Miami is a fast paced community with a rapid fire news cycle. Our blog keeps you current on the most important issues affecting the tax payers of Miami-Dade county. Read, share, comment, and as always let us know what topics you want us to tackle.
AP: Florida abortion bill would require minors to obtain consent
AP: Florida abortion bill would require minors to obtain consent
NSF: What's happening this week in Florida politics
NSF: What’s happening this week in Florida politics
DBNJ: Florida road builders drive massive highway expansion, while those in path of construction are left out
DBNJ: Florida road builders drive massive highway expansion, while those in path of construction are left out
State Attorney looks into mystery mailers in Coral Gables election
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is looking into three mystery mailers attacking former Coral Gables Commissioner Ralph Cabrera in Coral Gables and attributed to a political action committee that has said it isn’t involved.
Attorney and activist Jack Thompson sent the SAO an email with a link to an earlier Political Cortadito post about the first mailer, which said it was paid for and sent by Leadership for Florida’s Future. But a woman at the Jensen Beach PAC said it wasn’t them.
“Please review this news story and then open a criminal investigation,” wrote Thompson in a March 26 email with the subject “illegal campaign activity.”
Read related: PAC says it did not send hit piece on Ralph Cabrera — so who did?
Since then, two more mailers have come out with the same dark colors and bold letters warning voters about Cabrera’s ethics and ties to developers. Ladra sent the images to the SAO’s office on Friday and was told it would be forwarded to the right unit.
In the meantime, it’s hard to tell if it’s had any impact. Coral Gables voters don’t respond well to hit pieces and they’ve known Cabrera for decades. He was their commissioner for 12 years and has run for office almost since then. Those who support him are likely not swayed. And those who don’t might not fall for these mailers, which are awfully vague and short on attribution. In other words, they stink of smear.
The piece about the ethics quotes the actual complaint from former Mayor Jim Cason, an empty suit rubber stamper who Cabrera challenged twice, and not the findings from the close-out memo, which found he did nothing wrong. Shoot! You can say anything in a complaint. In fact, many campaigns now file complaints on purpose so they can quote them without having any basis.
A third piece landed last week insinuating that because Cabrera has taken developer money, he is in their pocket. Cabrera’s campaign has accepted some development money, notably $7,000 from Armando Codina, who is developing a 16-story luxury residential building on Salzedo, and Agave LLC, which is developing The Plaza, what used to be Old Spanish Village.
But what is Ralph supposed to do? Decline the money he needs to fight off the negative attacks that we knew were coming anyway? He said these people came unsolicited to him. And it’s only a tiny fraction of Cabrera’s campaign funds that are tied to development.
He also has lots of residents, doctors, lawyers, plumbers. He has $1,000 from Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, $500 from former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and $300 from Gonzalo Sanabria, a Gables rabblerouser who was originally supporting another candidate.
Read related: Ralph Cabrera set to enter runoff with campaign cash advantage
Cabrera is not gonna be beholden to any of them anyway. Anybody who knows him knows he doesn’t owe favors. Even with his friends. Which is one of the things voters should like about him.
“Let’s stop Cabrera and his say one thing, do another agenda,” one piece says. But if there’s one thing that people know about Ralph is that he says what he means and means what he says, which is why some people don’t like him. There is no hidden agenda with Cabrera. His agenda is right there on his sleeve. He will talk ad nauseam about it and it usually has to do with improving city services or public safety. His sometimes self-depricating, brutal honesty is off putting because he won’t go along to get along. That’s another reason some people don’t like him.
In fact, the only thing these mailers prove is that someone is really worried about Cabrera. Perhaps he can win outright on Tuesday and avoid a runoff.
And even though they won’t have the answer before the election, the State Attorney should still find out is who is paying for these mystery mailers. If it’s not Leadership for Florida’s Future, it could be anybody.
It could be illegal foreign money, like in the Miami Beach case that derailed State Rep. Michael Grieco‘s mayoral race. If the Kathy Fernandez-Rundle investigates that and not this, then it looks like it was a personal grudge against a former prosecutor.
It could be the Eighth Street hotels that rent by the hour, including one in the Little Gables annexation area.
It could be the Russians.
