Suspected Rivera-ringer drops at least $24k in cash on campaign mailers, might've broken law

A Democratic congressional candidate may have violated federal campaign-finance laws after spending at least $24,000 in cash on mailers without disclosing the source of the funds.

Justin Lamar Sternad, one of several candidates who lost Tuesday’s District 26 Democratic primary election to Joe Garcia, paid for the mailers in cash. The work was done by Rapid Mail & Computer Services, a well-known Hialeah mail firm, owner John Borrero told The Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald.

Borrero estimated that each of Sternad’s six mailers cost $4,000 to $5,000. He said Sternad paid him, beginning in August, on repeated occasions. The payments could have totaled as much as $30,000.

“He came in and paid for them in cash,” Borrero said, adding that other campaigns had paid with cash but that many pay with a check.

Garcia and Democratic candidates in the other campaigns have claimed Sternad was a plant from the campaign of Republican Rep. David Rivera, who faces Garcia in the general election.

Rivera and Sternad, a 35-year-old Cutler Bay resident, have denied that he is a ringer.

Rivera, like many Republicans, is among Rapid Mail’s former clients. Rivera’s congressional campaign spent about $16,000 with Rapid Mail in 2010, when he bested Garcia.

Asked by The Herald if there was a connection to Rivera in the mailings, Borrero said that Sternad came to his warehouse to make the payments by himself.

Sternad’s Federal Election Commission reports and personal financial filings give little indication that he could afford the mailers or the nearly $11,000 he loaned his campaign.

Married to a wife with no income, Sternad earned less than $30,000 working for two South Beach hotels last year, according to his financial disclosures. As of this July, when his sole employer was the Wyndham Garden South Beach, he earned $14,490.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/15/2953896/suspected-rivera-ringer-might.html#storylink=cpy

First Lady Michelle Obama is Broward bound Aug. 22

The First Lady will be visiting Broward County next Wednesday, August 22, 2012, for a campaign event, a campaign official said. More details later. Meantime, Republican vice-presidential pick Paul Ryan is heading to Orlando.

 

Florida Purple Poll: Obama-Romney tied 47-48% -- and tied 45-44% over protecting Medicare(!)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's selection of Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate looks like a safe choice right now in Florida and other swing states, according to a new survey from Purple Poll.

Most intriguing in Florida: Romney's ticket is deadlocked with President Obama's over Medicare, 44-45%, even though Ryan is the father of he so-called "Ryan plan," which Democrats hae villified for two years for "ending Medicare." It doesn't. But the plan does end Medicare's traditional structure starting in 2022 by giving new recipients a voucher-like premium, the growth rate of which would be capped. That could lead to more out of pocket expenses for seniors.

Still, the numbers indicate the public-relations problems with ObamaCare, which fired up the right in 2010, trimmed $700 billion from future Medicare expenses and caused seniors to leave Democratic candidates in droves.

Overall, the tickets are tied as well. Obama gets 47% and Romney 48%.

Ryan is also the only politician at the top of the ticket who's viewed more favorably than less favorably.

Give it time. That'll change in this mean season. So will the Medicare numbers. But which way?

Download PurplePoll_Aug15_Final

 

Ann Romney to raise coin for Connie Mack at RNC baseball-themed event

Now that the primary's over and he's the official Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Rep. Connie Mack is ready to cash in on all the goodwill with Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign.

Romney's wife, Ann Romney, is a special gues of Mack's "Evening at the Ballpark" fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Tampa from 5-7 p.m. Aug. 28 during the Republican National Convention week. Host conribution: $10,000. Reception contribution: $1,000 per person.

Mack is the great grandson of baseball great Connie Mack.

Broward, where voting is never a primary concern

When it comes to voting in primary elections, most people in Broward County couldn't care less.

Broward posted by far the lowest county-wide turnout on Tuesday: 10.69 percent. That's pathetic even for Broward, which has a long history of civic indifference in primary elections. In 2010, the primary turnout there was 15 percent; in 2008, 11 percent; in 2006, 12 percent.

The statistics, on the state Division of Elections web site, do not include provisional, overseas or military ballots, which in many cases have not yet been counted. The statewide turnout was 20.4 percent.

Should such a low turnout concern President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson? Yes. Broward remains the biggest Democratic county in Florida, with more than twice as many D's (572,000) as Republicans (257,000). But, as is the norm, most of them stayed home Tuesday. If they don't show a little more enthusiasm on Nov. 6, it could be a very long night for Democrats.

