Campaign Account Summaries:
Albert Harum Alvarez has $56,983.90 - $35,000 loan = $21,893 raised.
Gene Flinn has $40,045.08 - $15,000 loan = $25,045 raised.
Danny Marmorstein has $54,100.00 - $51,000 loan = $3,100 raised.
Obdulio Piedra has $71,830.00 - $500 loan = $71,330 raised.
Annette Taddeo has $153,188.74 - $50,000 loan = $103,188 raised.
Lynda Bell report still hasn't been posted.
I took a quick look at most of the reports. Nothing much there. Candidates usually put the more evil stuff on the last report so I didn't expect too much. Anyway, this will give them money for those mailers. I am wondering why the Biltmore is donating to campaigns when they are going broke and owe money ($500 in kind to Annette Taddeo).
Obdulio Piedra has spent quite a sum on polling and campaign management/literature: $41,612. He has $30,218 left after expenses. The interesting thing is he has Vile Natacha Seijas' former Aide working on his campaign - Esther Monzon-Aguirre. So we do have a Natacha connection here. HOWEVER...when comparing his campaign report to Natacha's I didn't find anything alarming.
38 comments:
And yet Annette Taddeo, arguably the weakest candidate in the race - She doesn't even show up to most forums for Christ's sakes and is the only candidate that needs a prepeared statement to answer questions - is the one that rakes in the most $$$.
Can you spell special interests?
Look, we all rant and rave, bitch and complain but in the end, we get the government that we deserve.
Sorenson succeed by Taddeo - WOW! What a difference!
I think there might be an error on Taddeo's expense report. Her T-shirts, sign & postcard printing mailings expenses aren't showing, unless I missed them. But, her in kind was under $2000, including the $500 from the Biltmore.
Her report seems very heavy in PAC & Real Estate Development funds, including the Adler companies. There's also Joe Goldstein, Juan Mayol, Stanley Price on there.
Piedra raised $71,830!
I guess this district is no longer as "liberal" as we thought it was.
Taddeo even received a contribution from a defense contractor!
LOL - talk about investing for the future!
See you in the campaign trail for Congress soon - ;-)
Most of the funds raised between Taddeo & Piedro were not from Dist. I'll look at the other candidates reports. Taddeo appears to be a special interest candidate, at least to me, and Piedro just scares me with the LBA & a VNS former aide!
What is Bell hiding or trying to sanitize ?
Taddeo rasied a little over $3000 from the group of attorney's who represent Palmer Trinity, including Stanley Price.
As to her expenses, they don't look right to me either. Doesn't she have another lady on her payroll, not just Steve Marin?
I don't know which of the other campaigns is posting here trying to work Taddeo and "special interest" into as many comments as possible, but they ought to be ashamed.
Taddeo is the rare candidate who will say categorically that she won't move the UDB. That means the 'special interest' being favored here is the public.
As for candidate strength, I bet a former Congressional candidate has higher name recognition than most, and that's more than half the battle.
I challenge the posters attacking Taddeo to use their names, so we can see who is trying to spread this stuff. The volume of attacks alone suggests she may be the front-runner, and someone is getting desperate.
Maybe I missed something, I don't see anyone attacking Taddeo, I see people looking at her finance report and commenting, if you are taking that personally, you shouldn't. If someone wrote something false - than correct it.
Michael, don't get upset, this is what they do... BTW I still can't figure out if you set off the metal detector. Anyway, the candidates are used to this sort of stuff. This is pretty tame, I haven't had to remove anything.
All of you --- look at my post tomorrow...you will see why my alarms are not going off....
..for the record, his last name is Piedra (not Pereira).
I guess Micheal has his jockey juniors in a twist. Poor Baby.
The reports are interesting to us folks out here in the community, Micheal.
So get over it. What I am more interested in is the voters buying a pig-in-a-poke. Campaign money can buy lots of glossy attack ads, so, I am waiting to be buried in trash ads shortly and the fairy tale mailers of candidates whom haven't been connected to the community.
I would love to know how many of these people could find their way to South Dade Government Center before they discovered an open seat to run for? How many of them
regularly attend community meetings other than chamber or other business based meetings? Do they know what a targeted urban area is? Do they know if District 8 has one?
I want to hire a person for my commissioner who knows that everything in the district does not look like Pinecrest.
Actually, I want a well rounded community person, who is not afraid of being with the real folks and will really attend community meetings on non-election years.
Unfortunately, that type of candidate combined with governmental experience is difficult to find.
Is Piedra breaking the law strong-arming his clients to write $500 checks to his campaign or no more bank loans?
I'd hate to think Katy's seat is for sale to the highest bidder. I hate thinking that about any elected position.
Thanks for the spelling correction I copied the wrong name.
