How pervasive are campaign shenanigans in South Florida? A 
former Miami mayoral candidate who we never heard of before and who never stood a chance of being elected pled guilty Thursday to three counts of violating state campaign finance laws.
Jeffrey Benjamin, who lost big to Mayor Tomás Regalado in 2013, was sentenced to a year’s probation and 50 hours of community service. He must also pay restitution to campaign vendors who were stiffed and $1,000 each to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.
Wait… who? Ladra thought that Regalado won that without opposition once Commissioner Francis Suarez dropped out due to a chain of embarrassments. Turns out he had three nobody opponents.
Read related story: Beleaguered Francis Suarez drops out of Miami mayoral race
Well, we should just call Benjamin “El Ejemplo.” Because he is certainly not the worst campaign offender we have around.
The misdemeanor charges center around the candidate’s fake campaign account. He filed paperwork stating that he opened an account at Bank of America, but he had not. Lying on that form is a violation of Florida election laws. He was doing his business via Paypal and told investigators that he didn’t follow the instructions about opening an account and reporting all expenses because it was “a pain in the butt.”
He also had a mobile electronic billboard and he had 10,000 palm cards printed without the funds to pay for either.
But Ladra is not sure what is the biggest crime here: That this nobody infeliz was able to dupe a couple of vendors that should have asked for a deposit — Ladra almost feels like they should have known better — or that state investigators spent a year looking into this bullshit. It is such piddly crap, that adjudication of the charges will be withheld if Benjamin complies with the terms of his plea agreement. The proverbial slap on the wrist.
“No candidate can ever be cavalier about skirting Florida’s campaign finance laws,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in a statement and you have to stop yourself from laughing. “Let there be no mistake about it, to violate those laws is a crime. A serious candidate will always take all of our laws seriously.”
Key words: “Serious candidate.” Benjamin never was. 
He never even came close to unseating Regalado. He lost by 68 points. Sixty-eight! He didn’t even get 10 percent of the vote. Why are we wasting our time with this bozo when there are several elected officials in office right now who have been caught with their hand in the absentee ballot cookie jar.
You know who were serious candidates? Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Commissioner Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, who basically got away with absentee ballot fraud in 2012.
“Election laws exist for the purpose of protecting the public from this type of activity,” said Ethics Commission Executive Director Joseph Centorino.
“Any candidate who intentionally ignores the requirements for managing a political campaign has no business being a candidate – never mind an elected official,” Centorino added.
Then how is it that this Benjamin nobody gets a year-long investigation and other electeds who actually win and hold office get a free pass or are allowed to wait it out until the statute of limitations is reached?
SAO scores campaign plot plea deal — with a political nobody added by Ladra on
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LMAO! Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Joseph Centorino taking a “stand” against corrupt elected officials! Go ahed Katherine, tell the peanut gallery how you withheld former North Miami Beach Mayor Myron Rosner’s investigation to cover up the fact YOUR campaign manager Al Lorenzo was paying boleteras to get you and Carlos Gimenez elected! Tell them how you and your lap dogs Jose Arrojo and Howard Rosen concocted a plan along with ASA Tim Van der Geesen to provide Ana Mari Pedrosa immunity from prosecution so you could protect the entire absentee ballot operation and save Commissioner Esteban Bovo from going to prison for stashing hundreds of ballots in his county commission district office! Tell them how you promoted van der Geesen as head of the State Attorney’s Corruption Prevention Unit for doing the dirty work for you! And of course “Let ”me go”Joe Centorino! Tell us Joe did you ever meet a corrupt public official you really wanted to put in jail? You are both corrupt and rotten to the core! Both the SAO and the Ethics Commission are only in existence to give get out of jail cards to the corrupt lobbyists, consultants and contractors who fill your campaign coffers with dirty money! