Miami-Dade firefighter and congressional candidate Omar Blanco filed a lawsuit against his opponent this week and the Florida Supervisor of Elections, arguing that Mayor Carlos Gimenez failed to qualify because of a typo on his bank account check. He wants to get Gimenez off the August ballot.
It takes some gumption: Gimenez is Blanco’s boss.
The campaign check blunder was first disclosed on this very blog earlier this week, with a photo of the check that says it is drawn from an account 
called “Carlos Giminez for Congress.” The candidate’s name is not Giminez. State law says the candidate — who is Carlos Gimenez — must submit “a properly executed check drawn on the candidate’s campaign account…” in order to qualify.
“Carlos Gimenez failed to submit his qualification fee as specified,” the lawsuit states. “The check that was tendered to the Division of Elections on its face does not bear the name of the candidate Carlos Gimenez, it bears the name ‘Carlos Giminez.’
“The Statute expressly requires that the candidate submit a check bearing the candidate’s name and drawn on the candidate’s 
campaign account to pay for filing fees. In the instant case, the check that was tendered to the Division of Elections does not bear the candidate’s name. The actual candidate whose name the Bureau of Election placed on the ‘active candidate list,’ Carlos Gimenez, failed to tender a check bearing the candidate’s name that is drawn on the candidate’s campaign account, in order to provide a qualifying filing fee payment to the filing officer as required under the Statute.”
“It stands to reason that the legislative intent of these prequalification requirements was to ensure the transparency of the election process and to provide certainty as to the identity of the individual to be considered for election,” reads the lawsuit, filed Wednesday by attorney Luis Navarro for Blanco.
“This is a matter of significant implication as it pertains to one of the cornerstones of our democracy – the election process. There is only one discrete issue in this case: whether an individual must be precluded from entering into an election contest for failing to adhere to the requirements of the qualifying statute. To be certain, this is a non-partisan issue, the outcome of which could have far-reaching implications on the electorate process throughout the State of Florida.
The strict reading of the Statute at issue and the reasonable interpretation thereof, would require that any candidate seeking to qualify must present the necessary qualifying documents and payments in that candidate’s name. Moreover, the Statute requires that the campaign account also reflect the name of the candidate themselves. It stands to reason that the legislative intent of these prequalification requirements was to ensure the transparency of the election process and to provide certainty as to the identity of the individual to be considered for election.
In the instant case the potential candidate failed to submit the proper items under the Statute and further declined to mitigate that failure even after receiving notice thereof. This action is for a declaration that the consequence of those failures is a declination of qualification.
It is essential that our election process remain as consistent and structured as possible so that it may continue to be heralded as one in which the outcome is based purely on the will of the electorate.”
Former State Rep. JC Planas, who has become an attorney for political candidates, told Ladra earlier this week that the court would not base a disqualification on what he called a “scribner’s error” and that Blanco was grasping at straws. Frankly, Ladra is looking forward to a battle between the most corrupt and back talking mayor who has bungled the county’s COVID19 response and a firefighter who is on the frontlines, taking risks to help residents get the medical attention and resources they need.
Gimenez is already the presumed winner. But Blanco is used to being a long shot. He calls himself David to the mayor’s Goliath. And it’s not the first time he’s gone up against Gimenez — and won. In 2014, as president of the Miami-Dade Firefighters union, Blanco organized protests and a grass roots community campaign against the “rolling brown-outs ” that Gimenez planned for fire stations to make up for a budget shortfall. The brown-outs stopped and no firefighter/paramedic layoffs.
“It isn’t going to change my campaign. But you have to dot your Is and cross your Ts in this process and we have to protect the process,” Blanco told Ladra. “To do anything less and not address it would be irresponsible.
“We have to make sure we get a ruling from a judge. Let’s gets it out of the way now,” Blanco said.
In other words, he doesn’t want to lose the August primary and have Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democrat 
incumbent one of them would have to face in November, be the one who disqualifies Gimenez afterwards.
Besides, there’s a chance they could prevail. What if the account is also in the wrong name? And the lawsuit specifically refers to the campaign staff knowing about the error in early April and not taking any steps to correct it. Would that be a valid reason?
“Upon information and belief Carlos Gimenez, through his campaign representatives, admitted to discovering the compliance failure of not submitting the proper payment as required prior to the end of the Qualifying period, but knowingly refused to correct the failure before the end of the Qualifying Period. Consequently, the payment required for Carlos Gimenez to qualify for election to the office of United States Representatives was never submitted.”
But Gimenez campaign spokeswoman Nicole Rapanos said that while the campaign saw the error in mid April — the check was submitted April 17 — and ordered replacement checks, the check that was presented was accepted by the state. Qualifying ended at noon on April 24. The new checks with the right name may not have arrived. Or they may not have really noticed until Ladra called them and pointed it out. Or they decided there was no reason to replace the bad check with a good one if it had been accepted by the Division of Elections.
Perhaps we will find out now that it’s a legal preceding when they knew and what they did or didn’t do about it. If nothing else, the mayor is guilty of negligence and nonfeasance, and it wouldn’t be the first time. In 2016, he had to submit a replacement check for the mayoral race after the check he provided first was deemed invalid because it had 2015’s date on it. The county elections department stayed open until 11 p.m., hours after the qualifying deadline, to allow Gimenez to fix the error.
Maybe Blanco’s attorney will argue that this is a pattern with Gimenez.
At the very least, he’s a slow learner.
Congressional candidate Omar Blanco sues to get Carlos Gimenez off the ballot added by Ladra on
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