Drew Wilson
Republican Jose Mallea added to his fundraising lead in the special election for House District 116 with more than $120,000 raised between contributions and loans.
Mallea brought in $97,600 in contributions and loaned his campaign $24,000 for a total of $262,256 so far. The Doral Republican also spent nearly $194,000, leaving him with $16,600 in the bank ahead of the Tuesday primary election.
The bulk of the money was spent on media buys and mailers, though Front Line Strategies also picked up $24,443 for consulting work.
Daniel Perez also posted a decent haul during the six-week reporting period, with just shy of $85,000 raised and $117,000 in spending. Like Mallea, most of the money was spent on a flurry of media buys and mailers over the past few weeks.
Thus far, the Miami Republican has raised $168,200 and spent $165,434, leaving him with less than $3,000 four days out from the election.
The two candidates are running to take over for Republican Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, who is the current leader in the money race for the SD 40 seat vacated by Frank Artiles, who resigned in April amid scandal.
HD 116 is reliably Republican. The GOP has a 10,000 voter registration lead over the Democrats in the district and Diaz easily won his 2016 contest with 62 percent of the vote.
The winner of the speciation Republican Primary will face Democrat Gabriela Mayaudon in the special general election on Sept. 26.
Mayaudon’s most recent report covers June 5 through June 8 and shows her with less than $20 on hand. Her lone contribution was from the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, which paid her $1,781 qualifying fee.
