Can Miami Beach mayoral candidate Philip Levine speak for himself? Apparently only when lobbyist and campaign consultant David Custin gives him permission.
In my attempt to talk to a political candidate as a political blogger, I tried contacting his handlers, which include Custin and attorney JC Planas, who I called after Custin threatened and insulted me. I sent one message to Mr. Levine on Facebook. Instead of a response from the man who wants to be mayor, Ladra immediately got an email from Planas threatening to call the State Attorney’s Office and file stalking charges against me.
Really? For contacting a political candidate with one message? Really? Even if it is on a Sunday when I have good reason to believe that he’s probably working anyway, knocking doors and shaking hands, since there are only two months left til Election Day? Really?
Ladra was trying to get more information on last week’s attack mailer hitting another mayoral candidate, Commissioner Michael Gongora, courtesy of the PAC that is working for candidate Philip Levine. It questioned his seemingly legitimate travel expenses, perks and the “golden parachute” he voted on for former City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, who got a $440,000 severance package approved by the whole commission (more on that later).
But when Ladra called to get documentation of said travel expenses and perks, all she got was insults and threats. Not from Levine himself, of course, but from who many are calling the candidate’s puppeteer, David Custin.
The mailer is paid for by the Citizens for Ethical and Effective Leadership ECO, which is Custin’s PAC. Same one he is using to push his candidates in Miami Lakes. Custin is Levine’s consultant and apparently has the authority to block any attempt to speak to the millionaire mayoral candidate himself. I only contacted Custin to see if he could document the allegations in what I thought at first was a petty good mailer, since Ladra would have to wait til Tuesday to get government documents herself. I figured he or someone in the campaign had them. But instead of getting documentation, I got insulted and threatened.
Maybe he didn’t want everyone to know it was his ECO sending that mailer and wanted voters to think it was some third party of anti-Gongora activists instead of Levine’s very interested campaign consultant.
Ladra first contacted Custin since we know each other from way back when he was partners with Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador. I didn’t know that he hated to be bothered on Sundays and thought it would be okay, since we had spoken recently about the race for an earlier post about claims of an anti-Hispanic campaign. In the email I asked for documentation of the ethics concerns cited in the mailer and examples of the “exclusive tickets” also mentioned –because it makes for good details — but Custin said he could not provide any.
Simultaneously, I called Alex Miranda, Levine’s campaign manager, because that’s what I am supposed to do — contact everyone I can. Especially with areas, such as Miami Beach, where I am admittedly not as embedded as I am in others. And when he called me back, I asked him about the same documentation. Surely, they would not make me wait until government offices were open Tuesday to go and get it myself if they already had it? What harm could it do to share? Especially if it is so damning that it would bolster their smack-down mailer?
Miranda said “Sure, sure,” and asked me to email my request.
One hour and 46 minutes after I did just that, Ladra gets a response — but not from Miranda. From Custin.
“Since you refused to accept the polite answer from I sent you this morning, and instead opted to do an end run directly to my client/client’s Campaign Manager, I’m compelled to respond to you now,”
said Custin, who has a history of hotheadedness and used to work for suspended Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi, who was arrested last month on federal bribery and extortion charges. And then he proceeds to insult Ladra.
“We will only engage and respond to official journalistic publications (The Miami Herald, The Miami New Times, The Miami SunPost, etc.) that have a history of covering Miami Beach politics. You are a blogger with a site that does what it does. That’s it. Our answer is no. No background ‘tiki tiki,’ no gossip, no interviews, nothing with you.”
And Ladra is really surprised that Levine would let him make that decision.
“Last week’s response and interaction I gave you was an exception. A rare one. It was an extraordinary situation (read: political opportunity) where Matti and Gongora stooped to such a low that it forced me to engage, simply on principle. In addition, I was trying to save you the exposure and trouble of being sued in case you wrote something slanderous against Mr. Levine in relation to that slanderous allegation.”
And then he proceeds to threaten Ladra.
“Along those lines, Mr. Levine is only responsible and will only comment on communications that contain his campaign’s legal disclaimer. He is not privy to other forms of political free speech as others may choose to exercise it. However, should anyone or anything (individual or political organization), including you, commit slander or slanderous remarks about Mr. Levine, they better have the money and a good lawyer, because he will sue. Documented attacks against him are understood and we’re ready to address any should they arise. But your style of conjecture and theory and blogging, that will be skating on thin ice.”
Guess he doesn’t know that I only use skates with wheels (but we can imagine what he things of my style of blogging on this post).
“Accordingly, we will not be answering any questions, granting any interviews, or engaging on background with you in relation to Miami Beach politics,” he said, adding, at the end and after the fact and without my confirmation, that none of that was on the record.
“Not background. Not, ‘a little birdie told me…’, nothing. I’m merely trying to communicate to you what the full meaning of the answer NO is.”
