Poll: Absentee-ballot scandal makes Miami Rep. Joe Garcia vulnerable in reelection

@PatriciaMazzei & @MarcACaputo

A leading rival of U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia released a new poll Monday that shows the incumbent has a double-digit lead but a major vulnerability: the absentee-ballot fraud scandal haunting his campaign.

The poll shows Garcia, a Miami Democrat, leading 46 percent to 34 percent in a potential 2014 matchup against Republican Carlos Curbelo, the Miami-Dade School Board member who commissioned the survey.

But among those who had heard about the Garcia campaign’s involvement in the fraudulent absentee-ballot requests scheme, the race is a “dead heat,” the poll says, with Curbelo leading Garcia 40 percent to 39 percent.

Garcia’s office said he is not worried about poll numbers but rather about building a track record as a first-year congressman.

“Even in a skewed partisan poll the Congressman remains very strong and likely to be re-elected,” Raul Martinez Jr., Garcia’s district director and political advisor, said in a statement. “Congressman Garcia is not focused on partisan politics. Congressman Garcia remains focused on serving the community by dealing with immigration reform, getting the country’s fiscal house in order and fueling the economic recovery.”

Garcia has been in damage control since May 31, when Miami-Dade state attorney’s office investigators raided three locations associated with his campaign manager and a former campaign worker who also served as his congressional spokesman.

More here.

New GOP web ad attacks Rep. Joe Garcia over absentee-ballot fraud investigation

@PatriciaMazzei

National Republicans, who have seized on the fraudulent absentee-ballot request investigation engulfing Democratic Rep. Joe Garcia's campaign, plan to attack the Miami congressman in a new online ad.

The National Republican Congressional Committee ad, slated to be posted on the web Tuesday, features a clip of a television spot from Garcia's 2010 campaign in which he said, "Scandals, corruption, partisan infighting -- no wonder people have lost faith in Congress."

Now it's Garcia involved in scandal, the ad notes, cutting to recent news clips about the dismissal of the congressman's chief of staff for apparently directing campaign staffers to submit phony absentee-ballot requests. The ad calls on Garcia "to come clean" in the probe or resign. Garcia has said he had no knowledge of or involvement in the scheme, and prosecutors from the Miami-Dade state attorney's office have so far backed him up.

Here's the ad:

Columnist Fred Grimm: Quarantine elections in Florida's 26th congressional district

From Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm:

We’re calling the game off down in District 26. Suspending the democratic process. Citizens of District 26 will have to get by without a voice in the U.S. House of Representatives until they can come up with congressional candidates not inclined to subvert elections.

Sure, this sounds drastic. But it now looks as if the shenanigans leading up to the Aug. 14 primary were symptoms of a bipartisan epidemic. District 26 needs to be quarantined until political scientists can isolate the contagion infecting the electoral process.

If it wasn’t for attempts to pervert elections, Congressional District 26’s slimiest problem would be snakes of another kind. The district, which includes a big chunk of Everglades National Park, may have more Burmese pythons slithering about than voters. Most of those (voters, not snakes) are clustered in the southern suburbs of Miami-Dade County. The district also includes the Florida Keys, where residents must be perturbed by their association with the mainland’s election scandals.

Until last week, folks in District 26 thought their electoral embarrassments were all due to debauched tactics associated with former U.S. Rep. David Rivera’s failed attempt at reelection. A Herald investigation last year indicated that a Rivera operative secretly financed the campaign of a patsy candidate in the Democratic primary. The phantom candidate’s tactics were supposed to weaken Rivera’s main challenger, Democrat Joe Garcia, before the general election.

More here.

Rep. Joe Garcia stands by staffer implicated in absentee-ballot request investigation

@PatriciaMazzei

Congressman Joe Garcia moved quickly to contain the fallout of an election-fraud scandal that rocked his office but said Monday he’s not going to fire a key staffer implicated in the case.

Garcia, a Miami Democrat, said Communications Director Giancarlo Sopo told him he was not involved in a plot last year to submit hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests — though investigators with the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office searched the home of one of Sopo’s relatives Friday in connection with the attempt to manipulate the Aug. 14 primary.

Sopo was placed on unpaid administrative leave late Monday.

