In JJR vs. DLP race, Rodriguez goes after... Rick Scott's "outrageous property-tax increases"

Political newcomer Jose Javier Rodriguez has a tough fight on his hands vs. former state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla in the state House District 112 race.

But Rodriguez doesn't appear to be campaigning against Diaz de la Portilla as much as one of the most-unpopular figures in Florida: Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

"My father left Cuba as a young man in search of freedom. He taught me the value of working hard and helping others,"  Rodriguez says in the ad.  "I want to take that same leadership to Tallahassee to make sure we invest in our children, help our businesses and stop Rick Scott's outrageous property insurance increases that hurt our families.

Hialeah ballot brokers say Miami-Dade commissioner's aide did office favors for them

Anamary Pedrosa doled out constituent services to Hialeah’s ballot brokers from county Commissioner Esteban Bovo’s district office for months. Then, when the Aug. 14 elections approached, they say she asked them for a favor of her own: to collect absentee ballots for three candidates running for the state Legislature.

“She wanted me to help with the campaigns of Manny Díaz Jr., Eddy González and [José] Oliva”, said Claribel “Beba” Ferrer, who first entered Bovo’s Hialeah office in March to ask for help notarizing a document.

For more than a decade, Ferrer, 71, has collected absentee ballots from friends and acquaintances who follow her advice in choosing candidates. She said she never planned to get involved in any campaigns this year, but agreed to help the 25-year-old Pedrosa.

“I felt bad because she had helped me and I didn’t want to say no,” said Ferrer, who turned over a half dozen ballots to Pedrosa.

Ferrer is the second ballot broker, or boletera, to say Pedrosa sought their services in support of Díaz, González and Oliva. Bovo also supported these candidates.

Email records, interviews with boleteros and other documents show how Pedrosa ingratiated herself to multiple ballot brokers who operate in Hialeah. She filled out forms seeking government financial assistance, read and translated letters and even snagged invitations for a few to a special dinner for the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County.

More from Melissa Sanchez and Enrique Flor here.

Hialeah voter-fraud suspect contradicts Miami-Dade commissioner's former aide, says aide helped legislative candidates

Sergio “El Tío” Robaina said Thursday he wants to clear his name against electoral-fraud allegations and, in a further twist to Hialeah’s growing absentee-ballot scandal, claimed that a former aide to Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban Bovo asked for his help in collecting ballots.

In an interview with El Nuevo Herald, Robaina, 74, said Anamary Pedrosa and her mother stopped by his house four or five times to retrieve the ballots he had collected from friends and neighborhood acquaintances. He said he was never paid.

“She’d stop by about 5:30 p.m. with her mom,” he said. “They’d collect them and then count them.”

Robaina was arrested on Aug. 10 on two felony charges of tampering with absentee ballots. He said he’s never done such a thing.

“I will defend my innocence in court and wherever else I have to,” he said.

According to Robaina, Pedrosa visited after work hours. She told him she was helping with the campaigns of Manny Díaz Jr., José Oliva, and Eddy González, who won their respective bids for the Florida House of Representatives in the Aug. 14 primary elections.

However, email records show that Pedrosa was helping at least one of these candidates, Díaz, during work hours in June and July. Also, financial records show that her mother was paid to work on Oliva’s campaign in April.

More from Melissa Sanchez and Enrique Flor here.

Court records in Hialeah voter-fraud case show more voters got help with absentee ballots

Ramon Del Pino can’t say for sure whom he voted for last month. And the blind man from Hialeah also can’t identify the two women who came to his home to help him vote.

When interviewed July 31 by police detectives investigating absentee-ballot fraud, Del Pino said he told the women that he wanted to vote for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, but “he allowed the two females to choose the remaining candidates for him.”

Del Pino is among more than a dozen people interviewed by police investigating ballot-broker Deisy Cabrera, who is facing a felony vote fraud charge and two misdemeanor counts of illegal ballot possession. Prosecutors on Wednesday released police reports from interviews with Del Pino and 16 other voters whose ballots Cabrera, a so-called boletera, is accused of collecting before the Aug. 14 primary election.

The most serious charge Cabrera faces is a felony count for allegedly forging the signature of 81-year-old Zulema Gomez, who lies unresponsive from a brain tumor in a Miami Springs nursing home. Cabrera has pleaded not guilty.

At least three other voters told police that Cabrera either suggested candidates or filled out portions of the ballots for them, the newly released records show.

And some voters said they were guided to Cabrera by local politicians.

Eloisa Abreu told police that Cabrera came to help her vote after she called the office of state Sen. Rene Garcia, a Hialeah Republican, asking for assistance with her ballot, the records show. Abreu said she voted for her favored candidates in better-known races, but she followed Cabrera’s advice on judicial candidates.

