There may have been no contributions and no activity in the reports for his political action committee until the $5,000 check from Fisher Island developers in late August, but Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez first began soliciting contributions for Miami Dade Residents First in March of last year.
Maybe he’s losing his golden touch.
According to the form he filed with the county — which last year began requiring that all electeds and candidates for office disclose if they are soliciting funds for a particular PAC or electioneering communication organization, which is a PAC with a different name — he’s been pounding the pavement for almst 18 months.
Gimenez filed what the county calls an MD ED 28 form in June of 2017, saying he had begun to solicit funds for Miami Dade Residents First on March 23 and for Miami First, Joe Carollo‘s PAC, on May 27. The form was filed June 23, which is past the five days that elected and candidates are given from the first day of solicitation to file the document. It’s past 60 days from the first solicitation for his own PAC!
And those dates are so specific: March 24 was a Friday and May 27 was a Saturday. Why were those the days he started soliciting rather than, say, March 1 or May 15
Gimenez did get a notice for the first time violation, even though he is the self-declared head of the elections department. Second time violators are fined but nobody’s done that yet, said Miami-Dade Elections spokeswoman Suzy Trutie. And Gimenez is not alone. After all, 2017 was the first year electeds and candidates had to file these MD ED 28 forms. A few others, including Commissioners Jean Monestime and Xavier Suarez and Sen. Rene Garcia, who is termed out and running for county commission in 2020, also got first notice violation.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez is raising funds for his PAC again — but for who or what?
But nobody is getting as busy as Gimenez, who seems to be renting himself out as a rainmaker. The mayor has filed a total of 9 forms for a total of 10 PACs and ECOs he’s soliciting funds for. That’s right. Ten! Is this really an appropriate side gig for a county mayor who oversees billion in tax dollar spending? Who is he soliciting those funds from? How will we know? So if he gets funds for, say, Florida Senate candidate Marili Cancio — and he filed a report for Friends of Marili Cancio last month — from someone who does business with the county, how will we know its his solicited contribution to her PAC? How will we know what favors he owes?
We won’t.
In fact, he could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from special interests before him for someone else in a quid pro quo deal where that person — Cancio or someone else — raises then hundreds of thousands for him from someone who wants something at the state level. This is just rife with potential conflicts and bribes. It becomes that much harder to follow the money.
In addition to his own PAC and Carollo’s, Gimenez has filed MD ED 28 forms for the following PACs that reflected the following in the latest campaign reports filed at the county and also at the Florida Division of Elections:

On July 20, 2017, People for Stronger Neighborhoods, which Ladra couldn’t find active in county or state records. The used to be a PAC named People for Stronger Neighborhoods ran by former State Rep. and attorney to the pols J.C. Planas on behalf of county and city candidates. It lists as “disbanded” now but it collected more than $100,000 of its $159,000 after August of 2017, having its best months in September, October and November.
On Feb. 15, It’s All About The Kids PAC, which collected about $110,000 for the re-election of Miami-Dade School Board Member Maria Teresa Rojas, the mayor’s sister-in-law.
On June 5 for Government With Transparency, a state-registered ECO working on behalf of county commission candidate Zoraida Barreiro, which collected absolutely nothing in June, but, coincidentally (not), raised $155,250 of its $262,000 total in May, which is almost six times more the next highest month. Maybe someone made another election document mistake there and he meant May 5? Sure looks that way.
On Aug. 8 for Citizens for Transparency and Integrity in Government, working on behalf of Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier Souto, which raised $70,000 of its $170,000 total after Aug. 11.
On Aug. 10 for We The People, which is County Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz‘s PAC and raised $168,500 in August — its best month ever by far, of its $581,350 bank.
On Aug. 10 for Friends of Marili Cancio, which received one $5,000 donation from Coral Gables tech entrepreneur Manny Medina since then.
On Aug. 10 for All About Florida, former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine‘s failed gubernatorial run PAC, which was a lost cause by then so why bother?
On Aug. 20 for Alliance for A Better Community, Miami-Dade Commissioner Jean Monestime’s PAC, I guess for an 11th hour money pitch.

Of course, one could argue these people now owe the mayor something. Votes on the commission for his budget or his deals. Funds for a future campaign for himself or one of his children. Something at the state level. He’s not taking time out of his busy day to help these people out of the kindness of his heart.  All except for Rojas, who maybe he was strong armed into helping by his wife, owe him for those solicitations.
And, on the flip side of the coin, what does he owe those who answer  his call to contribute to Cancio or to Diaz or to Souto or Levine?
Ladra also can’t help but wonder how much time Gimenez will be spending between now and November making more fundraising phone calls and asking more people for money for his friends. And what he’s going to get and promise in return.