Commissioner Katy Sorenson's only difficulty raising funds was in her first campaign 16 years ago against the entrenched Comm. Larry Hawkins. In each campaign as the incumbent, she was able to raise more money then her opponents because her friends and supporters believed her to be honest and to be reasonable. I would guess that Annette Taddeo's donors believe she is fair and approachable as well.
Taddeo is a candidate who has a good grasp of the issues in the district and in the county. She has visited my house in Pinecrest, friends of mine in Palmetto Bay and cousins of mine in Cutler Bay. I like that she says there are no circumstances that she can see when moving the UDB would be acceptable. I like that she has been endorsed by the Nurses, the Women's Campaign Forum and SAVE Dade. I know I will be voting for on August 24th.
If Taddeo is so strong on the issues then why is she THE ONLY one who continues to miss candidate forums and debates?
What is she afraid of? Getting caught off-guard or getting caught with color coded cue cards, like she did at the Herald's editorial board screening?
Let's face it. Taddeo is strong on cash but light on the issues. She's tapping all her contacts that gave to her 2 years ago (naturally) but what's not natural is a military defense contractor maxing out to a local commission race.
Its ovbious she's planning a Congressional race in 2 years and using a prospective cushy Commission race to launch it.
Not with my vote!
I live in the district and was the Taddeo's neighbor in Saga Bay until 4 years ago when Tony (Annette's father passed away. We have seen Annette go to college, come home and work at the falls to earn extra money for school, come back and start her business from a bedroom in her parents Saga bay home. I read these comments, and I wonder who are you people talking about? you do not know Annette! Wow, she's smart, caring, and you should see her passion for helping people. I think she will be a great commissioner. She was just out of college when we all went through Andrew (specially in Saga Bay), and she put her life on hold to get her parents home back standing. She is an amazing woman. No wonder she has been so successful in business. we are lucky she is willing to put up with the lies you guys are saying about her! She has the most important ingredient one would want in an elected official, integrity!
I notice many of the attacks against Annette Taddeo become personal. If I remember correctly, the same thing happened to Katy Sorenson every time she ran. Enough already!
What's so great about your candidate/s?
. . . and the same attacks occurred against Harum-Alvarez on this blog a couple of weeks ago. As I said then, can we please just be thankful to those willing to run for office and focus on the issues?
Not a single comment on here has been intended to be personally insulting to Taddeo. Nothing.
If you dont like the way she's being criticized, then please tell her to stop giving us so much ammunition!
We have seen that "Annie" shys away from debates and forums unlike the rest of the candidates. If we knew what her positions are on some of the issues, we might take her seriously.
Unlike the other candidates, she has to be "propped-up" A LOT with campaign handlers and position papers - not for people to read but for her to understand her own positions! She actually tried this tactic inside the MH Editorial Board - I mean, c'mon, people, lets get real here, please!
She has her puppeteer (Marin) strongarm the Unions to endorse her exclusively without any consideration for the other candidates and the Democratic process for that matter, and we're are the ones who are desperate?
No, we're are very disappointed.
Its not a beauty contest, its a County Commission race in the largest county of the 4th largest state in the Union.
We deserve better than this!
Taddeo is playing dirty. Her people are calling all their contacts, regardless if they working on someone else's campaign, and trying to persuade them to jump on Taddeo's. Look at "her people" and see who's campaign they worked on before jumping on hers.
hhhmmm....This is very interesting and very telling.
I wonder if this is how Marin handled the Union endorsements?
I hear that Esther and Natacha haven't spoken in years. The last person Vile Natacha wants on the Commission is Obdulio...That's reason alone for me to vote for him and stay away from the Taddeo and her Puppet Maker Marin and Bell with her Natacha henchmen...
LOL! these comments are really funny. I'm a union member and the other day someone told me to check out this blog. i had never heard of it. I had to call a bunch of union fellows to find out who this guy Marin is. we don't know him. you guys really think a guy we don't know from Adam is going to have any influence in our endorsement process? what a joke! Now the one that hired a union insider is Flinn (Keith Donner), so these messages are probably them pissed. I also found out Marin is a big Republican. Please! I do not know why Annette Taddeo hired him, but then I heard she hired him because Katy Sorenson recommended him. So let me get this straight, you guys are dying to BE LIKE katy, but taddeo IS the only one actually following her advice- LOL)!.
The anti-Taddeo comments on this blog are remarkably uniform and give the appearance of a coordinated campaign to tie her to the special interests.
Annette is from the business community, but still has strong support from several unions. She is close to the people of the community and, therefore has strong support from the grassroots. She is also notably active in social justice issues and, especially, in the medical field. Who better than someone with her business sense and success to tackle our county's finances and to deal with Jackson Memorial Hospital?
And then there is the UDB line. If she is controlled by special interests, why would she oppose expansion of the UDB? Annette is a strong environmentalist.
I read accusations about her campaign staff. What staff? She has volunteers talking to her supporters.
