Commissioner Pat Keon has drawn first blood in the mayoral race with a dark money attack mailer against Vice Mayor Vince Lago that calls him “a rubber stamp for big developers.”
It’s almost laughable, because Keon is the development darling in the race. Lago has consistently been the lone no vote on several controversial developments — he voted against the Agave project and Gables Station — as well as the sole voice of reason on the Miracle Mile rezoning.
But Ladra said almost. Nobody is really laughing. Because it’s all lies and it’s tied to a mysterious political action committee so that Keon can hide who is funding her smear campaign.
“I haven’t seen it and don’t know anything about it,” Keon texted Ladra after not answering her phone Saturday.
So it’s just a coincidence that the PAC has the same chairman and treasurer and the same Fort Lauderdale address as the PAC she’s registered to raise funds for? Please. Nobody is going to buy that.
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The super negative piece — it has an image of Lago “in the pocket of developers” and construction equipment pushing piles of cash — is paid for by Floridians Against Career Politicians, a PAC formed last Fall by partners Jason Haber and Jason Blank, two low-level Broward political operatives who moonlight as personal injury attorneys. The Jasons are also the chairman and treasurer, respectively, of the PAC that Keon did publicly register to lobby for.
Who knew there was so much interest in Coral Gables way over in Broward?
Haber and Blank’s business is running and managing several dark money PACs, used by politicians who want to take contributions from special interests and less than honorable sources and hide it from the public. And they take a cut.
Haber, the chairman, and Blank, the treasurer, are professional PAC men. They are chair and treasurer of 29 and 59 active political action committees, respectively, according to the Florida Division of Elections database. This is just one of them. The Floridians Against Career Politicians has raised $256,000 since September — but it’s also spent it all. So we’ll have to wait until next month to see how they paid for this mailer.
According to documents filed with the city, Keon registered to seek contributions to another one of the Jasons’ PACs, South Florida Accountability Project, which has collected $56,000 since the beginning of the year, including — ironically — $5,000 from Biltmore Parc Homes, a development of 32 condos on Valencia Avenue, $6,000 from lobbyist and general government grifter Ralph Garcia-Toledo and $17,500 from another PAC, Direct Action Fund, which has collected almost $400,000 since September, including $110K from a real estate investment firm and $165K from Florida Prosperity Fund, another PAC funded by HCA, the single largest for-profit healthcare provider founded by Sen. Rick Scott, Big Sugar and energy interests.
And round and round we go.
“It’s shameful,” Lago said on Friday. “We took a pledge of civility for the Chamber in yesterday’s debate, and today this comes out.
“All I’ve been is a gentleman. I have based my campaign on the issues and what is in the best interest of our community, which we are blessed to serve,” Lago told Ladra. “Pat Keon lacks the legitimacy or the backbone to make this a clean campaign.”
Read related: Secretly funded PAC attacks Ralph Cabrera with mystery mailers, lies
Who can blame her? She really has no choice but to shun transparency and allow dark money to attack the frontrunner for her. Lago is definitely leading and she has to confuse voters if she has a prayer.
These dark money PACs are becoming a staple in the Gables elections. Two years ago, Commissioner Jorge Fors attacked former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera with a secret mystery PAC.
Candidates resort to this type of dark money when they want, or need to hide the source of their contributions. Otherwise why pay some Broward flunkies anywhere between 5 and 10 percent? Haber and Blank don’t do this for free. By managing dozens of PACs, they can switch donors from one to the other and hide the true source of any candidate’s funding. We would have to search through all the PACs to find it?
So who is paying for the attack mailer?
The first suspect is developer Stephen Bittel, the former Florida Democratic Party chairman who was forced to resign after reports that he spoke in very demeaning terms to women. His development company wants to build a 9-story boutique hotel on Miracle Mile and Vince Lago is not going to let him. Keon has been pushing for upzoning on the Mile on Bittel’s behalf. And even though the commission passed a four-story limit last week, perhaps a new commission with a new mayor can change that — or make an exception.
Read related: What’s the rush? Residents urge Coral Gables leaders to listen, slow upzoning
“Steve Bittel has an axe to grind because I wasn’t in favor of approving a nine-story building on the corner of Miracle Mile and Ponce,” Lago told Ladra. Does he have some construction and development money in his campaign? Sure, but that’s just because Lago is going to win.
And unlike Keon, Lago registered to raise funds for Gables First, the PAC used for years by his consultant, Jorge de Cardenas.
How can voters believe anything Keon says about transparency when she goes to such lengths to hide the source of her campaign funding?
No, they can’t.
Pat Keon hits Vince Lago with dark money lies in Coral Gables mayoral race added by Ladra on
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