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After almost two years of nada, a political action committee for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez reported this month that it raised $5,000 in the last days of August, raising eyebrows across the county about what Gimenez, who is termed out in 2020, will do with it.
Will he run for mayor of Miami in 2021 against Francis Suarez, as some have speculated? Is he eyeing the Miami-Dade Sherriff’s seat, an independently elected office that will hopefully be created after it passes voter referendum in November? Is he raising funds for his daughter-in-law Barby Rodriguez‘s rumored run for city of Miami commission (more on that later)?
Or is this just to raise money to help Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo become the next mayor so the Gimenez friends and family plan is protected?
Or is it simply to fight the Miami strong mayor referendum he has so publicly and vehemently opposed?
All are good options. And it could be several of these at a time. But Ladra thinks the 2021 Miami mayoral race is a good bet.
It’s hard to imagine Gimenez giving up any of the power he has grown accustomed to abusing. He is also his family’s cash cow. I am certain someone close to him is telling him what great name rec he’s got and not to tarnish the brand with a fly-by-night city commission bid by a boozy, badmouthed bimbo who is, really, a long shot in the cold dark.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez abuses power in election interference for lobbyist son
Besides, some might say this is Gimenez’s dream job. This is where he was fire chief. This is where he was city manager. It would make for the perfect trifecta if Gimenez were to end his career as mayor where he started his career as a paramedic so long ago.
Sure, the budget is smaller, so there’s less to go around for everybody on his friends and family plan. That’s why he’s supporting Bovo. That way CJ and his wife and his brother and sister-in-law get to feed from both troughs. (Three, if you count MDX, and you probably should). And, in Miami, there are only three of five people to convince, rather than seven of 13.
Las malas lenguas say that BFFs and international travel mates Ralph Garcia Toledo and Alex Heckler are already making calls, asking for contributions.
The $5,000 contribution to Miami-Dade Residents First was made by PDS Development, the Palazzo Del Sol builders that earlier this year secured a $90 million loan to develop luxury condos on the island. It seems small, especially for someone who raised and spent around $10 million in his last re-election bid. And one might think that he would want to come out the first time after 24 months of nada with a little more than a single figure K.
But it was made the 28th. Which makes us very curious about what the September report will look like.

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Andrew Vargas, the Republican candidate in the special election for House 114 to replace Daisy Baez, hasn’t confirmed to an invitation to the first debate for the seat, held by the League of Women Voters this coming Tuesday.
He won’t. He can’t. Because it is much easier for Vargas to attack Democrat Javier Fernandez with fake voter letters and a secret political action committee that doesn’t file required financial reports than it is to discuss the issues, which would show what an empty suit he is and expose him as the proxy for his business partner and puppeteer, U.S. Ambassador and former State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.
When Ladra called Vargas to ask why he hadn’t confirmed, he hemmed and hawed. “I have an event in the Gables the 19th,” he finally said. “Wait. Is it the 19th?” No, it’s the 17th, I corrected him. “Well, um, er, right now we’re doing the whole absentee ballot thing,” he said, adding that he would call me back later that evening, after 6 p.m.
Surprise, surprise. He didn’t. He wouldn’t. Don’t worry. Ladra didn’t expect him to. Just as we didn’t expect him to pick up the phone again when I called him again twice later (not now that he has me on caller ID). Just as I didn’t expect him to respond to the text I sent after he didn’t respond to the second phone call.
Nobody should expect him to call because Ladra had some difficult questions that he doesn’t want to answer, which is why he won’t go to the debate on Tuesday, which is really at least a couple of weeks late since absentee ballots were sent out last week and already 7,131 voters (or almost 30% of the ones that went out) have mailed them back in as of Friday. By Tuesday, it could be twice as many. Really. Ladra is not even sure Vargas will show up to the Miami Herald editorial board screening the next day (Sorry Nancy). Because (1) he thinks he doesn’t have to, (2) he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on and (3) he knows that Fernandez is going to Facebook Live the shit out of it, exposing his ignorance on the issues.
Also — its why he didn’t call me back or pick up subsequent phone calls — he doesn’t want to answer a bunch of uncomfortable questions:

