Up until recently, it seemed that Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos Curbelo was 
campaigning just against Congressman Joe Garcia, who he hopes to face in November.
But he needs to win the Aug. 26 election first and, up until recently, Curbelo wasn’t paying much mind to any of four other candidates sharing space with him on a crowded Republican primary ballot for the GOP nomination to the 26th District which will be decided in two weeks.
Now he’s paying attention with an apparent increase in TV ad buys, radio appearances and breathless announcements about big ticket endorsements as if they’re really a surprise. It’s almost like Curbelo, the postalita who once thought he had this in the bag and would coast to victory, is suddenly desperate for votes.
Hmmmmm. Think he knows something? Like perhaps what that secret poll he did in June for $35,000 told him that he doesn’t want to disclose?
The latest of his far-too-enthusiastically trumpeted endorsements is from former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, whose backing Curbelo announced Monday — the first day of early voting — without telling anyone that he’s been working with Romney’s media people for months. Mitt follows a mailer where Curbelo touted his endorsement from former Gov. Jeb Bush, arguably — and inexplicably — one of the most popular pols in the state.
Read related story: Jeb Bush endorsement of Carlos Curbelo is soft, squishy
But it also looks like Curbelo is focused on only one of his four opponents: Cutler Bay Mayor Ed “Mac” MacDougall. Maybe it’s payback since MacDougall has decidedly put his bull’s eye on Curbelo’s, um, cup. So that may be why Curbelo seems to be obsessed with Mac.
The first big name endorsement to be paraded out a couple of weeks ago was Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who starred in a new TV ad that Curbelo ran in Monroe County — where Big Mac Daddy is expected to land strong. Ros-Lehtinen, who used to represent the Keys, urged voters to give her boy Curbelo a chance.
Then Curbelo himself went on the air on a Monroe radio station last week and told listeners that MacDougall did not live in the district. Technically, and even though residency is not a requirement, Mac does live outside of the district by a stone’s throw — on the East side of U.S. 1 — and is closer to the center of the district than any of the other candidates.
But I guess that’s the worst he can say about MacDougall, on whom he could not, apparently, dig up any dirt.
Because someone (read: Curbelo) made a public records request last week with the town of Cutler Bay for all of MacDougall’s travel expenses and reimbursements — and came up empty handed since Big Mac Daddy is a real representative of the people and not one of those county commissioners who is just trying to get the most out of his seat.
Curbelo didn’t own up to if, of course. In fact, he doesn’t return Ladra’s phone calls or text messages at all anymore. Guess that story about him putting his business in his wife’s name and those pesky follow up questions still irk him.
But the guy who made the public records request is named Greg Ungru from NG Strategies, a GOP consulting firm out of Tallahassee that has connections to the establishment candidate. Ladra made a public records request for public records requests and found him. By the way, no public records requests were made for Curbelo’s expenses at the School Board nor for former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez‘s records at the county. Just Mac’s.
“I’m an open book. I’ve got nothing to hide,” MacDougall told Ladra last week, adding that he can’t remember any reimbursements he’s sought for any travel expenses. “If I take a trip, I pay for it myself,” said the somewhat affluent businessman.
“But let them look — and waste their time,” MacDougall added.
Ungru wouldn’t tell me who hired him, of course. But my money is on Curbelo, who actually does seem to be hiding something — who his clients are, by putting his business under his wife’s name so he doesn’t have to disclose his clients.
Read related story: Carlos Curbelo hides client lobbying list under wife’s skirt
Not just because he’s the only one with any money for opposition research this late into the game. Not just because he’s got the most to gain, having positioned himself as this young Americanized Cuban who has more in common with Anglo voters than any of the other candidates, except for Mac. Not just because he’s the Johnny Come Lately to this primary and is seeming more desperate by the day.
No, it’s mostly because NG Strategies is owned by Josh Cooper and Ryan Richetti, who also own Strategic Information Consultants with the same Tallahassee address on Biltmore Avenue. And Curbelo paid Strategic Information Consultants $5,500 for “research consulting” in April.
There are three other candidates who are still being sorta ignored by Curbelo. But Martinez, Lorenzo “Larry” Palomares Starbuck and former Congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera — who must be especially happy that he’s not anybody’s target except the federal government — are probably content watching from the sidelines.
But wait a minute. Wasn’t Curbelo the one who said he was going to take the high road and not go negative on any Republican candidate? Because that would just help Joe Garcia in the end, he said. Hasn’t Curbelo campaigned on his ethics, trying to set himself apart from the rest by making himself out to be above all of this? Why, yes, he has.
Didn’t the local GOP chairman sort of scold Mac for slamming Curbelo on his opposition of Marco Rubio and say the candidates should adhere to Reagan’s 11th commandment, and not to speak ill of any other Republican candidate? Why, yes, he did.
And now Curbelo’s Hail Mary is trying to dig up dirt to smear a war hero.
Good luck with that.
Carlos Curbelo ups primary heat, mainly vs Ed MacDougall added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
