Look out, Group 3. Here comes Alex Bucelo.
The sleeper candidate who jumped into the race to replace Coral Gables Commissioner Pat Keon — who is running for mayor — may be a 28-year-old newbie whose Papi is greasing the wheels. But he’s made an impression on people who are betting on him.
Bucelo, who came out of the gate with an impressive $37,000 in his first month, raised almost twice as much in February for a total of $102,245, according to the latest campaign report through Jan. 31.
That’s almost as much as Javier Baños, another candidate, who has been fundraising for a year and loaned himself at least $62,000 — or almost half his $131,000 total.
Read related: Miami politics creep into Coral Gables election via Javier Baños, Claudia Miro
So Bucelo is winning the money race — even if you don’t count the $32,500 raised by his political action committee, Friends of the Gables.
The baby-faced attorney has not loaned himself a cent. And, notably, only 76 of the 165 contributions to his campaign account so far are from addresses outside Coral Gables while a great majority of Baños’ contributions — 134 of 159 — are from outside Coral Gables.
“The support I am getting is a reflection of the grass roots campaign I am running,” Bucelo told Ladra Thursday, adding that he has knocked on about 700 doors in the past couple of months.
“I was born and raised in this city. I’m really taking this campaign seriously,” Bucelo said. “I’m listening to people so I can represent them once elected.”
Kirk Menendez, a longtime Gables civic leader, finally has some cash in his campaign account, having the best month ever with $23,000 collected in February for a total of $30,000. But he’s got bigger problems because he supported the up-zoning in the Crafts Section in a year when overdevelopment and zoning changes will dominate the election, again (more on that later).
Read related: Coral Gables commission oks zoning shift in Crafts Section, not Miracle Mile
Bucelo’s latest campaign finance report also shows that he doesn’t have many bundles, other than husband and wives who give a pair of checks.
Prominent Gables zoning attorney Zeke Guilford has given him $2,500 and the Marcelo Llorente/Alex Heckler lobby firm gave $2,000. He also got $1,000 each from two political action committees that back Republicans at the state level.
The largest donor to his PAC is an electrical contractor named Florida Community Lighting, in Hialeah, which gave $10,000. The second largest is $6,000 from the Salty Donut in Wynwood and South Miami, which is owned by Amanda Pizarro of Greenway Drive. Another $5,000 came from healthcare executive Nestor Plana, CEO of Independent Living Systems.
Absentee ballots are mailed to voters in about a month for the election that is on April 13.
Candidate Alex Bucelo hits $100K mark in Coral Gables commission campaign added by Ladra on
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