Whoop! There it is!
The latest campaign reports are in — the last ones before the Coral Gables election on Tuesday — and, just as expected, Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli got a 
windfall from real estate developers and the construction industry.
More than $80,000 in seven days! That must have set some kind of campaign record in Coral Gables. Not all of it is development — there is some healthcare bundles in there, and Versailles owner Felipe Valls gave $3,000 — but most of it is related to the industry: Developers, real estate investors, architects, engineers, property managers, vendors and subcontractors.
Read related: Mayoral race in Coral Gables is a do over on over development
That last report, covering March 29 through April 4, brings the mayor’s total to $254,125. More than half of that has been collected in the last two reports, or since March 15. And it’s where the development money has come out. All but $5,000 has been reported in the last week, after nearly 4,000 people voted via absentee ballots.
Perhaps Valdes-Fauli wanted thousands of people to vote absentee before they knew the building industry was funding his re-election.
And boy are they coming out now to rescue Raul. It’s almost as if they’re afraid that former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick will beat the incumbent and try to stop or curb the upzoning of properties to maximize developers’ profits.
One of the special interest contributors bundling maximum $1,000 donations 
was NP International, the developer behind both the Gables Station and Paseo de la Riviera projects on U.S. 1 — the latter is going up now and photographed here — which were given height and density variances and have drawn much residential ire. NP had only contributed $1,000 as of the last report through March 28. But in one week, they made up for any lack of enthusiasm with another $6,000 from multiple companies and their two officers in Minnesota.
Ladra can’t help but wonder how much more they will give Valdes-Fauli in the next four days that we won’t hear about until after everyone has voted.
It’s not the only out of state money. This latest report has another $13,000 coming from real estate investors in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas.
Allan Morris donated another $5,000 through his companies and Jorge Perez of Related gave at least $2,000.
Valdes-Fauli has spent $221,389 of the bank, leaving at least $32,000 for expenses in the next four days.
Slesnick has the whole $100K nut she loaned herself, which she hasn’t touched really. She has spent $73,000 of the $82,000 she 
raised, $20K in the last week — not an easy task when you do it $100 and $200 at a time with a $500 thrown in now and then from all different people rather than in bundles of $1,000 from the same dozen dudes.
And while there may be some related “development” money through real estate interests and the supporting industry, Slesnick’s contributors are also almost exclusively Coral Gables residents — another good sign for her on Tuesday.
Because the developers in Minnesota, Texas, North Carolina, New Jersey and New York who gave to Valdes-Fauli can’t vote for Valdes-Fauli.
Development interests fund campaign for Raul Valdes-Fauli added by Ladra on
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