More people voted in Pinellas County (140,000) than in Broward (117,000), even though Pinellas has far fewer voters.

Here are the counties with the highest and lowest turnout percentages on Tuesday in Florida.

Lowest: Broward, 10.69 percent; Palm Beach, 13.74; Hillsborough, 15.83; Sarasota, 16.45; Pasco, 16.64.

Highest: Liberty, 66.04 percent; Lafayette, 61.98; Gulf, 57.04; Franklin, 52.94; Calhoun, 51.02. As usual, the highest percentages are in rural, upstate counties where residents take voting much more seriously.

Other notable turnout totals: Madison County, 46 percent; Taylor, 46 percent; Gadsden, 44 percent; Columbia, 40 percent.

-- Steve Bousquet

Oliva ally Manny Diaz Jr. wins as field narrows for speaker in 2018

Consider this a major mea culpa. We reported late Tuesday that Miami Rep. Jose Oliva R-Miami Lakes, succeeded in electing more allies in his bid to become House speaker in 2018.

This is true, but we erred when we said one of those allies was Alex Diaz de la Portilla. He's not and neither was his brother, Renier. Oliva worked hard to elect Manny Diaz Jr. in the race against Renier Diaz de la Portilla for the District 103 House seat.

For his part, Alex Diaz de la Portilla succeeded in defeating Gus Barriero in the District 112 seat and will face Jose Javier Rodriquez in the general election.

Oliva, CEO of his family’s cigar company, was first elected to the House in a special election in 2011, defeated a primary challenger on Tuesday and faces only a write-in candidate in November. He has been working for months to line up support to become the next House speaker from Miami since Marco Rubio held that post from 2006-08.

Romney's new Spanish-language ad: Yes we can? Oh no, he didn't

From Univision:

The Romney campaign argues in a new Spanish-language ad that President Obama is “fooling” Latinos into supporting him, even though they have felt the brunt of the recession.

The 30-second spot released Wednesday opens with Obama’s famous 2008 campaign refrain “Yes we can!” (Sí se puede!) and then an on-screen message asks, “Can we?” The ad claims that Obama’s policies are to blame for 10 percent unemployment and loss of household wealth in the Latino community.

“Can we allow for Democrats to continue fooling us?” asks the narrator in Spanish. “When Obama and his Democrat allies tell us ‘Yes, we can!’ We’ve got to tell them we no longer can.”

Here's the post and here's the spot:

Rep. David Rivera-Joe Garcia rematch has the making of bloodsport

The Democratic race to face one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress ended Tuesday when Joe Garcia fended off three challengers to capture his party’s nomination.

Now the tough work begins for Garcia: Taking on Rep. David Rivera, a popular Republican who narrowly escaped a multi-count state indictment for campaign finance violations and still faces a federal investigation.

“No one should turn on their television, open up their newspaper or listen to the radio to find out their congressman is under FBI investigation," Garcia said to loud applause from supporters Tuesday night at La Casona restaurant. "It’s time to turn the page and leave these scandals behind."

But Rivera is no easy foe.

Popular in Miami’s vocal Cuban-exile community, Rivera is a fixture on Spanish-language radio and has never lost an election. Rivera bested Garcia in 2010 by double digits. And he faulted Garcia for opposing Cuba sanctions, supporting President Obama’s agenda and working for “Big Energy” companies after he regulated utilities on the Public Service Commission.

“Joe Garcia is the single-most corrupt career candidate in America,” Rivera said. “Joe Garcia wants to go to Congress to promote the failed economic policies of President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. I look forward to contrasting my vision of creating jobs with his record of cronyism and corruption.”

Second recount of the night? Watson v. Julien

Miami Rep. Barbara Watson and Democratic rival state Rep. John Patrick Julien appeared headed for a recount late Tuesday as Watson led by only 26 votes when county officials stopped counting. Watson had 5,281 votes out of 10,536 votes cast to Julien's 5,255 votes. That's only .24 percent, within the half a percentage point threshold required to conduct an automatic recount.

It's an ironic development for the two incumbent, first-term lawmakers and friends, who were drawn into the same district by the Republican-led House and forced to battle it out in their own backyards.

Another recount is expected in another race between two Democrats, and two sitting legislators. Rep. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth and Rep. Mack Bernard of West Palm Beach, who are competing for the open Senate district in Palm Beach County. Clemens leads in that tally by 304 votes or .3 percent.