Galleries and luxury brands are not the only ones seeking the attention of wealthy patrons at Art Basel in Miami Beach. US presidential candidates have also jetted in for the week, seeking funds from out-of-towners and Miami’s politically active art collectors.
Miami’s top collectors tend to be very generous with donations, Federal Election Commission documents reveal. Many have stakes in real estate, where tax breaks and other public partnerships are crucial. Such is the case with the developer Jorge Pérez, who switched teams in March, breaking with a tradition of giving mostly to Democrats—Hillary Clinton foremost among them—to donate $245,000 to the Republican candidate Jeb Bush’s Right to Rise political action committee (PAC).
Most active by far is the car dealership billionaire Norman Braman, who has given $5.1m to PACs—mostly to Marco Rubio’s Conservative Solutions. George Lindemann, the father of fellow collector Adam, gave $100,000 to the union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s Unintimidated PAC in May (a short-lived investment, as Walker dropped out of the presidential race in September).
South Florida’s other major collectors have made donations to individual campaign efforts, which are limited by law. In the past 15 or so years, Rosa de la Cruz has given $148,800 to numerous politicians (many of them Hispanic) and party organisations around the country, both Republican and Democratic. The developer Craig Robins has been more Democratic in his donations for the same period, which amount to $93,600. Mera Rubell’s donations for that period amount to less than $5,000, for Democratic causes only, while there is no record of any such donations by Ella Fontanals-Cisneros.
Hillary Clinton held two fundraisers in Miami Beach ($1,000 a head) and Pinecrest ($500 a head) on Tuesday. On the Republican side, former Florida governor Jeb Bush has planned an arty party ($1,000 a pop) for Saturday that features a portrait of Bush made by the local artist Romero Britto, along with another event today ($1,000 a head) in Key Biscayne.
