@doug_hanks
UPDATED at 12:52 p.m. with response from Gimenez campaign
UPDATED at 6:20 p.m. with a response to the response.
One of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez's toughest online critics has joined the campaign of his challenger.
Elaine de Valle, author of the Political Cortadito blog, says she is being paid $3,500 a month to be a media consultant for Raquel Regalado's mayoral campaign. De Valle, a former Miami Herald writer, revealed the arrangement on her blog, which is a popular read in Miami's political circles.
It's also a home of fierce anti-Gimenez commentary, with de Valle endorsing a failed 2014 attempt to recall him from office and slamming Gimenez as the "Cry Wolf" mayor for his shift from austerity budgets to expanded spending.
"I was already supporting Raquel Regalado," de Valle told Naked Politics this week.
She said her agreement with Regalado does not include favorable mentions on the blog, but instead will focus on other campaign writing and efforts to produce coverage helpful to Regalado, a two-term school board member.
Even so, De Valle is still writing about Regalado's opponent, posting a critical preview of Gimenez's meeting with a Kendall homeowners group Monday (which de Valle attended). And past clients have fared well on Political Cortadito.
Last year, she worked for Ralph Cabrera's failed bid for Coral Gables mayor and Jeff Porter's successful run for Homestead mayor. Both received favorable coverage in her blog ("Ralph Carbera to the rescue in Coral Gables" read the headline of one post and she wrote that Porter was "one of the good guys" in Homestead.)
Her new role on the Regalado campaign payroll officially began in December, according to the latest finance reports posted Monday, which show de Valle being paid $1,750 in mid-December.
De Valle said the blog doesn't make money, and mostly endures as a hobby while she relies on consulting work and freelance writing for income. She told Naked Politics that her hiring by Regalado "might be good news for Carlos Gimenez" because instead of writing unfavorable posts she'll be shopping the information to media outlets. "If I have a really good story," she said, "I want you to write it."
In a statement Tuesday, the Gimenez campaign said:
"It is interesting that this 'announcement' happened the day that campaign finance reports were made public, and not over a month ago when payment was actually made. Transparency is obviously not a hallmark of our opponent's campaign, and given this announcement, neither is her credibility."
De Valle wrote back to Naked Politics: "I posted it on Political Cortadito before campaign finance reports were made public because I wanted my readers to hear it from me. I figured nobody else would care. But the Gimenez campaign can't talk about transparency until they tell us what Joe Carollo is getting paid $6,000 a month to do. Inquiring minds want to know!"
That's a reference to the former Miami mayor being paid $6,000 a month by the Gimenez reelection effort. Gimenez described Carollo as an adviser.
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