Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine officially launched his re-election
campaign last week with an email to his supporters, bragging about all he has done, boasting that he’s cleaned up City Hall, and saying that he will again fund his own campaign.
I guess he forgot that the now defunct and still shady Relentless for Progress PAC already paid to produce and air at least two TV ads in recent weeks that prominently feature him walking about and talking about all the great things he’s done.
Oh, he probably means from now on he won’t take anybody’s money. Or any contributions over $100, anyway.
Read related story: Levine and Wolfson on defense for shady PAC
Just a few weeks ago, he was on Michael Putney’s This Week in South Florida show,
defending the PAC that got several $100,000 checks from contractors, vendors and developers with interests in city business and/or zoning because, hey, ‘everybody else does it’ and it was not illegal. He admitted to making calls himself to donors.
In Friday’s email, Levine — who loaned himself $250,000 and had no other contributions in his first campaign finance report — said “I will not accept PAC money, and I will not accept money from lobbyists, because the only actions I intend to take, the only decisions I intend to make, are going to be based on the magnitude of their impact on helping Miami Beach, not on the size of a check.”
He would have to return every single penny of the PAC money that has already been spent for that to be remotely true.
What changed? Public opinion, that’s what. Levine knows he hurt his credibility and his image with that shady PAC and his consorting with Commissioner Jonah “Potty Mouth” Wolfson. In fact, Ladra believes he may have done permanent damage to his political future — any opponent can raise the dirty money attack in the future — and that he will try desperately to distance himself from Wolfson in the lame duck commissioner’s final months.
Read related story: David Wieder challenges Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine
We’ve also heard that David Wieder, the attorney
who filed to run against Levine and who has served on the city’s historic preservation board, is an eloquent speaker who knows how to get to the truth of the matter. I can’t wait for the debates between the two.
Especially on what Levine called “huge advances on the five major goals we set out to accomplish at the end of 2013.” I fully expect Wieder to call the mayor’s bluff. Should be easy to show that his messages mean nada.
On street flooding, Levine said “we have a short term and long term plan to keep our streets dry.” What he didn’t say is that he short term plan was to do the street in front of his property first. Or that the new pumps may be polluting the waters.
On corruption, the mayor said “we’ve led by example, not government scandal.” Really? The shady PAC is a great example. So much so that your partner in crime had to shut it down.
On reforming city finances: “We’ve invested in excellence, not mediocrity.” Yeah, like one excellent birthday party that is said to have cost the city hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Ladra is still getting all the details (more on that later).
On customer service: “Now at City Hall, the people come first.” 
That is not what Ladra hears. People who supported the mayor can’t get a meeting or a returned phone call.
He also boasts of having united North Beach, Middle Beach and South Beach into one Miami Beach. Is he crazy? Those neighborhoods have branded themselves individually for years — like New York’s upper East and lower East sides — and he’s now going to just jam them all together in a blender like a margarita? Who said the people want that?
Ah, in the final graph you see it’s all part of his own master plan.
“Over the coming weeks and months, I will share with you my plans and vision for keeping us heading in the right direction, by offering solutions to our transportation system, our traffic, and our preservation of neighborhoods, while showing that as Miami Beach grows, we will grow smart.”
Maybe the Beach has grown smart about him.
Now challenged, Philip Levine also sheds shady PAC added by Ladra on
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Why David Wieder is running for Mayor of Miami Beach…
Why I am running for mayor of Miami Beach
September 11, 2015
We must bring ethics and integrity back to City Hall
For some time now I, along with many other disillusioned voters of our city, have viewed the goings on of my opponent and his cronies, including commissioner Jonah Wolfson, attack respected journalists, and utilize the office of the Mayor to intimidate people, vendors, and city contractors who do business with the city to the detriment of the citizens of Miami Beach. They have accumulated over $1.4 million to their PAC “Relentless for Progress” in furtherance of their malefactions in office.
They are tainted and must go.
After a vociferous public outcry, Mr. Wolfson has returned, as I understand, only one half of the money, shut down the PAC but already has used the rest to attack opponents in direct mailings and other methods in negative circulars and brochures. “Relentless for Progress,” it seems, is simply “Relentless for Profit.” Voters will not be fooled again by this transparent ruse.
As Chair of the Historic Preservation Board, I have been approached by a number of disheartened citizens decrying what has happened in city hall, how they were duped and how they did not believe how this could have happened so quickly. Ethics in government has vanished. Hypocrisy has become the order of the day, since now Commissioner Wolfson proposes an ordinance to prohibit such practices, preventing others from doing what he has done. Hubris is not even an apt description for such behavior.
Chutzpah is the order of the day for this group of avaricious gentlemen. Many people of good faith had supported these officials, and now many have been rudely awakened and disillusioned by the false promises of “Just get it done.” The question is done what, to whom, and at whose expense?
– David Wieder
The centennial was a vulgar uninspiring irrelevant affair, without any real sense of history or dignity. Not one child on Miami Beach will be able to recall it, or anybody else for that matter.
But Mayor Brand managed to sneak advertising onto the beach with his sunscreen dispensers!That was his tawdry contribution to keeping the Beach free from advertising one hundred years on.
This is the Mayor and his administration who allowed the gardens of the Community Church Carl Fisher built to be sold to a developer in Centennial year. Tri Star, a mega sleazy defunct pac contributor.
Why not give the struggling Community church the help it need to survive instead of that mediocre “Concert”?
Jesus threw the money changers out of the Temple
This Levine administration chose to ignore the fact that TriStar their partners in this crime had passed $500,000 over to bribe the Church members.
The whole sorry tale is further compounded by the irony that the case to deny Carl Fisher’s covenant not to build on the church grounds, one hundred years later , was argued by a cynical lawyer who said he was a member of that very congregation.
Mind boggling but for the fact that we have an ignorant and impervious Mayor who bought his position and doesn’t know better.
Progress of the type he wants for Miami Beach we can do without.
Vote for David Wieder.
I didn’t vote for Phillip Levine because my impression was that he is a narcissistic phony. My gut instincts rarely fail. I can’t wait for the day that he is voted out of office.
Many of us who supported Phil Levine are disappointed, angry, and disgusted by all that has transpired recently at City Hall. No one is unbeatable.
David Wieder for Mayor! Bring integrity back to City Hall.
I can’t name names because several have businesses that could suffer harassment from the Levine Wolfson Scott Robins Junta on Miami Beach but before Levine entered the Mayors Race a history celebration n book was in discussion that would not have cist the public a dime but Levine’s Junta scraped it for a meaningless expensive party n no history that cost the city money instead of generenerating money. I have no sympathy for the centimillionaire who instead of defending the fiscally responsible project abandoned it n ended up giving over 50 ooo dollars to the PAC no to get harassed
By code or planning. And Tobin n Weithorn were no hero’s either or several others now screwed by Levine Wolfson Scott Robins.