These frivolous attacks are garbage!
Please! These comments are so transparent - I can always figure out what was found out by expensive polls by reading your comments. Thanks...
Sigh. I can't say that I have seen any of the above. Annette did not go to the last commission hearing on the trust closure of the Jax South OB - she didn't support her union then.
And as someone who has been in the community for 20 years as a community organizer, I have not once run into her. I dunno.
I have look with dismay at the figures raised by some candidates that I do not even know, I do not know how they think, or what their vision is for the community they intend to represent.
It sounds to me like same old same old, Special interest any one?
I my view those candidates that not even approached one on one to the community to tell them what they think do not respect their constituency and believe that money is all that count. Those who accept campaign money from private interest will not serve or represent the community; they will represent and serve those private interests, because it amounts to a business transaction.
Furthermore, if they seriously intend to represent us, they must return the private interest donations.
Beatriz, I agree with you. But, unfortunately, it takes $$$ to get your message accross and to conduct a viable political campaign.
Having said that, the exortbitant amount of money raised in a very short amount of time - 3 months - is very disturbing and it does smack of special interests.
I'm just saying. Taddeo is raising money like she's THE sitting Commissioner with very little effort, scrutiny from the voters and the other candidates.
Heck, she hardly ever twitters, you need to be confirmed as a "friend" if you want to know anything on her campaign Facebook page (like a secret society). And her own website is very weak, particularly on the issues page.
I'm just saying, all this "support" is troubling.
Three candidates have tons of special interest money: Flinn, Taddeo & Piedra. Don't know about Bell yet. This is exactly the problem with Miami-Dade County. Developers, land use attorneys and lobbyists buy elections. The sad part is, it's happening to Katy's seat.
Why is Miami-Dade one of the worst-hit spots in the nation? Why is the recession worse here? Because the Miami-Dade Commission, owned by development interests, laid down for every overbuilt project. Sprawl out west and down south, gargantuan towers downtown. We're screwed for years down the road. And the one seat where we had a chance to Hold the Line is now under siege.
Genius, you said "nothing much there" in these reports. I have to disagree. I don't know the names of all the lobbyists and power brokers, but the ones I do know are all over certain candidates' reports.
You break out loans. Good. The next distinction [and it's not that YOU have to do all this homework yourself] is lobbyist and developer money, then inside and outside the district. It's disturbing that in this relatively wealthy district, the big donations are pouring in from outside.
It also sounds very odd to hear you saying that everything's fine as long as the dirty money in this race is not as bad as Seijas or Rolle. This was always a different district. Perhaps it won't be anymore. If that's the case, then our standards have declined considerably.
I have been researching campaign reports for years. You can think what you like. I can tell a bad one pretty quickly. I know who the officers are in many corporations from all my years of research.
These are not bad reports in my opinion. Of course there are some evil people on them...but there is not enough to concern me. Look at Katy 2006 Campaign report. She raised $351,961 -- do you think she did that with $25 donations?
http://www.voterfocus.com/ws/mdccand/candidate_pr.php?c=miamidade&el=4
You have to be realistic. You can't run a campaign without money. If a candidate has no money he or she can't win. Here is what I asked Katy and what she said:
G.o.D.: The Campaign Report: Is taking contributions from anyone ever off limits? Can we draw conclusions from the campaign reports? What should we read into a campaign contribution of $5,000 all by one person via different corporations. Are these contributions a necessary evil?
Katy Sorenson: I took everyone's contributions, and thanked them for their investment in good government. If I knew there was a legal problem with someone, I would not take a contribution. Never did I lead any contributor to think that I owed them anything else except to answer their phone calls and listen to their issues. I think it's a good idea for the public to scrutinize contributions, but you can't really draw conclusions until the person is in office and performing. Unless someone is independently wealthy, money is a necessary part of winning an election.
How many of my readers give to candidates? I give, not a lot but each cycle I give to a few candidates. If everyone else did that, we wouldn't have any problems. I put on my facebook page to give, no one LIKED that idea.
So until people start giving, we have to stay with this broken system. Without the loans to their accounts: the pure candidates wouldn't be able to run a campaign. That is unfair, to expect a candidate to put themselves in debt. It is also stupid.
We want good people to run for our benefit and then we make them pay their way?
You are right: It is stupid.
GoD: You have a facebook page?
Riley says: (Been out of town)
The big question I have is: Do any of these candidates have any idea of the enormous data that the CDMP involves knowing?? From the looks of what I'm reading on this blog nobody questions if the candidates have enough knowledge of what this document encompenses.
Flinn will be disqualified from this race since he did not resign from his Mayor post pre-qualifying. Sad day, truly sad day! Genius, what are your thoughts?
To last poster - WOW! Talk about a sucker punch!
Is this really accurate about Mayor Flinn having to resign his post before he qualified for the County Commission race?
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