Ryan Nicol
With less than two months until the Nov. 3 election, Miami-Dade County mayoral candidate Daniella Levine Cava is staffing up for her battle against Esteban “Steve” Bovo.
Both candidates currently serve on the Miami-Dade County Commission.
Levine Cava is hiring Alex Spillis as the campaign’s policy coordinator. Spillis worked on the Alex Penelas mayoral campaign. Penelas placed third in the Aug. 18 Primary Election, just missing a spot in the top two to qualify for a runoff.
Spillis earned an economics degree from Florida State University and is working on a masters in public policy and administration with Northwestern University.
Levine Cava announced three additional moves Friday. She’ll hire Patrick Barham to serve as her communications coordinator. Leemay Chen will work as the South Dade Community Organizer, while Cesar Flores will serve in the same role for West Dade.
Barham volunteered for Barack Obama‘s 2008 presidential campaign and is joining Levine Cava’s team after taking a year off from Harvard University.
Chen interned with Commissioner Levine Cava as well as former Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Flores worked with Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and served as the Hispanic outreach coordinator for Sybrina Fulton‘s Miami-Dade County Commission campaign.
“We are incredibly proud of the diverse, young, and talented team that has come together to help elect someone we all believe in,” said Manny Orozco, the deputy campaign manager for Levine Cava.
“Daniella Levine Cava is the inspiring and ethical leader ready to take on the big challenges ahead and bring our entire community together to be part of the solution. Each member of our team is a tremendous asset to a campaign that is only getting stronger as we take our message, once more, to every voter across Miami-Dade.”
The hires follow Levine Cava’s move last month to add top leadership staff ahead of the General Election. The race will likely be tightly contested. More than $12 million had been spent in the race as of Aug. 13.
