Carlos Gimenez Has Raised Nearly Twice As Much As Challenger Joe Martinez

Carlos Gimenez

Campaign finance reports for January, February, and March are in for the local county races. So who's funneling cash to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his main opponent, County Commission Chairman Joe Martinez?

If money is any indicator, Martinez has a long haul ahead of him. For the past three months, Martinez raised $325,524 for his campaign and his Get It Done political action committee, while Gimenez's campaign and his PAC, Common Sense Now, amassed almost double that: $625,820. Since beating former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina this past June 29, Gimenez and his committee have collected $1.6 million total for his re-election run.

The mayor has also picked up a boatload of contributions from folks who supported his runoff opponent, Julio Robaina, most notably Hialeah Park owner John Brunetti. He ponied up $12,000 for Common Sense Now. Employees of the storied race track and corporations Brunetti owns bundled $5,000 for Gimenez's campaign. Another former Robaina rainmaker, Herman Echevarria, donated $17,500 to Gimenez and his PAC.

Other big donors to Common Sense Now included a company called Preferred Care Partners ($20,000), a political action committee called Protect Florida's Ecological Freedom ($25,000), and criminal defense lawyers Roy Black and Howard Srebnick ($10,000). The mayor is also getting support from a wide-cross section of Miami's business community from former U.S. Ambassador Paul Cejas ($5,000) to Hector Ortiz ($1,000), an electrical contractor who was once barred from doing business with Miami-Dade County for two years.

Meanwhile, Martinez has drawn money from businesses out at Kendall-Tamiami Airport, as well as real estate developers Sergio Pino and Masoud Shoajee. Pino has donated $5,500 to the chairman's campaign and his PAC. Shoajee has raised $3,000.

Get It Done has also received individual $10,000 donations from development company Florida East Coast Industries, the Fountainebleau Resort, and a political action committee called Friends Of Law Enforcement. (Martinez is an ex-cop). The Cuban American politician from Kendall also got an eye-popping $100,000 contribution from another PAC called Citizens For A Better Miami-Dade.

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