It is that season again. PAC season.
Forget about the return of Mad Men. All the real drama in South Florida elections is about the return of PAC men.
There are some important elections coming up — including the Dolphins stadium referendum, like, tomorrow — and of course that means that the political action committees, which are good ways for candidates and the special interests who drive them to hide their financial backing, are proliferating to push one thing or another.
Ladra went looking for the stadium-related PACs and found more than ten new committees formed in the last couple of months. Not all are focused on the referendum, naturally. But at least one is: Friends of Miami First, Inc., which is chaired by attorney H.T. Smith and was filed April 11, the day after the vote on the commission to approve the referendum and ballot language. This is the funding behind the outreach Miami First Coalition campaign headed by Smith and Jorge Arizurieta which was announced last week, after the vote.
And, of course, no monies have been reported yet. And I think the election will be over before we can find out who funded the campaign.
Let’s not confuse that PAC or the stadium efforts with with Miami Coalition (sans the “first), which is a committee created March 23 by Barbara Hardemon for “supporting candidates in Miami-Dade County.” It reported raising nada by the March 31 deadline.
We also ran across Miami-Dade Working For You, which is technically an “electioneering communication organization” with slightly different rules, but, as Ladra has said before, they are all PACs to me. The chairman is Coral Gables attorney Ernesto “Ernie” Martinez, who told Ladra on Monday that it had nothing to do with the Dolphins stadium — despite the common denominators — and said he would call me back because he was in a meeting. What attorney takes a phone call in a meeting? Needless to say, he didn’t call me back. Not even after I called him again on Tuesday.
But the campaign report filed by the PAC, which was created Feb. 21, shows that almost 20 percent of its $85,000 booty is from lobbyist Ron Book, who is working for both Miami-Dade County and the Miami Dolphins in what Ladra cannot believe is not a blatant conflict of interest.
Book is the PAC’s biggest donor, with a check for $15,000. The next big daddy is a company called County Line S. Properties on Don Shula Drive that gave $9,500. Florida Corporate Division records show the company is based in New York and the registered agent (read: middleman to silent partner) is a Palm Beach company called Corporate Creative Networks, which is a great name for what they do (wink, nod). After that, both the Greenberg Traurig lawfirm and Yellow Cab Company gave $5,000.
There are also some notable smaller contributions, like Steve Marin, who gave $2,500, and Brian May, ne of the stadium county insiders who gave $2,000 through his also aptly-named company, The Strategic Edge. Developer Jeffrey Berkowitz gave $2,500 while developer Jorge Munilla only gave $500 (is the MDX business slumping?).
And, standing by a longtime tradition of intermingling funds (more on that later), a Coral Gables-based PAC called the New Leadership Network chaired by Jorge Luis Lopez, and with Jose Riesco as treasurer, gave $1,000.
Martinez is also chairman and treasurer of Progress for the People, which is another ECO not a cellphone provider, that also formed in February. It aims to provide “communications for candidates to promote excellence in government.” No monies reported yet. So we don’t know, yet, if there are Dolphin stadium common denominators here, too.
Neither were any contributions reported by The Alliance for a Better Community is another ECO, also created last month, “for candidates in county races to promote efficient and ethical government reforms.” There was nothing spent or raised in their financial report for the first quarter, which ended March 31, because the organization filed March 25. Chairman Joaquin Urquiola, a Coral Gables banker, who is also treasurer of the Good Government Now PAC, formed the same day and with the same “government reform” purpose.
A PAC called We the People! formed on April 2 with the purposes of “supporting and opposing candidates for county commission.” Doesn’t say which ones, but seeing as how it was filed by Carlos M. Trueba, who is Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz‘s campaign manager, we can pretty much surmise it would be Diaz and his allies (or plants).
Trueba also chairs the Serving Miamians ECO, filed in February at the state level, which has more than $93,000 raised since Feb. 11, thanks to a few $10,000 checks, most notably from Norman Braman, who is opposing the stadium deal. But Trueba told Ladra Tuesday that this has nothing to do with that scam. Rather, it is an ECO collecting funds to help with Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado‘s re-election.
But he has a lot of catching up to do to match Commissioner Francis “The Future” Suarez, who has his own PAC called The Future is Now (and Ladra can’t help but think it is something his father, Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, told him). The latest report shows a bright future for The Future, with a whopping $718,912 raised, of which he still has almost $600,000 left.
Tallahassee lobbyist David Ramba, who serves as registered agent for a PAC called Restore Miami, said his was for a mayoral race, also. But he wasn’t sure which mayoral race. Chairman and treasurer Manuel Reyes could not be reached. Ramba said he’d get him for Ladra. Stay tuned.
And one called Truth in Jobs for Miami-Dade, which says it will support “construction jobs for Miami-Dade County,” formed in February and is chaired by Jose Castro, of Homestead, which also just happens to have city elections this year.
That’s at least 11 — count ’em, 11! — PACs and ECOs already!
Betcha we’ll see a few more pop up in the Spring — like weeds.
As many 305 elections approach, the pushy PACs proliferate added by Ladra on
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