Rep. David Rivera's chief of staff, who used to work for Lincoln Diaz-Balart, dies of leukemia

From Roll Call: 

Stephen Vermillion, a beloved Capitol Hill veteran whose courage and commitment to public service inspired friends, family and colleagues, died early Friday morning after losing a four-year-long battle with leukemia. He was 52.

A competitive rower and devoted public servant, Vermillion was diagnosed with leukemia on Nov. 15, 2008. After undergoing rigorous chemotherapy treatments, Vermillion was able to recover and return to Capitol Hill in January 2011 to serve as chief of staff to Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla.

However, Vermillion’s illness returned this summer, and when it became apparent that he would not survive, he vowed to fight it out until at least Nov. 15, which would be the four-year anniversary of his diagnosis. Vermillion completed that goal, which friends and colleagues say is indicative of his indefatigable will to live.

More here. (UPDATE: Rivera's office says Vermillion died Thursday night, not Friday morning.)

Changes in district helped lead to David Rivera's defeat

After two years of investigations and scandal, David Rivera may owe his collapse at the polls on Tuesday as much to the changing politics of his newly created congressional district as to the crippling weight of humiliating headlines.

Rivera, a Republican, lost his congressional seat in an 11-point loss to Democrat Joe Garcia, whom Rivera had beaten to win the seat in 2010. Rivera has been hounded by criminal investigations since before he took office, hobbling his once-formidable fundraising and leaving him adrift in his own party.

Rivera says he lost the race not because of the press reports of the criminal investigations — probes whose very existence he once denied — but because of an unexpected wave of support for President Barack Obama, and weaker turnout for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

“I think an analysis of the results demonstrates that the presidential election had a significant impact on several congressional races, including my own,” Rivera said Wednesday. “It makes it tough for Republicans down ballot to be successful.”

Rivera also may have been undone in part by a changing climate in his own congressional district, which was redrawn by the Legislature earlier this year.

The new district, which stretches from Sweetwater through the southwestern suburbs of Miami-Dade to the Keys, is not as heavily Republican as the district that Rivera won in 2010. And a late Democratic voter registration push by the Obama campaign made the district even more difficult to hold.

More here.

After loss, where does David Rivera go from here?

A day after losing his seat to Democrat Joe Garcia, Republican Congressman David Rivera said he has not set future plans.

"I'm going to get with my family and friends and supporters and discuss how I can best continue to contribute to our community's best interests, whether that be in public office or out of public office," he said. "Time will tell."

Rivera blamed his loss on President Barack Obama's coattails.

"I think an analysis of the results demonstrates that the presidential election had a significant impact on several congressional races, including my own," Rivera said.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney under-performed in Miami-Dade compared to John McCain four years ago, Rivera noted.

"It makes it tough for Republicans down ballot to be successful."

Rivera also addressed his party's performance among Hispanics more broadly.

Earlier Wednesday, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican who was easily reelected Tuesday, told WLRN-Miami Herald News she was happy she "survived this Republican onslaught."

When asked about her party's appeal to Hispanics, she compared the GOP to addicts who first need to stop denying they have a problem in order to solve it. "We're not admitting, 'Dude, we have a problem,'" she lamented.

Rivera agreed.

"We as a party are at a critical juncture in terms of addressing our support among non-Cuban Hispanics," he said. "Unless we recognize the importance of being more responsive to their concerns, it's going to make it increasingly difficult to elect Republicans in districts with significant non-Cuban Hispanic constituencies."

UPDATED David Rivera loses U.S. House seat to Joe Garcia, Allen West falls behind Patrick Murphy

U.S. Rep. David Rivera — whose tenure was marked by a series of scandals and who remains the target of two federal investigations — was booted out of office Tuesday, becoming the only Miami-Dade congressional incumbent to lose his seat in recent memory.

Rivera, a Republican, lost to Democrat Joe Garcia, who handily picked up the Kendall-to-Key West seat for his party on a night when the GOP kept control of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was Rivera’s first-ever loss at the polls in a political career going back a decade.

“Thank you, South Florida!” a buoyant Garcia, 49, told more than a hundred supporters who were packed into Casa Vieja, a Colombian restaurant in West Kendall. “Today, our community has spoken. It has decided to turn a new page, move in a new direction.”

Another Republican incumbent, Rep. Allen West of Palm Beach Gardens, appeared to lose to Democrat Patrick Murphy by a sliver in the early hours of Wednesday. The race will likely head to a recount.

In his victory speech, Garcia called for compromise between Democrats and Republicans. In his only reference to his opponent, Garcia said Rivera “ran a hard campaign. We wish him and his family well.”

Two candidates without party affiliation, Angel Fernandez and Jose Peixoto, also competed.

In a third closely watched South Florida congressional contest, former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, a Democrat, easily beat former state House Republican Leader Adam Hasner in a race for an open seat that stretches from Fort Lauderdale to Riviera Beach.

