March was another good fundraising month for former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is running for the Miami city commission seat in District 1 and 
has raised more each month for a total of $142,000 in 90 days.
The next biggest bank belongs to Miguel Angel Gabela, but he loaned himself $100K so he’s only raised $34,130 — about a fourth of ADLP’s contributions. Local favorite Horacio Aguirre raised $69,135 and the other four candidates haven’t raised that much between them, so let’s not worry about them for now.
Read related: Alex DLP keeps bunching bundles of special interest campaign money
The Dean came out of the gate swinging with $40,000 in January and topped 
that with $45,380 in February and then topped that with $56K last month, according to the last campaign reports that were filed.
Just as in the past two campaign reports, ADLP’s March advantage comes with bundles, or contributions made from the same source through family members or companies. Bundles generally indicate more than just a casual interest in a candidate’s position or vision. They are usually special interests.
March’s special interests include the developers of Riverside Wharf, who gave Diaz de la Portilla $5K in five maximum $1,000 donations, and Steve Perricone, who gave him $4,000. He also got $5,000 from Jayme Halli and $3,000 from Miguel Mouriz, both of whom are involved in retail investment and development.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if all these people are working together on a common project.
Read related: Alex DLP bolts out of Miami gate with a campaign cash advantage
Gabela doesn’t have any obvious bundling in his campaign report, sans a 
couple of paired contributions. He does have maximum contributions from former State Rep. Gus Barreiro — not surprising since the Barreiros and the DLPs are feuding fams — and from former Miami Commissioner Mark Sarnoff, a little more surprising because he used to be a DLP friend. Something must have happened there because Sarnoff, who helped the Dean in his county commission run last year, also gave $2,000 from two of his political action committees.
He also has $1,000 from lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez‘s New Leadership Network political action committee.
Aguirre raised $26,500 in March, with no new bundles, which is harder.
As reported 
earlier, he already had bundled contributions — at least $10,000 from Terry Zerby and his family and partners in the marine terminal business, another $8,000 from Sara Babun and her related companies and $6,000 from Emmanuel Pacin, a real estate and marine guy. All $24,000 of it is Miami River money. Much of District 1 runs along the river.
Among Aguirre’s expenses are more than $3,000 to political consultant Dario Moreno, another ex DLP ally.
ADLP keeps raking in campaign checks for Miami District 1 race added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
