Philip Levine's camp blackmails challenger David Wieder

UPDATED: Mayoral candidate David Wieder has gone to the Miami Beach Police with documents he received anonymously that amount to blackmail in an effort to get him to drop out of the race.

Wieder told Ladra that someone had come by his office with an envelope with “For David Wieder’s eyes only” on the outside. Inside were documents that showed he had visited the Ashley Madison website for cheaters as well as a Facebook post on his son’s page that was a joke and a blog post he had written years ago about circumcision.

A note inside said that if Wieder continued on the campaign, these issues would be exposed.

All Ladra can say is that Mayor Philip Levine must be getting real nervous about the fact that he’s about to become a one-term politician. Or maybe his consultant David Custin is afraid he will lose the advantage for city contracts that he now has or stands to enlarge if his slate wins.

Wieder told Ladra he has nothing to be ashamed of and basically has pre-empted the blackmailer, whoever he or she is (read: David Custin), by outing the information himself at the Tuesday Breakfast Club meeting in South Beach.

“People were outraged,” Wieder told me. “I mean, how low can these people stoop to protect their interests?”

The answer to that is very low. We already know that Levine has no problem with extortion. He shook down developers and contractors for donations to buddy Jonah Wolfson‘s shady Relentless for Progress political action committee. Blackmail and extortion go hand in hand.

Police took Wieder’s fingerprints and those of his assistant, for elimination purposes, and are investigating where the envelope came from.

“Maybe they can find out who it came from,” Wieder said.

I’ll give you one guess. Because there is no other candidate in the race. Just Wieder against Levine. So it had to come from there. As if Levine needed another reason not to vote for him.

Reached by email, Custin said “It’s just another lie and false accusation. One of many lies.” When asked to expand on those many lies, he declined to answer.

In case anyone cares, Wieder signed up for the Ashley Madison site out of curiosity. He said it required a credit card, which automatically signed him up for three months. He said he never went on again and it was worth a few laughs.

He said his son is a novelist and screenwriter in California who wrote a book that was basically about his failed marriage, his relationship with his parents and his obsession with the size of his penis. Wieder wrote a post on his son’s page about how he had embarassed his mother and himself. It was sarcastic, he told me.

Ladra didn’t even care to hear about the circumcision post. For? Against? Who cares? This is not what he is going to be legislating about as mayor.

But the effort does show that Levine is desperate to hold on to his seat and is feeling the tide turn against him.

David Wieder, Philip Levine

Philip Levine’s camp blackmails challenger David Wieder added by Ladra on September 22, 2015
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