Rivera, a former state representative and powerful Florida House budget chief, tacitly conceded defeat Tuesday night.

“The results are still incomplete, but they do not appear to be positive,” he said. “I want to thank my friends and family and God for all the blessings I have received from this community. It has been a great honor to serve this community for 10 years.”

“In or out, I will keep fighting — that will never change,” he added. “We must make sure that this district returns to a Republican congressman in 2014.” More here.

In robocall, Marco Rubio backs embattled friend David Rivera

U.S. Rep. David Rivera is getting a little help from at least one of his friends.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has recorded a robocall in support of Rivera, his longtime friend and Tallahassee housemate. The calls have been going out to voters in the Kendall-to-Key West Congressional District 26, where Rivera, a Republican, is running against Democrat Joe Garcia.

Rivera has been entangled in an FBI investigation into one of Garcia's primary opponents, Justin Lamar Sternad. Sternad has filed blank campaign finance-reports and invoked his right to remain silent to avoid incriminating himself in the probe.

Rubio was asked about the Sternad probe at an event in Little Havana's Versailles restaurant earlier this month. But the senator mostly kept mum on the matter -- and stepped out of in the rain as a reporter asked a follow-up question.

Republicans -- including Rubio, before the new robocall -- have been keeping their distance from Rivera, who has been conspicuously absent from local events with presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Some have started speculating about a possible candidate to run for his seat in two years if Rivera loses to Garcia.

Rubio has been crisscrossing the country campaigning for Romney and other major Republican candidates. According to his office, he has also recorded calls for, among others, Florida Reps. Steve Southerland and Allen West (facing challenges from Democrats Al Lawson and Patrick Murphy, respectively) and hopeful Karen Harrington (who is challenging Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz).

Under FBI scrutiny, suspected David Rivera ringer pleads the 5th in federal campaign letter

A former Congressional candidate at the center of an FBI probe tied to Rep. David Rivera has filed blank federal campaign-finance reports and a letter saying he would remain silent to avoid incriminating himself.

"On counsel's advice, I invoke my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States not to answer or submit the information requested on FEC Form 3, on the grounds that I may incriminate myself," Justin Lamar Sternad wrote Oct. 19 in a just-posted letter to the Federal Elections Commission.

"Please refer all additional inquires to my attorney, Rick L. Yabor."

Questions from the FEC were bound to arise after Sternad filed 17 blank pages as his campaign close-out report for October.

Sternad lost the Aug. 14 Democratic primary to Joe Garcia, a rival of Rivera. Sternad savaged Garcia with mailers and robo calls that echoed Rivera attack lines. Sternad, a political newcomer and night-desk hotel worker, didn't disclose where he got the money for the campaign efforts.

It's Joe Garcia vs. David Rivera again -- this time, with more controversy

The déjà vu congressional race for Florida’s southernmost district features the same candidates, the same slogans and the same issues as it did two years ago.

Except this time it also involves a federal grand jury, a pile of ethics violations and an FBI witness on the lam.

Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera handily defeated Democrat Joe Garcia in 2010. Now the congressman, plagued by controversy, is fighting for his political survival.

His party has largely abandoned him. He has been unable to raise much campaign money. And he has had to defend himself about pending federal investigations and state ethics charges in almost all of his recent public appearances.

Rivera has tried to counter these questions with political judo. The FBI probe? An invention, he claims, of The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and other media outlets. The 11 charges the Florida Commission of Ethics filed this week? A Democratic hit job. As for his opponent, Rivera has deployed the gravest of slurs: Garcia, he insists — without offering any proof — is an agent of Fidel Castro.

“That’s what’s at stake in this election,” Rivera told a Spanish-language television station this week. “Not these false allegations: having Havana’s man in Congress.”

The day before, Garcia, who has employed a campaign strategy of getting out of Rivera’s way, accused the congressman of engaging in “a great campaign of disinformation.”

“He’s in a desperate place,” Garcia told reporters at a forum sponsored by the AARP. “This is not about investigations ... When this gentleman gets up, he stands up for all of us.”

More here.

Joe Garcia presents economic plan in race against Rep. David Rivera

An hour before the Florida Commission on Ethics announced 11 charges against Congressman David Rivera, his opponent, Joe Garcia, held a made-for-media event to promote his 26-point economic plan (for Congressional District 26).

In some ways, the event was a flashback to two years ago, when Garcia -- vying against Rivera for what was then an open seat -- unveiled a 25-point economic plan (for then Congressional District 25) in a Doral flower packaging and distribution plant. He used the same slogan back then, too: "Joe is for Jobs."

This time, the venue -- MWL Engineering, a South Miami-area precision metal work plant -- was different. And so is the contest: Rivera, a Republican, has trailed Garcia, a Democrat, in several polls, and political analysts have said the outlook of the race is less favorable for Rivera, though Florida insiders know better than to discount the congressman's honed political skills.

In fact, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the press conference was that it drew Washington D.C.-based reporters from BBC radio and a Miami crew from CNN, both signs that the race is being closely watched because it has the potential of changing political-party hands.