“He said he did not do that, and I take him at his word,” Garcia told The Miami Herald. “If I find that’s not the case, he’s not going to be put on administrative leave — he’s going to be let go. Until that happens, I am neither the prosecutor nor the judge and jury.”

Garcia dismissed Jeffrey Garcia, his chief of staff and longtime political adviser, Friday after law enforcement raided the family homes of Sopo and former campaign manager John Estes seeking computers and other electronic equipment. Jeffrey Garcia, who is not related to his boss, admitted to the congressman that he directed the campaign to submit the phantom ballot requests, Joe Garcia said.

“I don’t know why,” he added, saying the operation — which ultimately failed — wasn’t needed. “During this entire election, we were polling. ... We thought we were ahead early on and from the get-go.”

Under state elections law, it may be considered third-degree felony fraud for a ballot request to be filled out by someone other than voters or their immediate family. Using people’s personal information as required in the requests may be considered a first-degree felony.

Miami-Dade commissioners had been scheduled ask the elections department Tuesday to make the online system for requesting absentee ballots more secure, but the measure will be deferred for two weeks while the department comes up with a plan and price tag.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle’s office has said there is no evidence Garcia had knowledge of the ballot operation.

More here.

National Democrats: Rep. Joe Garcia took 'quick action' in absentee-ballot investigation

@PatriciaMazzei

After national Republicans and the heads of the Miami-Dade Republican and Democratic parties weighed in on the fraudulent absentee-ballot investigation involving the office of Congressman Joe Garcia, a Miami Democrat, we reached out to national Democrats to hear what they had to say.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sounded supportive of the response by Garcia, who dismissed his chief of staff after another one of the congressman's employees and a former campaign aide were served with search warrants in connection with the investigation.

"Joe Garcia has taken quick action to hold these staffers responsible and local investigators have stated they do not believe Joe Garcia was involved or even knew anything about this incident," David Bergstein, the DCCC's southern regional press secretary, said in an email Sunday to The Miami Herald.

"Thankfully these ballots had zero impact on the election," Bergstein added. "Congressman Garcia has already distinguished himself as a leader for middle class families and will continue to be a strong champion for the values of south Florida residents."

Read Rep. Joe Garcia's statement on absentee-ballot investigation tied to his office

@PatriciaMazzei

After Saturday's press conference regarding the dismissal of his chief of staff over a fraudulent absentee-ballot scheme, Congressman Joe Garcia, a Miami Democrat, issued the following statement:

I cannot express how shocked, disappointed and deeply saddened I am about the actions of my former Chief of Staff. Yesterday was the first I had heard of this, and as soon as I found out I relieved Jeffrey Garcia of his role immediately.

South Florida families need to know that I am committed to the public trust and will be diligent about getting to the bottom of this matter. 

I have hired William Barzee to launch an internal investigation into the matter.  I will also fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation being done by the authorities. 

While I am deeply disappointed in this attempt to influence the primary election, it's important to note that no ballot was touched and the integrity of the election remains intact. My focus continues to be working for the people of Florida’s 26th District.

UPDATED Democrat calls for 'thorough' investigation into ballot scheme involving Rep. Joe Garcia's staff

@PatriciaMazzei

As Congressman Joe Garcia, a Miami Democrat, gave a press conference Saturday addressing his staff's role in a plot to submit fraudulent absentee-ballot requests, someone slipped into the back of the room.

It was Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. She, along with other party members, stood in Garcia's office in a show of support.

"I share in Congressman Garcia's anger, and I'm disappointed," Taddeo-Goldstein later told The Miami Herald. "I hope that what we get out of this is a thorough investigation of all the absentee-ballot tampering that has been going on for a long time."

Taddeo-Goldstein, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008, said as a candidate she learned of political operatives who promised to deliver scores of absentee votes.

"I was approached by people in 2008, and I said, 'No, I prefer to lose than to do that,'" she said. "Anybody who runs knows that these things exist, and it's unacceptable. We're never going to gain the public's trust if we don't fix this."

Taddeo-Goldstein said she learned that Garcia had dismissed his chief of staff and that another one of his employees and a former campaign manager had been served search warrants after getting a call from a reporter Friday. (Ouch.)

"Obviously, he's a friend of mine, and I believe in being a friend always -- not just during good times," she added of Garcia.

