for a total of $329,502. Add the campaign account and the ex-judge is approaching half a million dollars on this effort.

Top donors to the PAC are attorney Jay Solowski ($21,000), who is also the Vice President of the Brickell Homeowners Association, Marc Sarnoff, through his PAC, Truth is the Daughter of Time ($25K), and real estate and development company Gencom Platform ($20K).

Former Coral Gables Commissioner Frank Quesada — business partner of John Ruiz, who wants to build a football stadium at Tropical Park — gave Zilber’s PAC $10,000. So did Raymond and Rene Gonzalez of Limousines of South Florida, who want to privatize all public transit. The owners of A+ Mini Storage gave $5,000 and developer Russell Galbut gave $3,000.

Zilber is paying at least four consultants. In addition to Miranda, he has Jesse Manzano, Anthony Bustamante and Michael Valdes-Fauli on the PAC’s payroll.

And now we know that former State Rep. Manny Prieguez, who is now a lobbyist, has almost completely funded two other PACs, at least one of which has gone on the attack against Zilber. Prieguez, who once helped finance Diaz de la Portilla’s campaign, gave $7,500 to Miamians for Truth, Fairness and Justice, which put out at least one mailer, and $5,000 to Miami Moving Forward. Miami Prosperous has not reported any contributions.

Read related: Miami District 2 race gets heated with attacks and smears on lead candidates

Torres has a couple of bundles of his own. Mana Moishe gave him $7,000 and real estate investor/developer Meir Shai Ben-Ami.

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And lobbyists Pantin and Carlos Lago, brother of the Coral Gables mayor and Slapgate lunchmate of ADLP, gave to both Zilber and Sabina Covo — hedging their bets. Brian and Alex Shack, from the management team at Braman Motors, also hedged their bets, giving to Zilber and Eddy Leal.

The next campaign finance reports are due Feb. 23, four days before the election. And PACs don’t have to report again until March. That means we won’t know who paid for all the smear attacks until after the election.

But at least this is something.

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18 Responses to "Martin Zilber outraises, outspends all candidates in Miami special election"

  9. Tasker is a joke from Rural GA….

    she has not platform and is like un loca MAGA. “let me call the Commander, let me call the mafia out. Good luck with that

    Leal is a Clown in oversized suits
    Covo is like COVID
    Zilber is Zany
    Max has one liners
    Torres truly has a platform and has a proven track record to get it done for us

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0vVHL_qujA

    Reply

  10. I’m voting for Christy Tasker. I was considering voting for Sabina Covo because she is another empowering female candidate, but all my Democratic insider friends tell me that this position is to get Covo’s feet wet – Covo is actively preparing to run against Maria Elvira Salazar in November 2024. That’s why she is always unprepared and cannot speak on D2 issues, she always circles back to national issues. If Covo runs against Salazar, I think Covo has a shot of winning.

    As a D2 resident, I can’t stand the idea of having another D2 election in November 2023 and then again after Covo beats Salazar in November 2024. Our district is going to be left behind, just like it was when Russell ran for Congress (it’s a shame he didn’t win – love the guy!).

    I’m voting for Christy Tasker because she is the one who can beat the real competition in this race – Sabina Covo. All the other candidates are a joke. Please don’t throw away your vote – Vote Tasker!!

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoxT6DltfQK/?igshid=NzAzN2Q1NTE=

    Reply

  12. Jay has never leveraged his connection to the bipartisan BHA, not sure why that was included in this article. He’s an attorney and has private business. Please update your article.

    Reply

  14. Follow the money. If you want to stop the blatant corruption in city leadership, choose someone not beholding to the Miami machine. Fyi..We have had at least 15 Zilber fliers, arriving almost daily… quite annoying. My vote is in and it did not go to the big funders.

    Reply

  15. Politicians Should NOT be Judge by what Money they get , But by Who Gives the Money is The part That Should Worry US. Politicians Funds are like “POLITICAL LAY AWAY” and DIRTY!

    Reply

  16. Simply amazing that the “Special Interest” all want Zany Zilber. WHY its simple to keep Krusty Carollo out of Jail and also Alex aswell
    So a job that pays just under 100k Zany really needs to be placed into this job, to keep his friends out of jail.
    And Eddi, who has a Dark PAC and has been spending shit ton of money on ads, car wraps and also has a large team and 23k is not enough.. give me a break the Mayors puppet is in play here.

    I still say and will vote James Torres, that kid has been busting his ass and stands up to the stat que and the Mafia of the City

    Reply

  18. Looks like there’s a lot of Coral Gables commission race money get in the mix with the Miami D2 race and a lot of the same faces, too.

    Reply

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