FDLE records show how investigators probed maze of David Rivera's campaign, personal finances

On Jan. 3, 2011, days before taking his seat in Congress, Miami Republican David Rivera filed financial documents in Washington he said would “dispel any speculation” about his personal finances.

But the documents didn’t mention the $18,000 Rivera owed at the time to his mother’s business partner, records show. One day after filing the forms, according to the records, Rivera received $20,000 from his mother, put it in a campaign account, and later used the money to pay off the business partner’s loan.

This was one example of the financial maze the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office encountered in their 18-month investigation of the congressman’s finances. The agencies closed their investigation of Rivera last week without filing criminal charges against him.

Rivera, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, remains under investigation by the FBI and IRS.

In a memo wrapping up their case, Miami-Dade prosecutors said Rivera “essentially live[d] off” campaign contributions for almost a decade while serving as a part-time state lawmaker, paying mortgages on four different properties and jetting around the globe though he never held a full-time job or earned more than $28,000 a year.

So how did he do it?

Newly released FDLE investigative reports show that Rivera used back-dated campaign records, a web of bank accounts and undisclosed loans, a batch of credit cards and misleading disclosure forms to disguise his finances from the public eye during much of his eight-year tenure in the Florida Legislature.

Rivera, once the powerful budget chief in the state House of Representatives, also collected at least $175,000 in undisclosed donations for a perpetual campaign as a Miami-Dade committeeman with the state Republican Party — money Rivera frequently used to pay for meals and travel, including plane tickets for his then-girlfriend, the records show.

Other expenses Rivera called “campaign related,” the records show, included $105 for show tickets at a medieval-themed casino in Las Vegas, and $360 for tickets to an off-Broadway show in New York. The title: Perfect Crime.

More here.

Democrats and Republicans fire shots over Polytech

Before Gov. Rick Scott announced the creation of Florida Polytechnic as the state's 12th university on Friday, the Florida Democratic Party released a statement condemning the action.

“This move is nothing more than an appalling and wasteful power play by the Republicans in Tallahassee. The people of Florida didn’t ask for this university, they don’t need it and can’t afford it," wrote Brannon Jordan, Democratic Party spokesperson.

Powerful Republican Budget Chairman Sen. JD Alexander of Lake Wales pushed through the bill to immediately break off the University of South Florida's Lakeland branch.

But the Democratic Party release has one important omission: Most Senate and House Democrats also voted for the university.

To reach out to Hispanic voters, Obama campaign in Miami tries to tout education

The Obama campaign's Miami office launched its effort to reach out to Hispanics Friday -- or at least, it tried to.

Only a single reporter showed up to a press conference with Democratic strategist Freddy Balsera and Gloria Romero Roses, the first-time candidate running against Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera. The two were set to discuss President Barack Obama's education policies and how they have helped Hispanic voters.

It's the kind of event that is bound to draw little interest at this point in the campaign. But Balsera said while education may not be the sexiest topic, it's important for the campaign to stress the administration's policies, particularly when it comes to protecting loans for students to go to college and keeping a tax credit that allows more families to afford higher education.

"These are all things that Republicans wanted to eliminate over the last couple of years," he said.

Roses, who was involved as a parent in dealing with overcrowding in Miami-Dade public schools when former Superintendent Rudy Crew was in charge, said education should be part of the political discussion on how to lift the economy. "It is the priority," she said, "because that's how we're going to build an economy that's built to last."

Miami-Dade state attorney's race draws two write-in candidates, ensuring only Democrats vote in race

Miami-Dade’s public defender and 44 county and circuit judges were elected or reelected Friday when no one filed to run against them.

And — a surprise: A third and fourth candidate jumped into the race for state attorney.

Friday’s deadline for qualifying provided plenty of intriguing storylines for the summer campaign season, the most notable the efforts to oust longtime Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, a Democrat.

Earlier this week, fellow Democrat Rod Vereen, a Miami defense lawyer, filed to run against the state attorney, setting up a potential primary election — open to all voters, not just Democrats — on Aug. 14.

On Friday, lawyers Michele Samaroo and Omar Malone filed to run as “write-in” candidates, meaning their names won’t appear on the ballot. Their candidacies ensure the primary remains closed, and only Democrats can vote in the battle between Vereen and Fernández Rundle, who generally enjoys strong support among Miami-Dade’s largely Hispanic Republicans.

Vereen, who is black, is banking on carrying most of the black Democratic vote, which in Miami-Dade totals 195,650 of a registered 525,890 party members.

Fernández Rundle said Friday she believed the write-in candidates were dispatched by Vereen’s camp to keep voters away from the polls in August.

“I’ve always been inclusive,” Fernández Rundle said. “I think a lot of people are going to feel insulted that there is a plot to exclude voters.”

More from David Ovalle here.

After "hard look," FL CFO Jeff Atwater decides he will not run for U.S. Senate

It costs too much money, too much political capital and too much time for risk-averse FL CFO Jeff Atwater to run for U.S. Senate (told yall this was not likely to happen, remember?). He announced today on Facebook that he wouldn't enter the race. It takes a pickaxe to get to the point in his statement:

"Only slightly a year into this role I continue to feel blessed to be serving as your financial watchdog of government spending and I see so many more ways that I can serve you in this present capacity. As much as Carole and I are humbled by your calls, notes and messages to enter the US Senate race and carry our banner into the fight we believe we have a responsibility to finish the job Floridians elected us to do."

That means the GOP primary is Mack's to lose. George LeMieux is struggling mightily.

Here's the whole thing:

Friends, for asking and encouraging us to run as your candidate for the US Senate, thank you. Together we share an inspired vision for the future of America that is rooted in the founding documents of our country. Conservative principles of limited government that honors the talent, hard work and sacrifice of every American to pursue their dreams and create a purposeful life for themselves and their family. We also share a deep concern over the direction of our country and with those who believe that more taxes, more spending and more debt to fund bigger, intrusive and centralized government to plan and pamper our lives is destroying the American Character. We must fight for the future of our country. The time is now and the battleground is Florida.

Carole and I and our entire family traveled with you across Florida for sixteen months to ask for and receive your confidence and the high honor of serving as your Chief Financial Officer. For just over a year now we have been at the task of reducing your taxes, reducing your debt and creating an environment for Floridians to succeed on the paths they have chosen. Only slightly a year into this role I continue to feel blessed to be serving as your financial watchdog of government spending and I see so many more ways that I can serve you in this present capacity. As much as Carole and I are humbled by your calls, notes and messages to enter the US Senate race and carry our banner into the fight we believe we have a responsibility to finish the job Floridians elected us to do.

I promise you this, I will be with you and I will work at your side between now and November to see that Florida elects a United States Senator committed to our founding principles of freedom and liberty which has produced a prosperity never before achieved on this planet and which has inspired people across the globe. Let us press onward and see that Florida does it's part to preserve and advance this exceptional Constitutional Republic in the spirit of what Abraham Lincoln knew to be, "the last best hope on earth." Jeff