Why did you change seats? You were filed to run in District 119, where State Rep. Jeannette Nunez (R-Doral) is termed out this year. Makes sense. You have roots there. You wouldn’t have to move. Why did you switch?
Will you run in HD 119 if you lose here?
How long did you live in District 119?
Do you live in District 114 now? How long have you lived there? Or do you plan to move there? This is especially important in this district because the last state rep lived a few blocks away in 112.
Why did you change from a Democrat to Republican in 2016? Did Trujillo “suggest” it?
Can you explain what it means to be the second most litigious attorney in the state when it comes to those sketchy “assignment of benefits” lawsuits against insurance companies? How many of those cases have you filed? And how does that affect rising insurance rates for everyone?
How much do you  pay for your insurance?
How much of your campaign contributions come from the insurance industry (including trial lawyers)
Are these kind of opportunistic switches, underhanded tricks and lack of access or accountability what we can expect if you are, either by sheer miracle or absentee ballot fraud, actually elected?

Vargas isn’t going to answer these questions. Not to me and not at any debate. Ladra asks voters to ask him directly when they see him — if they see him anywhere in either 114 or 119 — but I expect he’ll smile and shrug his shoulders and back away slowly. This is the kind of guy que tira la piedra y esconde la mano. Or he has someone else do the dirty work for him.
The anonymous attacks on Fernandez, for example, are almost certainly coming from his campaign.
The fake voter testimonials and other attack mailers from a PAC called People for a Progressive Florida with no financial activity — which should be investigated because mailers do not get made and mailed for free — are the way that Vargas speaks. It’s really pretty obvious. Sure, the attacks are made to look like they benefit Liz de las Cuevas, the independent who has denied knowing anything about the mailers or the JaviLobby.com website that attacks the Dem candidate for his profession. De las Cuevas has no money in her own campaign account (actually, she is in the red, spending $345 more than the $5,165 she raised) and wouldn’t know what to do with that money if she had it). Most likely, these are sneaky attempts by the Vargas campaign (read: Trujillo) to suppress the Democrat vote and peel NPAs off Fernandez. It’s smart, considering that Baez snatched this seat from under the nose of the better funded Republican John Couriel after Erik Fresen was termed out. And this was before unnatural disaster known as the Donald Trump Presidency produced the prediction of a national blue wave.
Of course the GOP candidates are turning to every dirty tactic to regain this seat.
Because Vargas isn’t going to be Trujillo’s bitch exclusively. Sure, he’s a proxy for Trujillo, who is President Donald Trump‘s Cuban amigacho and is now U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, but, at the same time, doesn’t want to lose the sizeable palanca he’s built in the Sunshine State. But Vargas was also always a proxy for the Republican Party (read: incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva), even when he was running in the other seat just the other day.
He switched to 114 as soon a Baez was caught living outside the district and was publicly pressured to resign for having lied about it. In fact, dicen las malas lenguas that Trujillo may have executive produced that public pressure by calling on his Miami-Dade Republican Party friends to plan a series of picturesque picket protests in front of Baez’s District 112 house, custom made for video, that were covered by the local press (including yours truly). Why? Because it’s easier for this Pepe Cualquiera proxy to win a seat in a special low-turnout election (just add gobs of money).
Vargas has raised $416,000 between his campaign account and money spent by the PAC he is obviously connected with, which is Citizens for Accountable Government, which gets its money from other PACs that get a lot of their money from a lot of healthcare interests and Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, who also gave generously to Vargas. The money includes a $60K loan to himself, almost $80,000 in money and staff and research from the Republican Party of Florida, and small bundled donations from the Munilla brothers, who built the FIU bridge and other things all over the county, HCA Florida hospitals — yes, the one where former Gov. Rick Scott was CEO when they bilked millions from Medicare — Disney and a few others (like auto mogul Norman Braman).
But if you add up the ten or so mailers and the money spent by People for a Progressive Florida, you have… wait, you can’t add those expenses up because the secret PAC has not reported any contributions or expenses. Ladra doesn’t know how they managed to send so many mailers or host a website but DM me please and tell me what your secret is. Okay, if we estimate what that PAC has spent, it’s at least $200,000, conservatively. So that’s a total of $616,000 that we know of. So far.
Meanwhile, Fernandez, has about raised $141,524 in his campaign account with a few bundles of his own, including at least $22,000 from a group of construction and real estate companies or entities at the same six addresses in New York. His Florida Future PAC — which has launched a saynotovargas.com website, has collected another $33,725, about $30K of which is from the same NY construction and real estate firms.
But Ladra is certain of one thing: We will ask Mr. Fernandez about the interest of those New York donors and he will answer, because he has never avoided my calls and even returned a text once after 11:30 p.m. That’s the accessibility you want from your electeds, by the way, Mr. Vargas.
But we can wait until the debate Tuesday and ask Fernandez there. Because he will be there. So will de las Cuevas. The only one who can’t speak for himself is Vargas.
The Miami-Dade League of Women Voters will be taking questions in advance submitted to info@lwvmiamidade.org. Questions may also be submitted in writing the evening of the forum before it begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17th (not the 19th, Mr. Vargas) at the Riviera Presbyterian Church, 5275 Sunset Drive.

