Remember the ghost candidate that ran in the state senate race in 2020 and ruined it for former Democrat Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, rigging the election that unseated him and ushered Republican Ileana Garcia into office? Well, we may have more of those this year.
Ladra thinks she may have found a spoiler candidate running for Miami-Dade County Commission: Claudia Rainville, who qualified at almost the last minute to run in District 11 against the appointed incumbent commissioner, Roberto Gonzalez, and high school teacher Bryan Paz-Hernandez, who has been campaigning since February and was once president of the West Dade Democratic Club, but is running now as an NPA.
Rainville, 47, is registered Republican, like Gonzalez, and is an elementary teacher at Lincoln Marti Schools. That’s a GOP hub, but Rainville herself has not been politically active. Ever. She has almost no digital footprint. Try googling her. She has zero financial support. She began qualifying for the office on June 6 and delivered her qualifying check on the last day.
But the biggest clue: Her husband is an officer with Miami-Dade Police, whose union has already decided to endorse all the incumbent commissioners, including Gonzalez, Police Benevolent Association President Steadman Stahl told Ladra. Gonzalez is tight with the police union.
Read related: Miami-Dade District 11 candidates have vast contrast in campaign contributions
What are the chances that the wife of a county cop, a teacher who has never been active politically, is going to run against her husband’s union and one of his bosses? At least Rainville seems to live in the district.
In her financial disclosure, she says she is co-owner of two homes, one valued at $848,000 and another at $780,000, but Ladra couldn’t find the address listed in her qualifying documents on the county’s property appraiser’s website, probably because her husband is a cop and their addresses are protected. Rainville also lists her net worth as $1.6 million, which seems like a lot for a teacher and a cop. Especially if she really only makes $2,360 a year as a teacher at Lincoln Marti, as. That could be a typo.
Of course, Rainville denied being a plantidate.
“I have my own way of thinking and nobody has influenced me,” she told Ladra Wednesday evening. She wouldn’t say whether she was a Democrat or a Republican. “I cannot say that, I’m sorry,” she said. But the county elections department confirmed she registered as a Republican in 2010.
Rainville also would not say what she didn’t like about the incumbent commissioner. “I can’t talk about that either.”
She seems ill-equipped for the campaign, let alone the job, couldn’t come up with a single issue for her platform — and couldn’t be more vague.
“I’m running because I want to change my community. I want to do a lot of changes. I want to help people in need,” Rainville said. Pressed for more details, she said she wanted to “manage our budget in a wiser way, with audits and cut programs.” She added transportation and education to the issues that are important to her, like someone gave her a list of talking points.
“We need someone to take care of our taxes. I have a lot of issues and you can hear about them tomorrow,” she said, trying to get off the phone.
Rainville has confirmed her participation Thursday night at the first of many forums sponsored by the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations. Or had before Ladra called her (Sorry, Michael).
By the way, it’s not illegal — unless there is an exchange of money — to run a sham candidate in a race, a plantidate to syphon votes from someone else. In this nonpartisan race, it would likely be to syphon votes from Paz-Hernandez. Gonzalez a failed state house candidate who has never won a race (remember, he was appointed after Commissioner Joe Martinez was arrested on public corruption charges), and whose campaign consultant is David “Disgustin” Custin, would benefit from avoiding a head-to-head with the hard-working Paz-Hernandez in August, and go to a runoff in November, when Trump is on the ballot.
But plantidates are illegal only if there’s a payment involved.
That was the case with Alex Rodriguez, an NPA who admitted to being a fake candidate in the 2020 state senate race, planted by former Republican Sen. Frank Artiles to syphon votes from Rodriguez, who had the same last name, and help the GOP candidate, Ileana Garcia, win. In exchange for about $55,000, Alex Rodriguez got more than 6,000 votes and J-Rod lost by less than 100 votes. Of course it made a difference.
Alex Rodriguez and Artiles were both arrested and charged with false swearing in an election, making or receiving two illegal campaign contributions over the legal limit and conspiracy to receive two illegal contributions.
Read related: Frank Artiles arrested for sham state senate election — but was he alone?
Those of us who have been watching and following local elections for a while have learned to identify plantidates.
WPLG Local 10’s Glenna Milberg reported on one in a state house race this year that was first identified by New Times writers Alex DeLuca and Naomi Feinstein.
Maureen Saunders Scott — who will be on the ballot as “Moe Saunders” — filed days before the deadline as a no-party candidate in the District 106 race in Miami Beach against incumbent State Rep. Fabian Basabe and, drum roll please, former State Rep. Joe Saunders, the Senior Political Director of Equality Florida. He is her nephew and she lives near Jacksonville, almost 400 miles away, Milberg reported this week.
Is a new ghost candidate running for Miami-Dade commission in District 11? added by Ladra on
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