There could be money laundering involved here

The news that disgraced former Sen. Frank Artiles was arrested last week on charges of campaign finance fraud has Miami’s political underbelly scurrying for cover. Because he was not alone, dear readers. There’s no way.

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This means Sen. Ileana Garcia won illegally

Developing story: Disgraced former Sen. Frank Artiles surrendered to authorities Thursday, walking into the Turner Guilford Knight jail facility near the airport and depriving us the joy of a perp walk.

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State investigates his involvement in sham senate race

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So, Donna Shalala wants to be a congresswoman all of a sudden. Why? Because she’s “angry” at Donald Trump?
Aren’t we all? Most of us are not just angry but enraged at the current administration’s fear mongering, lies and conflicts of interest — just for starters. But if being angry makes you qualified for public office, well, then Trump has a lot more going for him than we thought.
The former president at the University of Miami may be angry now, but where has she been? She sounds like an opportunist taking advantage of the Trump rage fueling the blue wave across the nation. She also said at her announcement that she was disturbed at the lack of action after the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High last month. That’s opportunism for ya.
So why are some already giving her the congressional win in District 27, where there is a slew of qualified and good candidates already? Because they don’t live here. Ladra does. And let me tell you, the people of CD 27 are not falling for that internal poll she paid someone on her campaign team for. Have you seen the comments on social media?
Related: And then there were 16 candidates in the CD27 race to replace Ileana
Shalala’s announcement that she was going to, after all, run for Congress after thinking about it for a month came complete with a poll from Bendixen Amandi that shows her as the front runner in a Democratic primary against six other candidates. I call BS! First, because it is a paid campaign poll and like all paid internal polls is suspect. And also because we haven’t seen poll details, particularly the questions that were asked. Ladra suspects it was a push poll where the caller “tested” positive messages on Shalala until they got their desired results. There is just no way that she has a 32-point lead ahead of Jose Javier Rodriguez, who just spent close to $5 million in an overlap district to take the senator’s seat against Republican Miguel Diaz de la Portilla. They overshot.
And also, and this might be the most important, because the voters here can tell an opportunist when we see one. Like her saying she is running because she is angry at Trump. She is actually saying that because her poll showed 78% of the Democrat voters have a unfavorable view of the president (only?).
But when Donna has had an opportunity to actually do something for her community, she failed time and again. Shalala is a smooth talker and has pretty paper credentials topped by a recent stint at the Clinton Foundation, but she also has a ton of baggage that Dems will find particularly heavy:

She was serving as Health and Human Services secretary under Bill Clinton in 1996 when Congress passed a law banning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence. Why is she hot on the gun issue now? Opportunism.
She parlayed that position into a gig on UnitedHealth’s board of trustees, where she ended up with tons of stock she sold in 2005 for more than $5 million. Now Shalala will have to convince Democrat voters that she will work for Medicare for all instead of the for-profit insurance industry that she used to work for and made so much money from. Opportunism. And hypocrisy.
For almost 10 years, she served as on the board of Lennar Homes, a major builder of crappy, cookie cutter homes credited with helping to create the housing and mortgage crisis in South Florida. Shalala only left after one of the company’s directors became a UM board member — only to join the board again two years after she left the school. Opportunism.
As president of the University of Miami, she twice fought efforts by the cleaning staff and food service staff to unionize and make a decent living wage, protesting what many called “poverty pay.” Shalala was called an “enemy of the working poor” by a campus chaplain. The labor dispute gained national attention when professors and department academics began a hunger strike to support the workers. Meanwhile, she lived in a mansion in Cocoplum and, later, a nice condo on Edgwater Drive in Coral Gables she bought for $1.4 million in 2014. Oh, she also has a little place on South Beach she bought for $275,000 in 2013. That’s just hypocrisy.
Then there’s that picture circulating of a giddy Donna taking a $50,000 check from booster Nevin Shapiro, who was later charged with securities fraud in a $900 million Ponzi scheme and showered UM players with gifts that led to an NCAA investigation.
As UM president, she also sold us out when she secretly sold environmentally sensitive and endangered Pine Rocklands property that the university owned in South Dade to be paved over for a Walmart-anchored shopping strip. Opportunism.

She’s already coming under fire for that on Facebook, as you can see from the meme below.
And Donna is coming into this race a little late because she had to figure out the “mechanisms of a campaign” first, which she said means she had to gauge support. Sounds like she had to get all her ducks in a row. Sounds like she would only run after all the financial commitments (promised contributions) were made, but not if they weren’t. Opportunism.
Seriously, maybe Shalala should run as a Republican.
Either way, though, we don’t need more opportunists (or hypocrites) in Washington. There are plenty already there.

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Ladra dares Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez to put his committee vote into action and resign his seat now

The open congressional seat thanks to the announced retirement of U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has attracted almost a dozen hopefuls who want to represent us in Washington, D.C.: A whopping 11 candidates have either declared their intentions or opened “exploratory” committees.

This includes five who are already in elected office: Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, State Rep. David Richardson, Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez, Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and Miami Commissioner Ken Russell. So far, anyway.

One of the wannabes not in office already has a problem with them staying there.

Michael Hepburn, an academic advisor at the University of Miami who Ladra suspects is building name ID for another race, says the “Resign to Run” law that forces electeds to resign one office if they run for a state or local seat should be extended to federal offices, which are exempted from the state statute. These candidates not only cost taxpayers extra, through special elections that could have happened simultaneously with the federal race, they also get a leg up with a bully platform, he said.