UPDATE: Read Taddeo-Goldstein's written statement on the matter below.

National Republicans question Joe Garcia's involvement in ballot scandal

@PatriciaMazzei

The National Republican Congressional Committee on Saturday questioned Congressman Joe Garcia's assertion that he didn't know some of his campaign workers apparently orchestrated a fraudulent absentee-ballot request scheme.

"This latest report of an alleged ballot fraud scandal surrounding Congressman Joe Garcia is very troubling," NRCC spokeswoman Katie Brill said in a written statement. "While voters deserve the truth, Congressman Garcia left a lot of questions unanswered. Floridians deserve to know what Congressman Joe Garcia knew about this voter fraud scheme and when did he know it."

The national attention comes after other local Republicans, including the Miami-Dade GOP chairman and potential Garcia opponent Carlos Curbelo have also called for further investigating on the congressman's involvement.

Joe Garcia: 'Flawed' absentee-voting system, 'reckless abandon' contributed to ballot scandal

@PatriciaMazzei

Congressman Joe Garcia on Saturday attempted to control the damage inflicted on his office a day earlier, when he dismissed his chief of staff for apparently orchestrating a scheme to submit hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests.

In a news conference held at his West Miami-Dade office Saturday morning, Garcia, a Democrat, maintained that he had no knowledge of the failed plot during last year’s primary election. He said he learned about his campaign’s involvement only the previous afternoon from chief of staff Jeffrey Garcia, who is unrelated to the congressman and has long served as his top political strategist.

“I cannot stress how angry I am at these events,” Joe Garcia said Saturday.

He called the plot “ill-conceived” but added: “I think it was a well-intentioned attempt to maximize voter turnout.”

Garcia said he had been on stage early Friday afternoon at John A. Ferguson Senior High School in West Kendall, shaking the hands of hundreds of graduates, when he began to get word that something was amiss.

Earlier Friday, law enforcement officers had raided the family homes of his communications director, Giancarlo Sopo, 30, and his former campaign manager, John Estes, 26, searching for computers and other electronic equipment in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation by the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office into the phantom ballot requests.

After the graduation ceremony, Garcia said he met with Jeffrey Garcia, 40, who took responsibility for the scheme. He then resigned at the congressman’s request.

Friday’s precipitous events came three months after a Miami Herald investigation found that hundreds of 2,552 fraudulent online requests for the Aug. 14 primaries originated from mystery hackers using Internet Protocol addresses in Miami. The Herald found those requests were clustered and targeted Democratic voters in Congressional District 26, which stretches from Kendall to Key West and where Garcia was competing against three other candidates.

More here.

Congressman Joe Garcia's chief of staff implicated in phantom absentee-ballot scheme

@PatriciaMazzei

Congressman Joe Garcia’s chief of staff abruptly resigned Friday after being implicated in a sophisticated scheme to manipulate last year’s primary elections by submitting hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests.

Friday afternoon, Garcia said he had asked Jeffrey Garcia, no relation, for his resignation after the chief of staff — also the congressman’s top political strategist — took responsibility for the scheme. Joe Garcia took the action hours after law enforcement investigators raided the homes of another of his employees and a former campaign aide in connection with the investigation.

“I’m shocked and disappointed about this,” Garcia, who said he was unaware of the plot, told The Miami Herald. “This is something that hit me from left field. Until today, I had no earthly idea this was going on.”

Jeffrey Garcia declined to comment. He also worked last year on the campaign of Democrat Patrick Murphy, who unseated tea-party Republican Congressman Allen West. Murphy has not been implicated in the phantom-requests operation.

The Miami-Dade state attorney’s office served search warrants Friday at the homes of Giancarlo Sopo, 30, Joe Garcia’s communications director, and John Estes, 26, his 2012 campaign manager. Neither Estes nor Sopo responded to requests for comment.

The raids marked a sign of significant progress in the probe that prosecutors reopened in February, after a Herald investigation found that hundreds of the 2,552 fraudulent requests for the Aug. 14 primaries originated from Internet Protocol addresses in Miami that could be further traced. The bulk of the requests were masked by foreign IP addresses.

It is unclear if the requests from domestic and foreign IP addresses are related to the same operatives.

More on this developing story here.