The Seat 2 Shootout - Maria Mitchell v. Constantino Hernandez v. Martin Marquez

The winner of Seat 2 will be a first-time member of the Miami Springs Council - and it is between two campaign veterans, Constantino Hernandez and Martin L. Marquez; and first-time candidate Maria Puente Mitchell. Let's break down the documents and finances.

Maria Puente Mitchell
Ms. Mitchell reports $3,950 raised, including $1300 of her own and $500 from her spouse. She also received $1,000 from something called the "Miami Realtors PAC" . Looking at its documents and donor lists, it looks as though basically every Realtor in Miami-Dade is invited to make some kind of contribution, mostly in the $20-$100 range. Not a big-money PAC like some of the others we'll see.  Full disclosure: both my spouse and I signed her petition for candidacy.

Constantino Hernandez
Mr. Hernandez reports $6,509.57 raised, including some $4574.57 of his own money. As with Councilman Jaime Petralanda, I noted (legally permissible) contributions of $500 each from Miami Springs vendors Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. and Waste Management, Inc.
Looking at his candidate petitions, I noted no fewer than 4 former Councilmembers (Hon. Helen Gannon, Grace Bain, George Lob, and Eric Elza.)

Martin L. Marquez
Mr. Marquez reports $1,500 raised, including $100 from himself, $100 from his spouse and Seat 3 candidate Kathie Marquez, and $300 from his own firm, Urbanworks. There are some minor irregularities, for example he failed to sign his "G1" (see p.7 of the uploaded doc), and has $100 listed as a "loan" where on that report's itemized list (see p.8) the only $100 entry is not a loan but a cash contribution from "S" meaning self. Also, the contribution is not from Mr. Marquez, but from his spouse. 
Looking at the candidate petitions, the only detail that stood out was that all the signatures appeared to have been collected by his spouse, Kathie Marquez.

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