Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado has outraised challenger Cindy Lerner by a margin of six-to-one in the race to keep her District 7 commission seat.
If money alone could win elections, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado would be well on her way to victory in her November rematch with former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner.
Regalado enjoys a six-to-one cash advantage over her opponent in the District 7 commission race, including contributions to both her campaign account and the political committee that is supporting her bid for another four-year term in office.
The two candidates are competing to represent a county commission district that stretches from Key Biscayne to Kendall and includes Coconut Grove, South Miami, Pinecrest, and a portion of Coral Gables.
As of early October, Regalado’s campaign had raised $798,000 from 958 donors during this election cycle. Her political committee, Citizens for Excellence in Miami-Dade County Government, reported another $2 million in contributions since 2021.
By comparison, Lerner’s campaign had raised $298,000 from 771 donors during the same period, including $120,000 that Lerner loaned to her own campaign. Lerner’s political committee, Protect Our Future, pulled in another $125,000.
The lopsided results illustrate the fundraising advantage that incumbents like Regalado enjoy over challengers. The list of donors supporting Regalado is dominated by power players who do business with the county.
Regalado’s willingness to accept donations from those players has opened her to criticism by Lerner, who questions whether Regalado’s commission vote is for sale.
“The money is pouring in and it’s pouring in in a very transactional way, from people who do business with the county,” Lerner said in an interview. “She (Regalado) doesn’t have to accept those donations. The point being, I would not.”
Regalado dismisses the criticism, saying there’s no nexus between the campaign donations she collects and the way she votes. “There is no correlation,” she said, adding that Lerner should put up or shut up. “If she has any evidence (to the contrary), she should go the state attorney.”
Regalado said her fundraising success is a product of the work she has done as a county commissioner. “I am a problem solver. I solve problems,” she said. “Which is why I have as much support as I have.”
The finance reports filed by each candidate tell very different stories.
Regalado’s campaign reports are dominated by donors who wrote $1,000 checks – the maximum allowed under state election rules. As of early October, 77% of Regalado’s donors had given $1,000, while 5% of donors gave $100 or less.
By comparison, less than 10% of Lerner’s donors during the same timeframe maxed out at $1,000, while more than half (56%) gave $100 or less.
(This comparison and the analysis below are based on campaign finance reports available as of October 15. More recent campaign reports are available here.)
The huge differential between Regalado’s large and small donors caught the eye of Miami Corruption Tracker, a website that tracks special interest money in local politics, and which found a clever way to illustrate the difference in an August 29 posting.
“To put it bluntly, her grassroots support could fit into a minivan,” Miami Corruption Tracker noted, while her “high-rolling supporters would need a fleet of luxury tour buses to get around.”
The list of Regalado’s biggest donors is dominated by developers like Jorge Perez of Related Group. Perez and his companies – including the people who run them – had donated more than $90,000 to Regalado’s campaign and committee by early October.
Perez personally donated $25,000 of that total to Regalado’s committee.
Related is redeveloping the county’s massive Liberty Square public housing project in Liberty City and appears poised to win the county’s blessing to build a 20-story mixed income apartment building on public land in the West Grove owned by the county.
The list of developers supporting Regalado’s campaign also includes:
- Arnaud Karsenti and 13th Floor Investments, which is building apartment towers at the Douglas Road Metrorail Station. The company and related individuals have donated more than $40,000 to Regalado’s campaign and committee.
- Midtown Development, which is seeking to redevelop the Shops at Sunset Place in South Miami. Midtown donated $40,000 to Regalado’s political committee.
- Coconut Grove developer Silver Bluff and related entities, who plan to build two mixed-use apartment buildings and Class A office space on Grand Avenue in the West Grove. The partners contributed $18,000 to Regalado’s campaign.
A profile of Lerner’s donors looks much different.
Nearly 40% of her donors identified themselves as “retired.” Attorneys and law firms represent 11% of her donors, and real estate interests just 6%.
Her largest donor by far is Barbara Steifel, who donated $60,000 to Lerner’s committee.
Influence Watch, a nonpartisan website that tracks influence in politics, identifies Steifel as the heiress to the Stiefel Medicinal Soap fortune who favors left-of-center candidates. Although the District 7 commission race is non-partisan, Lerner is a Democrat. Regalado is a Republican.
In an interview, Lerner said the fundraising advantage that commission incumbents enjoy cuts two ways. Many of the donors who shower incumbents with campaign cash also shun their opponents, she said.
Lerner said she’s witnessed that first-hand, when donors who supported her in 2020 declined to support her this time around. In 2020, Lerner and Regalado were competing to fill an open seat on the county commission. Neither candidate was an incumbent.
“People who gave to me four years ago that do business with the county, that are land use law firms, that I’ve known for years… I have had many who have said, I’m sorry, I cannot give to you this year,” Lerner said.
Some notable Lerner donors this time around: former County Commissioner Katy Sorenson who founded and ran the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami, and Laura Wagner, the woman behind Miami Corruption Tracker.
Regalado says her campaign has drawn support from individuals who know her and appreciate her work, not just developers. She mentioned several donors by name during an interview this week: Bruce and Evelyn Greer, the president of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens and the former mayor of Pinecrest, respectively, and David Lawrence, the former Miami Herald publisher.
And, she said, many of the developers who support her campaign are residents of District 7 and therefore have a reason to support her, just like any other constituent.
“They are stakeholders,” Regalado said. “They have a good commissioner and they would like to keep a good commissioner.”
For that reason alone people should be running from Regalado as fast as they can. Where is all this money coming from and what is it buying.