Democrat Richard Lamondin’s campaign for Senate District 38 is out with a new television and digital streaming ad, set in a Miami watering hole.
The 30-second spot, titled “Bar Tab,” is part of a sustained six-figure media campaign running through Election Day.
It’s a snappy piece of advertising, utilizing repetition, quick cuts and numerous voices and voiceovers to pitch the first-time candidate to Miami-Dade County voters.
The ad opens with a man and woman discussing Lamondin at a bar. There’s also a bartender, of course, and a television above the bar depicting SD 38 incumbent Republican Sen. Alexis Calatayud. And at the end, Lamondin also makes an appearance.
The dialogue in the ad, viewable below, is as follows:
Man: “You hear about Richard Lamondin?”
Woman: “The businessman?”
Man: “Yeah, not a politician. He built a company here, created hundreds of jobs.”
Bartender: “Lamondin!”
TV: “Alexis Calatayud votes for billions in handouts to the insurance and healthcare industries, funding for Alligator Alcatraz, an agenda to tear families apart.”
Bartender: “Lamondin!”
Woman: “Lamondin — he’s different. Lamondin will hold the insurance companies accountable.”
Man: “Lower housing and healthcare costs.”
Man and woman: “Help working families.”
Bartender: “We need change. Lamondin.”
Lamondin: “I’m Richard Lamondin, and together we’re going to give Tallahassee something to shout about.”
“Bar Tab” debuts Thursday, 10 days after Lamondin’s first spot, “Scratch,” hit terrestrial and digital airwaves.
Campaign Manager Manny Orozco said the new ad represents “the energy of (Lamondin’s) campaign.”
“While Alexis Calatayud uses millions of dollars in special interest money from the same big corporations driving Miami’s affordability crisis to try to buy this election, businessman Richard Lamondin is meeting people where they are in our community,” he said.
“She will not debate. She will not face voters. She thinks she can run from her record but voters are ready for real change. … South Florida is done with bought and paid for politicians and they are ready to shout about it.”
Since winning the SD 38 seat in 2022, Calatayud has raised nearly $3.3 million, the vast majority of which came from corporations, special interests and political committees, according to her Division of Elections filings.
She was the Senate sponsor of the landmark Live Local Act, which proponents say is crucial to expanding Florida’s affordable housing inventory, but which critics argue severely undermines home rule, bypasses public review and sidelines community input in urban development.
She also voted for bills to renew an emergency fund used for the now-shuttered Alligator Alcatraz immigrant-detention facility, provide $1 billion in state-backed reinsurance subsidies and curtail policyholders’ ability to recover attorneys fees while providing added protections for insurers against bad-faith claims.
Lamondin has raised nearly $300,000 since switching to the SD 38 race in April, most of it through personal checks. He is the co-founder of environmental services company ecofi.
Last month, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party called out Calatayud for mislabeling Lamondin a Democratic Socialist in campaign advertisements — he isn’t — and for avoiding debates with him.
SD 38 spans southern Miami-Dade, including Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, South Miami, parts of Coral Gables, Homestead and Miami, and unincorporated communities like Kendall and Westchester.
Registered Republicans in the District now outnumber Democrats by about 20,000 voters.
No-party candidate Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, a former Democrat, is also running.
Florida Politics ranked the SD 38 contest seventh among 11 South Florida races to watch this Fall.
Election Day is Nov. 3.