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Don’t be fooled by the name, people. The Keep Government Accountable Coalition is not really a “citizens watchdog group,” as it pretends to be. It is a political action committee hiding under another name and the secrecy of a 501c3 non-profit.

That means we don’t know who is funding it. Thanks to Citizens United — whose Supreme Court lawsuit greatly loosened rules governing campaign finance, creating this “corporate personhood” ability to hide money — it’s another mysterious PAC, made even more mysterious by its non profit status.

The announcement this week says the Coalition was “formed to monitor the activities of the Miami-Dade County Commission” and report “any actions that may be detrimental to Miami-Dade taxpayers.”

Yeah, well, wouldn’t that be nice? But Ladra is way skeptical.

“The group’s formation is a response to a history of irresponsibility in Miami-Dade government that has produced years of skyrocketing property taxes and insurance rates and millions of wasted tax dollars,” reads the press release put out by a Tallahassee Media and PR firm that runs many Republican campaigns. “It also intends to serve as a check on increasing toll rates and plans to exert pressure on the Commission to address continued traffic congestion and a lack of needed infrastructure improvements. The group’s founders say it is imperative that local elected officials be held to a higher standard going forward in order to protect and promote a higher quality of life in Miami-Dade County.”

The statement also quotes Coalition Chairman Frank De Varona, a Bay of Pigs veteran and college professor who is also a Republican activist: “Elected officials should be  faithful stewards of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and we will not settle for anything less than that. Miami-Dade taxpayers can count on us to watch the County Commission like a hawk, and we will be quick to draw attention to any move that squanders public resources.”

How Ladra wishes that were true. More likely, it was formed to push something or someone.

Something? The announcement talks about traffic congestion and comes on the heels of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez saying — now that he’s not running for office any more — that he was giving up on trains. This could be to create messaging and a “narratie” in the community either for the rapid buses that Gimenez wants us to believe are better or to push for trains.

Someone? This could be an attempt to set someone up to run in 2018 for one of the county commission seats, or tear down one of the incumbents. Ladra’s money would be on Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava.

The creation of this coalition also comes on the heels of a new website and Facebook page, Keeping up with Cava, that criticizes the commissioner, who admittedly has let many voters down and could be vulnerable (more on that later). Ladra thinks she is more vulnerable to another Democrat, but the Dems won’t support anyone else and, even though this is a partisan race, this Coalition group seems Republican and Ladra will bet her kibble that it aims to put a Republican in that District 8 seat. The other two incumbents, Commissioners Jean Monestime and Sally Heyman, are less vulnerable and in districts where a Republian will never win.

And this coalition seems heavily read. It was formed Tuesday with the help of former State Rep. and attorney to GOP politicians J.C. Planas. It was announced Wednesday by the Tallahassee-based firm, Front Line Strategies, which belongs to Republican political consultant Brett Doster (photographed right), who just lost the State House 116 race where he was running Jose Mallea (local candidates really need to stop looking to Tallahassee for anything other than money). And there is the Republican activist chairman.

While county commission races are non-partisan, both parties have been getting more and more involved. This “coalition” might be preparing to run a Republican against Levine Cava. Ladra doesn’t know who that is. Yet.

Could it be Mallea? He’s got some good name recognition having gotten 45% of the vote for a House seat that overlaps some. Could it be a state rep whose term is up next year? Does Michael Bileca live there or in commission District 7? Could it be former and disgraced Sen. Frank Artiles, who had to resign after making racist remarks, and who Ladra heard has moved back into his old Palmetto Bay home? Yeah, that’s almost as ludicrous as reincarnating former Commissioner Lynda Bell, who lost to Levine Cava in 2014.

But this is the 305, where special interests can disguise themselves as watchdog groups and call it a coalition. Anything is possible.