Ryan Nicol
For the second straight month, Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava and former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas both brought in the big bucks as they compete in the 2020 contest for Miami-Dade County Mayor.
The August fundraising contest saw Penelas come out on top, raising $250,000 to Levine Cava’s $200,000.
But the newest numbers from September saw the script flipped, though with slightly smaller totals. Still, both candidates earned six figures.
Levine Cava raked in $125,000 between her campaign and political committee Our Democracy PC. That topped Penelas by about $25,000. His committee, Bold Vision, raised just over $100,000.
“Day by day our campaign is working tirelessly to hit milestones that we were told were out of reach,” Levine Cava said in a statement Thursday.
“I am beyond grateful to the many across our county who have joined together and powered this historic campaign. We have shown that we can build a strong, county-wide movement. We are driven by the urgency to fix yesterday’s problems with new, bold solutions that put the interests of our residents above all else.”
The duo are just two of eight candidates officially competing in the 2020 contest. Current County Mayor Carlos Gimenez is term-limited, making the race an open one.
But while the field is crowded, Levine Cava and Penelas have stood out in terms of their fundraising prowess.
While several candidates’ September numbers are not yet available, County Commissioner Xavier Suarez showed $68,000 raised during the month. Just $3,000 was brought in through his campaign. But his political committee, Imagine Miami PC, added another $65,000 during September.
Former Commissioner Juan Zapata managed to raise just $100 dollars during the month.
Meanwhile, Levine Cava’s September haul gets her war chest up to about $1.65 million. However, $405,000 of that was money transferred from a political committee that backed Levine Cava well before the beginning of her mayoral run.
She also recently submitted 5,000 petitions supporting her candidacy to the Miami-Dade Elections Department. That’s more than a third required to qualify for the ballot by petition.
Penelas has raised about $1.5 million so far. And that’s all prior to him entering the race. Penelas formally filed for the contest on Oct. 1. He’s scheduled to hold a fundraiser at the end of October and will likely be looking to post a big fundraising number in his first official month as a candidate.
Also competing in the contest are entrepreneur Monique Nicole Barley, County Commissioners Esteban Bovo and Jean Monestime, and former Miami mayoral candidate Robert Burke.
Candidates’ September fundraising reports are due by Oct. 10.