More here.

Two more defeated candidates -- one legislative, one judicial -- contest Miami-Dade election results

Two more candidates defeated in Miami-Dade County races earlier this month have sued to contest the results, citing a Hialeah absentee-ballot fraud investigation. The lawsuits bring the total number of complaints stemming from the probe to four.

Paul Crespo, who lost a Republican primary against state Rep. Carlos Trujillo, and Alex Jimenez Labora, who came up short in a judicial race against Maria de Jesus Santovenia, filed separate lawsuits Tuesday asking the court to discard absentee ballots cast in the contests.

In the race for an open circuit judge seat, Santovenia, an assistant North Miami Beach city attorney, defeated Labora, a traffic magistrate, 52 percent to 48 percent. Without the absentee vote, according to his lawsuit, Labora would have won, 51 percent to 49 percent.

“My early voting was almost 50-50, and the day of the election I was ahead, and in absentee ballots I was way off,” Labora said. “It didn’t quite make sense.”

Santovenia declined to comment, saying she was unaware the lawsuit had been filed. Candidates had until Tuesday to challenge the Aug. 14 election results.

In the Republican primary for Florida House District 105, Trujillo garnered 56 percent of the vote, compared to Crespo’s 44 percent. Trujillo noted he would win the election even if the absentee ballots were not counted.

“He still loses,” Trujillo said of Crespo. “I’m not sure what he wants.”

Crespo said that without the Miami-Dade absentee vote, he would lose by only 39 votes. “That’s within the margin of a recount,” he said.

More here.

Democrats launch new web site to target David Rivera

U.S. Rep. David Rivera's latest political woes have provided convenient fodder for a liberal super-pac that does opposition research into Democratic opponents.

The George Soros-backed group, American Bridge 21st Century has launced a web site called the "TheRivera Files.com," featuring a stream of television and newsaper stories about investigations into the Republican congressman's personal and campaign finances, including links to stories first reported by The Miami Herald. 

"Since 2006, Florida Rep. David Rivera has been the subject of five different investigations for alleged ethical violations, including money laundering, tax evasion, and funding a fake primary challenge against his likely Democratic opponent. We don’t think this behavior is appropriate for a member of Congress. Do you?,'' asks the site.

Rivera has been linked to a failed Democratic congressional candidate, Justin Lamar Sternad, whose campaign is under federal grand jury investigation. Campaign vendors told The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald that Sternad’s congressional Democratic primary run was backed by Rivera, who says he has never met or helped Sternad. 

According to FactCheck.org, American Bridge 21st Century was founded by David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal activist, and amongs its principal funders is billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros.

Watson declared winner over Julien with 13-vote margin in House 107 race

In what is likely to be the closest outcome of any legislative race this season, Miami Gardens Rep. Barbara Watson edged out North Miami Beach Rep. John Patrick Julien in the contest for House District 107 by a narrow 13 votes, according to a manual recount Saturday by Miami Dade County officials.

Watson and Julien, both freshmen Democrats, were drawn into the same district during the painful redistricting process last session that pitted a handful of incumbents into the same districts because of new redistricting rules.

Because the margin was so narrow, state election officials ordered a manual recount by 3 p.m. Sunday. Watson now faces two write-in candidates in the November general election.

Watson's victory came despite Julien's nearly three-to-one fundraising advantage.  Watson, a former vice mayor of Miami Gardens and a member of the city council, raised and spent about $30,000 while Julien, a former member of the North Miami Beach city council raised nearly $107,000 and spent $82,000 by the last report.

Florida's first openly gay legislator to use accounting skills to focus on budget and education

David Richardson, a 55-year-old forensic accountant and political newcomer, says he’s comfortable having made Florida history on election night.

“I am the first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida. And forever will be," said Richardson, who on Tuesday defeated three other candidates to represent state House District 113 in Miami Beach.

Richardson grew up in Orlando, earned biology and accounting undergraduate degrees at the University of Central Florida and a Master in Business Administration at the University of Tampa. After starting as a $10,000-a-year Pentagon auditor in Tampa, he joined what is now Ernst & Young. In 1993, he started his own CPA practice. Business brought him to Miami Beach in 1995 and he became a permanent resident in 2001.

“I often thought about getting involved in state government or helping some way. I decided this race would go to a newcomer and it was possible for me with my background to win," he said. "I’m a completely American dream story."

His father was a cab driver and factory worker; his mother worked in a meat-packing plant. More from Steve Rothaus here.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2012/08/david-richardson-i-am-the-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida-and-forever-will-be.html#storylink=cpy

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

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.