Jim Cason uses city pic out of context for campaign ad

In what is yet another disingenuous move in what has become one of the most dishonest campaigns Ladra has ever seen, Coral Gables incumbent Mayor Jim Cason seems to have used a city photograph out of context for his re-election campaign.

The photo is in one of three full-page campaign ads in the Miami Herald’s Neighbors section and it has Cason surrounded by his colleagues giving a thumbs up. While it just says that they like the direction the city is going in, the intended message is not so subliminal: They look like they are endorsing the mayor over former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera.

But that’s only the case for half of the commission. Vice Mayor Bill Kerdyk and Commissioner Frank Quesada have both publicly said they were supporting the mayor’s re-election. But Commissioners Pat Keon and Vince Lago had said they were staying out of the races and were each surprised to see the photo.

Lago said it was taken during a break at one of the last regular commission meetings with Kerdyk, who is termed out after 20 years and was too chicken (again) to run for mayor. It was to commemorate that milestone and also to be used in materials promoting the city’s 90-year anniversary — something else Cason has used in his own campaign materials.

My understanding was that these photos served two purposes — memorialize Vice Mayor Kerdyk’s 20 years of service to the city of Coral Gables and also propaganda photos for the 90-year celebration,” Lago told Ladra in a text message Sunday.

“I was under no impression that the photos would be used as an endorsement of the mayor,” he said.

Keon told me she, too, was surprised. Especially since she had intentionally told both Cason, Cabrera — who ran her first commission campaign — and the commission candidates that she was not endorsing anyone.

“I haven’t supported any candidate. I haven’t gone to any events,” Keon said. “I intentionally stayed out of it because I’m on the canvassing board and I need to remain neutral.

“Whoever the people elect to office, I am willing to respect and work with that person. Our clients are the people who live in the city of Coral Gables. Whoever the people choose to elect, is whoever I will serve with.”

If she had known the photo would have been used for his campaign? “I would have stayed out of it,” Keon said.

But Cason wants it to look like she chooses him. And nobody should be too surprised. Jim Cason’s entire campaign has been based on mistruths and misdirection all along:

Cason plays with crime statistics, selectively omitting auto and business burglaries or even thefts when the door is left open to make it look like there is no problem.
Cason repeatedly and almost giddily misquotes Cabrera from a long-ago commission meeting where the commissioner, very obviously frustrated, used something we all can recognize as sarcasm to get his point across on when they would do something about pension reform. Even Cason can recognize it as sarcasm. But he is presenting it verbatim because it is convenient.
Cason admitted in a Miami Herald story that those 5,100 events he brags about going to in four years as mayor on behalf of his constituency include city commission meetings and even meetings with his secretary and his campaign manager, of all people.
Cason sent out, through his PAC, a mailer that looks like it’s come from the city with a long list of initiatives and projects that he is mistakenly taking credit for, even though they were started or even, in some cases, finished before he was elected four years ago.
Cason promises sidewalk repairs to voters as his volunteers knock door to door in his re-election effort.

Let’s add this ad to the list of things we must report to Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics Director Joe Centorino, who got a complaint Friday from Cabrera about the smooth-sidewalks-for-votes scam. Not to give you another one, Joe, but certainly this photo was taken by a city photographer or someone hired by the city for the purposes that Lago and Keon stated. How come it can be used by the mayor in his campaign propaganda?

This isn’t even the first photograph that Ladra suspects the mayor has used out of context. Cason posted a picture on Facebook of himself with Congress Members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, saying that the two had endorsed his campaign.

The photo was very obviously taken at some other occasion and Jorge de Cardenas, Cason’s campaign manager, told Ladra he didn’t have anything in writing from them. Ros-Lehtinen’s office never returned a call to say whether or not she had given a city mayor her nod. But how much you wanna bet they have not gotten involved? Even though the Facebook message is allegedly written by them.

All this because Cason lacks a track record of his own to run on. And he’s getting desperate.

In fact, Ladra would not be surprised if this thumbs up picture disguised as an endorsement lands in mailboxes Monday.

Lago and Keon are being weak. They are likely seething inside about this but they should tell voters immediately that they never gave Cason permission to use this photo as an endorsement or campaign piece of any kind.

Hundreds if not thousands of voters saw that ad on Sunday. Hundreds more might get it in the mail. They are being misled. They are being swindled.

Lago and Keon were elected by those very same voters to represent their best interest. Don’t let them be fooled by a disingenuous mayor who can’t win this election fair and square. You owe it to the people to set the record straight.

Otherwise, you are just as misleading as the mayor is.

Hopefully, the voters will show you on Tuesday that they are not as tolerant of mistruths as you are.

Jim Cason, Pat Keon, Ralph Cabrera, Vince Lago

Jim Cason uses city pic out of context for campaign ad added by Ladra on April 13, 2015
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