Read related story: Bruno Barreiro makes Congress bid official; Dems celebrate

“This exception creates an unfair advantage for the elected official, it’s a conflict of interest, and Floridians should not have to cover the cost associated with creating special elections or continue to cover the salary for these officials — while they use their time on the job to run for another office,” Hepburn said. “This is a democracy and you have every right to run for any political office you deem appropriate. However, if you choose to not honor the term you were elected for – run for another office on your own time.”

“Our aspiring career politicians need to either keep their commitments to the voters that elected them or resign, so someone else can finish the job,” he said, adding that voters he has spoken to agree.

He is right. This exclusion does perpetuate the perception of political stepping stones being used to attain higher office. And you can’t deny the fact that every time Rodriguez or Barreiro or Rosen Gonzalez or the others get free press for doing their job, their congressional campaigns benefit. So they do campaign on our dime and, in fact, could be paying extra attention to issues or neighborhoods that overlap in the district — or even beyond their district or parameters.

These are the reasons why there is proposed legislation that would close the state law loophole — made in 2007 for then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, whose name was being floated as a potential VP running mate — and include federal offices in the Resign to Run law.

Read related story: Jose Javier Rodriguez runs for Congress, but it’s not in the bag

Senate Bill 186, introduced by Sen. Travis Hutson (R-Elkton), would require elected candidates who run for federal office where terms overlap to resign at least 10 days before qualifying begins.

And even though it would go against his self interest by requiring him to resign early, Rodriguez voted in favor of the bill in the Ethics and Elections Committee, where it passed unanimously Tuesday.

But here’s an idea — nay, a challenge — for J-Rod, if he really believes electeds like him should resign to run for a congressional seat: Senator, you don’t have to wait until the full legislature votes on the bill next year. There is nothing stopping you from setting the example and resigning now.

If you voted what you believe in, Ladra dares you to put your money (your job) where your mouth (your vote) is.


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As many may have expected, newly-minted Jose Javier Rodriguez announced Tuesday that he would run for the congressional seat in District 27 being vacated next year by a retiring U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and immediately became the front runner for the Democrat primary — at least on paper.

But on the streets, Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez might still give him a good run for his — or the party’s — money. And in Obama circles, the name Francisco Cerezo — a Puerto Rican Miami lawyer and onetime Obama surrogate who is son of the first Latin American female federal judge — is being floated around by his friend, political operative Freddy Balsera (who would work on his campaign, of course).

Political observers say Cerezo (read: Balsera) is just using the race to get some name recognition — beause right now it is zero — so he can run for another seat that opens up in the future, maybe one of the domino effect avalanche seats that will open up in the state legislature from this race or the Senate 40 contest. Pedro Diaz, a political consultant who runs Rosen Gonzalez’s campaigns, is convinced this primary race has already been defined, 15 months out, as a two-way contest between his client and Rodriguez, who was a state rep for four years before jumping to the Senate last year and who was being groomed for this position, eventually, before IRL surprised everyone with early retirement and reset the clock.

Read related story: Kristen Rosen Gonzalez to challenge Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

“No other big name is going to jump in now that he’s announced,” Diaz said, adding that maybe that was the senator’s point, to scare everybody off.

But Rosen Gonzalez — who has fought Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and his political consultant, David “Disgustin’” Custin — is not scared easily. Heck, she’s the only one who was brave enough to announce her intentions before Ileana decided to retire. J-Rod could be called an opportunist.

“He’s a formidable opponent,” Rosen Gonzalez told Ladra Wednesday, “but I’m going to stand my ground.”

“My supporters are my supporters and I don’t think an Ivy league lawyer is what they really want,” the college professor said, referring to J-Rod’s Harvard law degree.

She may be smart to define herself, in contrast, as a single mom and educator. Because there are very few other differences between them.

The two have similar blue positions on immigration reform, minimum wage, climate change and neither has been shy to voice their concerns, so they’re not going to mark much of a difference that way. Both of them are good, but not great, at media. Neither one has to resign to run, so they have nothing to lose and each can use their bully pulpit to promote themselves.

J-Rod may have more legislative experience, but it’s just a tiny bit more. He could also be seen as an ambitious hopper who just became a state senator five minutes ago and is already itching to move up the political ladder. But Rosen Gonzalez, a freshman city commissioner, might also be seen as too ambitious for her own good.

And yes, Rodriguez scored two powerhouse victories when first elected to the House in 2012 (against former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla) and then the Senate last year (against big brother Miguel Diaz de la Portilla), but those big wins have been in presidential years. His win against nobody lobbyist Daniel Diaz Leyva in 2014 was by a much smaller (642-vote) margin. And Ladra dares say both DLPs could have worked a little harder, or nicer.

Read related story: Jose Javier Rodriguez hangs on despite Danny Boy’s dough

Rosen Gonzalez, like J-Rod, is a tireless campaigner. So let’s say they split the Hispanic vote. Rosen Gonzalez will likely get the Jewish vote and the preservationists vote and also the female vote. Because it looks like she will be the only Democrat woman in a primary against four or five men. DUI driver Scott Fuhrman, who ran but lost against Ros-Lehtinen last year, and UM academic advisor Michael Hepburn have both filed for ,the seat. Add to that Rodriguez, Ceruzo and, maybe, Matt Haggman, Miami program director for the Knight Foundation.

Since there are only 105 female members of Congress — or about one to every five men — Rosen Gonzalez hopes voters might hate to lose one of those, and the first seat won by a Hispanic woman, to a man. At least that’s what she’s counting on.

“There’s going to be five men in the race and me,” she said. “I can live with those odds.”


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