"A lot of the folks that work here live in the district," Garcia said at the plant, noting the importance of small businesses to the South Florida economy. "It's the small projects every day that give an opportunity to this company to go forward."

Then, in an indirect reference to Rivera, he added: "It's tremendously important to leave the scandals behind us and turn the page."

When asked why he had waited until two weeks before Election Day to present an economic plan, Garcia said it's only now that most voters are paying attention.

Read Garcia's plan here.

Rep. David Rivera calls 11 ethics charges politically motivated; records show he tried to delay the case

Already facing FBI probes and a daunting reelection, U.S. Rep. David Rivera was charged Wednesday by state authorities with 11 counts of violating ethics laws for filing bogus financial disclosure forms, misusing campaign funds and concealing a $1 million consulting contract with a Miami gambling business while serving in the state Legislature.

Investigators with the Florida Commission on Ethics found that Rivera’s secret deal to work as a political consultant for the Magic City Casino — formerly the Flagler Dog Track — created a conflict of interest for the lawmaker. The ethics panel also found that the Republican broke state ethics laws by failing to fully disclose his finances from 2005 to 2009.

Rivera was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2002. He won reelection in 2004, 2006 and 2008.

Rivera signed a consulting contract with the Magic City Casino’s owners in 2006 to run a campaign to win voter approval for slot machines at Miami-Dade pari-mutuels. But Rivera had the money from the deal sent to Millennium Marketing, a company founded by his mother and godmother, records show. Rivera then received at least $132,000 back from Millennium — money that Rivera has called loans that did not have to be disclosed.

The ethics commission charges that the Magic City Casino was attempting to influence his vote in the Legislature, where Rivera had also backed legislation favored by the gaming industry. Both Rivera and Magic City’s owners have denied that the consulting contract was an attempt to influence legislation.

In a letter provided to the ethics commission, Rivera’s godmother, Ileana Medina, described Rivera as a subcontractor to Millennium on the slots campaign. But Rivera’s mother told prosecutors in a sworn statement last year that Millennium was a “nonexistent” company created at Rivera’s request, records show. The casino ultimately paid $700,000 to Millennium.

Rivera, elected to Congress in 2010, has denied wrongdoing, and he may fight the charges in an administrative hearing. The charges could lead to civil fines of up to $10,000 per charge.

Rivera issued a statement Wednesday calling the ethics charges “false,” and criticizing the ethics commission for releasing its findings so close to Election Day.

“There is absolutely no legitimate reason for the Commission to have acted now on these old politically motivated claims, which have already been dismissed by other authorities, other than to try and influence the outcome of this election for its own agenda,” Rivera said.

The commission was originally scheduled to consider the complaints against Rivera on Sept. 6, but the hearing was postponed at Rivera’s request, records show. Last week, Rivera’s attorneys again tried to delay the case until after the Nov. 6 election, and Rivera himself contacted a commission member seeking a delay. Ken Pruitt, the former president of the Florida Senate, also tried to intervene on Rivera’s behalf, records show.

More here.

State files 11 ethics charges against U.S. Rep. David Rivera

The state has filed 11 separate ethics counts against U.S. Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami -- all stemming from actions he took while he was a member of the state Legislature. Rivera, who is standing for re-election in less than two weeks, is accused of taking money as a legislator "when he knew or ... should have known it was given to influence his vote or official action."

From the text of an Ethics Commission news release: The Commission found probable cause to believe that U.S. Congressman DAVID RIVERA, former member of the Florida House of Representatives, may have violated Florida ethics laws in 11 instances while serving in the Florida House of Representatives. Probable cause was found to believe that he received income from Southwest Florida Enterprises, Inc. (SFEI) while he was a member of the Florida House, when he knew, or with the exercise of reasonable care should have known it was given to influence his vote or official action. Probable cause also was found to believe that his contract with SFEI through Millennium Marketing, Inc. (Millennium) would create a frequently recurring conflict between his private interests and his public duties as a Florida House member or would impede the full and faithful discharge of his public duties.

The Commission also found probable cause to believe that Mr. Rivera misused his public position by using campaign funds for non-campaign related expenditures. An allegation that he misused his position to request or accept State reimbursement for travel expenses paid with campaign funds or state office expense accounts, and an allegation that he failed to report, as a gift, forgiveness of a part of a debt he owed Millennium. Probable cause was also found to believe that Mr. Rivera violated Article II, Section 8, of the Florida Constitution with regard to six allegations surrounding his financial disclosure: that he failed to report or did not properly report income, stocks and bonds, or secondary income sources on his 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 CE Form 6s; and that he failed to file a CE Form 6F within 60 days of leaving office in the Florida House. However, the Commission issued a finding of no probable cause regarding an allegation that Mr. Rivera had a voting conflict when he voted on HB 1047 which benefited SFEI, as the alleged violations fell outside the five-year statute of limitations.

-- Steve Bousquet