Desperation surges with tide of ABs in Miami Beach elections

Absentee ballots dropped in Miami Beach this week and that means that the temperature has gone up in the four races that could effectively put a new majority on the city commission.

The candidates know this. And Mayor Philip Levine and his slate of pocket rubber stampers have been desperately trying to cling on to any last chance they might have of being elected.

Levine’s numbers — already bad for an incumbent at 53% — continue to slip, according to sources Ladra believes. He’s been hit with his fair share of scandals in the weeks leading to this election: First the scandalous shady PAC where he shook vendors and developers down for donations, then the Rebecca Towers redevelopment plan pushed by his campaign consultant and then the continued flooding — oh, but only in areas where he doesn’t own property. The flooding had not yet materialized during the first poll.

No wonder he has taken to moving around illegal banner signs on 41st Street. He’s that desperate. He knows that this whole election has turned into a referendum on him and his job as mayor. Nobody will be really voting for attorney David Wieder. They will be voting against Mayor Levine.

The mayor also sent out a mailer — a whole mailer — saying that he never said he fixed the flooding. He sounds like a second grader caught in a lie. Nah-uh. I did not.

His campaign videos sure suggest he fixed the flooding. “The streets are drier, all because a mayor cared enough to fight back,” one says. And in the Relentless for Progress TV ad, he says “streets that were once flooded are now dry.”

Then the King Tide came and showed what a liar he is. Now, Levine is being more, um, specific.

“Miami Beach never declared victory over our flooding problem,” the mail piece says, and it is telling of how desperate he is and how much this has hurt his credibility that the whole mailer is about flooding. “We are still in the early phases of a five to 7-year plan.”

The mailer comes with a before-and-after picture of Alton Road and 10th, where the flooding has been fixed. What it doesn’t say is that Levine’s office building is on that corner. In fact, what it doesn’t say is that at least two of his properties are adjacent to the first flooding fixes. Wonder if that’s a coincidence.

But the mayor is not the only one gasping for air and grasping at straws. His minion candidates are equally desperate in their final push for the coveted absentee ballots that began to arrive Wednesday.

Ricky Arriola, a candidate who said he will give up his lucrative call center contract with the city if elected, also put out a piece against Commissioner Deede Weithorn — even though he is running against her husband, Mark Weithorn for commission. In the mailer, Arriola claimed that Weithorn “never properly planned or invested in infrastructure to combat the flooding problem.”

Deede Weithorn posted her defense on Facebook: “Truth is that Ricky never showed an interest in being involved in our city until he landed his first contract to do business with city — thanks to his friends Jonah Wolfson and Mayor Levine.” In fact, she said, it was during her tenure that storm water improvements were added to the scope of neighborhood projects when she became chair of the finance committee.

“If Ricky hadn’t been so busy making money off of his city contract and had been paying attention, he would have known that,” she posted. “In fact, during my eight years of service, we completed more neighborhood projects than ever before. While Ricky credits Mayor Levine with creation of the storm water master plan, it was, however, initiated and funded during my leadership, long BEFORE Mayor Levine ever stepped foot on a dais.”

Stories in the Miami Herald, cited in a Random Pixels blog post, show that the city had been dealing with flooding and sea level rise since at least 2011, two years before Levine ran for mayor. Former Mayor Matti Bower had to set the record straight in a letter to the editor. The fixes that Levine likes to take credit for were put in motion long before he arrived at City Hall.

It’s a shame that Arriola tied himself to that sinking Levine ship because he might have won otherwise.

You could almost say the same thing for John Elizabeth Aleman, another one of the mayor’s picks, has tried to paint her opponent Mark Samuelian as a “recent arrival” — which smacks of carpetbagger — and Republican in a nonpartisan race that just happens to be in a Democratic stronghold. She might have made a fine candidate — except now she’s gotten caught up in consultant David Custin’s questionable campaigning methods.

For example, Aleman knew very well that Mark Samuelian is registered to vote here in Florida and not in New York because, otherwise, he would not have qualified. Even if he only registered in 2013, he still is a registered voter here. For her to imply otherwise when she knew the truth might be an ethics violation.

You can also bet she knows that her husband, JB Aleman, is on the Jeb Bush campaign leadership committee. Um, you can’t get more Republican than that, Mrs. Aleman. Say hi to Jeb for us when you see him. That’s not just opportunistic of her, it’s hypocritical.

Then she attacked an organization that Samuelian belongs to and that endorsed his candidacy. Aleman sent a piece quoting Commissioner Michael Grieco about a request for a $20,000 grant (among the many given) from the Alton Road Business Association (there may be more on that later).

The Alton Road Business Association took issue with her, through Grieco, claiming that they had taken money from the city and referring some statement to Samuelian when it was another member who had said it, and even though it was taken out of context.

“As President of the Alton Road Business Association (ARBA), I have been apprised of a campaign mailer where you in essence attacked my organization by suggesting our priorities conflict with the interests of the city. That’s absurd,” wrote Michael Gorey. The organization should be applauded and not condemned by your campaign.

“I ask that as a potential City leader you put aside your ‘win at all costs’ approach and think about the damage you are doing to individuals and organizations trying to help our community. It is disturbing to know that you did not stand up to your advisors and signed off on these lies,” Gorey wrote.

Still. Think about the obscurity of this group and it’s March 2014 request and you realize Aleman had to go deep to find something she could mischaracterize. Her entire campaign has been about discrediting her opponent.

Kristen Rosen Gonzalez is the only one who hasn’t been outright attacked by the Levine plant in that race, Betsy Perez. At least not that I can tell. Maybe it’s because Perez doesn’t want anyone to attack her back, and let people know that her husband’s company made $200,000 off the city’s centennial celebration. See? Rosen Gonzalez is the only one who is really fighting back — publicly.

Rosen Gonzalez was quick to respond to the Rebecca Towers issue and the desperate cover up that followed Political Cortadito’s disclosure of that plan. She produced a piece that detailed when and how much Levine’s consultant, David Custin, was paid for “redevelopment and city approval of Miami Beach marina and Rebecca Towers.” She even brought up the Chinese investors who were reportedly sniffing around the project.

Perez and Custin may be afraid of someone so willing to tell the truth.

She has since stayed on the defensive, positioning herself as the anti-Levine candidate, which is smart in this climate.

“Yesterday, my opponent, Betsy Perez, accused me of knowing David Custin. Of course I know Custin. He’s a big time lobbyist here on Miami Beach and in Tallahassee,” Rosen Gonzalez said in an email this week. And then, dammit, she coined a new term I wish I had thought of.

“When you take a look at what Levine, Wolfson, and Custin have done, you come to only one conclusion. It’s ever more dis-Custin than I told you.”

Dis-Custin! That is fantastic!

Them there are fightin’ words and Ladra believes Rosen Gonzalez, by staying anti-Levine and anti-Custin, could win outright on Nov. 2 without having to go into a runoff.

Which, naturally, is part of what makes Levine and friends so desperate.

Miami Beach politics, Philip Levine

Desperation surges with tide of ABs in Miami Beach elections added by Ladra on October 16, 2015
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