‘Waiting on your last look’: Campaign manager helping Miami-Dade mayor in County Hall

In early January, Miami-Dade Commissioner Kionne McGhee asked the county’s new mayor for dramatic action on transit: freeze $300 million in upgrades on the South Miami-Dade busway and invite private companies to submit rail proposals instead.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava drafted a two-page memo to McGhee rejecting the idea. But before sending it, she wanted to hear from Christian Ulvert, her 2020 campaign manager.

“Waiting on your last look at memo,” Levine Cava texted Ulvert late in the afternoon of January 12. He wrote back: “Solid!” Five hours later, Levine Cava’s office emailed McGhee the memo.

Six months into Levine Cava’s administration, the consultant behind her rise to the top of county politics remains an active voice in how she governs.

“I’m always interested in what are the politics of these things,” Levine Cava, the first Democrat elected county mayor in 20 years, said in an interview. “He often has a political perspective that I might not be aware of.”

Ulvert, who also worked as an adviser last year to President Joe Biden’s Florida campaign, helped stage-manage her first day in office with a Nov. 17 swearing-in ceremony at the Adrienne Arsht Center, funded with leftover dollars from her successful run to be the county’s first female mayor.

His consulting firm, Edge Communications, remains on retainer with Levine Cava’s political committee, Our Democracy. Ulvert’s company was paid $27,500 during the first three months of 2021 after collecting more than $1 million through the end of 2020 for fees and media buys, according to filings by Our Democracy.

County contractors and lobbyists are keeping the money flowing into Our Democracy after a series of March fund-raisers with Levine Cava, who was joined at least once by her county chief of staff.

Levine Cava raising money from lobbyists, county vendors

Our Democracy raised $103,000 in March. The top donation was $10,000 from Florida East Coast Industries, the Brightline parent negotiating a commuter-train agreement with Levine Cava’s administration.

Ulvert is not a registered lobbyist, and said he does not have consulting agreements with companies pursuing Miami-Dade contracts. Most of the current and past clients listed on his website are Democratic candidates, though he also is on retainer with Magic City Casino and several unions that represent county workers or employees of county contractors.

He minimized his role when it comes to Levine Cava’s mayoral decisions, and said he’s mostly being paid to manage the mayor’s political life: endorsement requests from candidates, fund-raising events for the Democratic Party, and appearances tied to party events.

“I’ve only read one memo,” Ulvert said. “As mayor, she calls me to navigate political land mines sometimes.”

Christian Ulvert and Heat arena ‘intel’

Text messages between Ulvert and Levine Cava released through a record request to the mayor’s office offer a glimpse at their working relationship.

“Have updates for you later today when you can chat on Heat,” Ulvert wrote on Feb. 2 as Levine Cava’s administration was pursing a naming-rights agreement for the Miami Heat’s county-owned arena. Levine Cava responded: “OK! Jimmy had call with Eric yesterday,” referring to the county’s chief operating officer, Jimmy Morales, and Heat president Eric Woolworth.

Ulvert said his advice was to get a deal quickly, at a time when the Heat representatives were complaining about delays on the county landing a sponsor and could make a push for commission approval to negotiate a naming-rights package themselves.

“I just shared intel with her that I had heard,” Ulvert, who is also campaign consultant for two commissioners, Eileen Higgins and Danielle Cohen Higgins, said in an interview. “That she needed to get it done quickly because I was hearing buzz the commission wanted to move on that quickly.”

Ulvert has advised Levine Cava for years. He managed the campaign for her first race, when she won a county commission seat in 2014.

The local Democratic Party and unions backed Levine Cava then, creating the partisan-fueled victory that she and Ulvert recreated last year in the officially non-partisan race against fellow commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, a Republican.

Democrats hold seven of the 13 County Commission seats, but that hasn’t meant an embrace for Levine Cava. The board this week rejected two of her recommendations on Miami International Airport contracts.

“She needs to continue to reach out to make sure she has those seven votes, which I don’t think she has right now,” said Commissioner Rene Garcia, a Republican and chairman of the Miami-Dade GOP.

Levine Cava continues to be active in local politics. She endorsed Democrat Pat Keon over Republican Vince Lago in the non-partisan Coral Gables mayor race that Lago won by 21 points last month.

She resumed fund-raising in March, appearing with Ulvert at three small events organized by lobbyists Jorge Luis Lopez, who represents the Heat; Courtney Whitney, who joined Ballard Partners this year after working as Levine Cava’s paid fundraiser during the 2020 campaign; and Alex Heckler of LSN Partners in Miami Beach.

After Levine Cava lobbyist lunch, $5,000 donations

No guest list was made available for Heckler’s March 10 luncheon at Miami Beach’s La Gorce Country Club, but multiple LSN clients gave $5,000 to Our Democracy in the days after the event.

Those included NV2A, an engineering firm recommended by Levine Cava for a Miami International Airport contract in January; affordable housing developer Cornerstone Group, and Transportation America, which provides shuttles and private buses for the county’s transit agency.

“I am a top national Democratic fundraiser and proud to help my friend and hometown County Mayor,” Heckler said in a statement. “I work with mayors around the nation, and it is completely normal for an incumbent Mayor to raise money early in the first term.”

At Heckler’s event, Levine Cava arrived with another Miami-Dade official who is sought after by county vendors and lobbyists: Johanna Cervone, a former communications director for Florida’s Democratic Party who now earns $173,000 a year as the mayor’s chief of staff.

Cervone said she wasn’t with the mayor in her official capacity in an event attended by county lobbyists and vendors.

“I don’t get involved in any fundraising,” she said. “I did attend and I didn’t go during county hours — I went on personal time.”

In an interview with the Miami Herald Editorial Board, Levine Cava said she’s raising money early in her term in part to sponsor non-profit events throughout the county.

“I’m not able to spend money on things in the community, and some of that money is going to be used to benefit the community,” she said, noting the mayor’s office budget has limited dollars for donations to community groups. “Not like the commissioners, who have a good bit of money to spend for that purpose.”

Our Democracy, which has about $190,000 on hand, has reported no donations yet to community groups this year.

Expenses include a $10,000 donation to the Florida Democratic Party, $1,800 to the Arsht Center for Levine Cava’s swearing-in event, and $1,500 to the Gramps restaurant in Wynwood for a watch party of President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Ulvert said Levine Cava’s appeal as a newcomer to elected office also makes the longtime non-profit leader — she founded the organization now known as Catalyst Miami — more interested in feedback from a political consultant.

“She’s fairly new to politics. She’s entering her seventh year in elected office, and did not come with immense political capital — as a longtime politician would,” he said. “She came in with immense community backing, and immense community capital.”