Ryan Nicol
Miami-Dade County mayoral candidate Daniella Levine Cava says she’ll turn in 5,000 petitions Monday supporting her candidacy to the Miami-Dade Elections Department.
“This first submission of 5,000 signed petitions will bring her closer to making Miami-Dade history as the first county Mayoral candidate to qualify by petition,” read a release from the Levine Cava campaign.
“Reaching this milestone demonstrates Team DLC for Mayor’s strong grassroots and the hundreds of volunteers who have banded together to propel Daniella’s campaign for Mayor.”
According to qualifying information from Miami-Dade County, mayoral candidates must receive at least 14,254 signatures to qualify. That number equals signatures from 1 percent of of total registered electors in the county.
Those signatures must be submitted by April 28, 2020.
The 5,000 signatures slated to be turned in on Monday still need to be verified by the county. Levine Cava says she will submit the signatures at 1:30 p.m. and will speak to the media afterward.
Levine Cava currently represents District 8 on the Miami-Dade County Commission.
In April, she announced her bid to become the first female Mayor in Miami-Dade County history. Through August, Levine Cava has raise more than $1 million in outside money and transferred another $405,000 from a political committee which backed Levine Cava prior to her mayoral run.
Levine Cava’s petition benchmark comes less than a week after former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas formally entered the 2020 contest. He made the move after raising more than $1.4 million through his political committee, Bold Vision, in anticipation of a run.
Also running in the contest are entrepreneur Monique Nicole Barley, current County Commissioners Esteban Bovo, Jean Monestime and Xavier Suarez, former Miami mayoral candidate Robert Burke, and former County Commissioner Juan Zapata.
Later this week, candidates will also face an Oct. 10 deadline to turn in their fundraising numbers for September. Current County Mayor Carlos A. Giménez is term-limited, setting up an open contest in 2020.