Except the only ones who benefit from hurting Cabrera are the other candidates in the commission race. So, that means one of them is attacking Ralph with lies and innuendo using soft money from who knows where.
Read related: Ralph Cabrera’s commission race advantage: Others are unelectable
Only candidate Jorge L. Fors has ties to the PAC through his campaign manager, Steve Marin (right), who was paid at least $63,000 last year by Leadership for what he said was work on some state races. Political observers have also noted that the size of the mailers, the fonts used and the design seem similar to Marin’s. Campaign consultants often have signature looks to their materials.
But Marin told Ladra they were not his and that he would not hide behind a PAC to send mailers from his camp.
And his history with the Jensen Beach PAC could be the very reason that former interim city manager and current candidate Carmen Olazabal and her people may have chosen Leadership for Florida’s Future, to throw the scent off themselves. She has proven to be sneaky before.
Jackson “Rip” Holmes doesn’t have the money, political experience, guidance or, frankly, attention span to pull this off.
So it has to be either Olazabal or Fors, or someone in their circles, which is another reason to vote for Ralph Cabrera, who hasn’t used any of his campaign money — development or otherwise — to pay for a single negative hit piece.
Democrat: Trump, guns and Nancy Pelosi liberals: GOP candidates go on the attack in House District 7
Democrat: Trump, guns and Nancy Pelosi liberals: GOP candidates go on the attack in House District 7
Sun: Algae plaguing Florida’s iconic springs triggers legal fight
Sun: Algae plaguing Florida’s iconic springs triggers legal fight
Sun-Sentinel: GOP legislative blitz aims for complete control in Tallahassee, Democrats warn
Sun-Sentinel: GOP legislative blitz aims for complete control in Tallahassee, Democrats warn
AP: Some irony, ethics and money battles next week in Florida
AP: Some irony, ethics and money battles next week in Florida
Herald-Tribune: Applause, boos, Trump chants and a big divide on immigration at Gruters town hall
Herald-Tribune: Applause, boos, Trump chants and a big divide on immigration at Gruters town hall
Florida Bar investigates candidate Jorge Fors for homestead fraud
The Florida Bar has opened an investigation into the homestead exemption fraud by Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors, an attorney and former president of the Coral Gables Bar Association.
After receiving a complaint from activist resident Jack Thompson, Bar Counsel Richard Coombs responded that they would look into the illegal homestead exemptions Fors claimed for years on a Little Havana condo he did not live in.
“Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention,” Coombs wrote Thompson on April 3. “The Florida Bar has opened up a case as the complainant and will investigate this matter.”
Thompson’s complaint is closed, Coombs said, because The Florida Bar filed its very own complaint. That seems interesting.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal homestead exemption
Fors owns a 2-bedroom, 2-bath condo at 1039 SW 5th Street in Miami and said he lived there for a few months before he left to college in Gainesville. He never lived there again and, in fact, voted in the city of Coral Gables — his voter’s registration was at his parents’ house — in 2013, 2015 and 2017. Those same years, however, he still had the homestead exemption on 5th Street.
His illegal homestead exemptions were first discovered by Ladra and exposed earlier this year.
But in January, after he filed to run for office and after Ladra started sniffing around — las malas lenguas say he was tipped off — Fors paid the county a total of $13,178.37 all at once for back taxes he got out of on the condo as well as interest and penalties for the years 2010 through 2017. Why not 2018?
But all of a sudden, it seems, he had an urgent need to pay that? Or is it because he is running for office and he knew it would come up that he tried to cheat taxpayers out of his fair share?
In fact, Fors decided not to tell me about the one-time lump sum payment he made back to the taxpayers he cheated when he and Ladra spoke on the phone about it a month later. Rather than say he had taken care of it, he stuck to the defense that he was allowed to have the homestead exemption even if he didn’t live there because he didn’t have one someplace else.
If he believed that, why did he pay the penalty? And if he paid the penalty, why didn’t he just say so? Was it because that would be admitting to being a scoundrel who tried to get away with stealing thousands of dollars from taxpayers?
Would he still be doing it if he hadn’t run for office?
Questions that hopefully the Bar investigation will ask Fors. But we won’t know the outcome before Tuesday’s election.