But I never agreed that his intervention in my attempt to talk to Levine — who may be as elitist as some say, after all — would be off the record. First off, everyone knows that Ladra never goes off the record. We go background, and then, depending on your involvement or role in the subject matter, I will need your comment on what I called you for in the first place. Many of you reading are nodding your heads right now because you’ve been there. Custin knows this, too.
But since he refused to go background then what on Earth does he want off the record? That he wouldn’t go on background?
So maybe there is something to be said about the relevance of his aggressive email and his threats, in light of allegations that Levine’s campaign — as well as the rest of Custin’s slate — may be a means through which, as some have claimed, the lobbyist can gain more influence at City Hall. Because while Miami Beach has some of the best restrictions on lobbyists contributing financially to a candidate, it obviously doesn’t stop one from working for a candidate and raising money and sending attack mailers on his behalf. Kind of a loophole, there, ain’t it?
Because if Levine and his other candidates are elected, how much influence will Custin — who reportedly already has Commissioner Jonah Wolfson‘s vote in his pocket — have on City Hall matters? Will he interfere with agenda items like he has in Miami Lakes, when he called Pizzi about a state lobbying contract to be discussed at a meeting?
Las malas lenguas also say that JC Planas has an interest in this race beyond Election Day. All I know is that when I called him, he said he didn’t represent Custin or the PAC and had no idea what I was talking about. I asked him if he had reviewed the mailer, as Custin had suggested it had been approved by the PAC attorney. Planas said he had not seen the mailer but that Custin had been provided with guidelines and knew from previous briefings that (1) everything has to be documented and (2) he can’t use the words “vote for.”
However, he certainly seems to represent everyone by the email he sent me shortly after I sent Levine a personal message on Facebook.
“Mr. Levine, please contact me when you can. I am a political blogger who writes Political Cortadito and was very aggressively replied to by Mr. Custin when I reached out to him and to Alex Miranda for an interview with you about many things. I hope that we can speak directly with each other in the next couple of months, as Mr. Custin made it clear to me he would not speak to me about this race.”
I think it was actually very nice of Ladra to give him his own opportunity, not through a handler.
“Please know, that I will still write about it from time to time,” Ladra added, because sometimes political neophytes think that if they do not respond to queries, then the story will go away. “But it would be better, naturally, if I had access to you and your thoughts and opinions on some if not all the matters. Thank you for your attention.”
It was a courtesy. As the candidate, I thought he should know that I had tried to contact him through his handlers and had been officially, and offensively, rebuffed.
The next reply was from Planas, who called me Ms. Devalle, even though he always calls me by my first name and called me Elaine when I contacted him by phone earlier. Subject line was all in caps: “PLEASE DISCONTINUE YOUR CURRENT ACTIONS,” it said.
“As I explained to you earlier today when you called me, while I represent Mr. Custin and I represent Mr. Levine’s campaign, I do not represent the ECO that you allege sent the mailer on Gongora.”
I do not allege, JC. It is right there on the return address.
“My email to you now, however, is because your behavior today has reached the limits of what is allowed by law,” Planas said, and I didn’t know an attorney could lie about those things because nothing I did even got close to illegal. Annoying? Yeah, maybe. Illegal? No.
“On a Sunday afternoon, you have constantly emailed and tried to contact a political consultant on his day off while he was spending time with his family even though he expressed to you in an earlier email that he had no further comment on the matter.”
I guess he meant my first back and forth with Custin, in which he never said to stop bothering him. I only emailed him once in reply to his offensive threats and insults, because he had cc’d Miranda and I thought it deserved a rebuttal.
Then I wrote to Miranda explaining that I still wanted to give Levine the benefit of the doubt and that to please contact me directly since Custin would not play.
I am pretty confident that doesn’t constitutes harassment, but Planas nonetheless feels the need to intimidate and bully me.
“You then went and harassed both Mr. Levine and his assistant, Mr. Miranda, repeatedly going so far as to contact Mr. Levine via facebook.”
Really? It’s going too far and considered harassment to contact Mr. Levine once on Facebook?
“ALL of the information that you requested originally from Mr. Custin earlier today is in the public records with the City of Miami Beach. Your insistence that you receive it 2 days earlier than normal, while bothering hardworking professionals on a Sunday afternoon is not the practice of reputable journalistic standards and will not be tolerated.”
Yeah, Ladra sometimes works on Sundays. Especially two months before an election. Again, not illegal.
“As the attorney for the aforementioned individuals, I am officially asking you to stop contacting them. Any attempt to contact Mr. Custin, Mr. Miranda, Mr. Levine or myself, as a response to this email, will result in a formal complaint to the State Attorney’s office for stalking after receiving a written warning to stay away.”
So I didn’t respond to that email, naturally.
I posted this instead. Because Ladra will not be bullied or intimidated.
In fact, I was only covering this race peripherally, because I had been asked to by several voters who read the blog and think that my sharp analysis is needed. But now, something tells me that they may be right and it may deserve a little more attention.
Call whoever you want, Mr. Planas (your abuelo y abuela would be ashamed of what you did today, by the way). Because Ladra is within her rights and just doing her job.
See you all on the campaign trail.
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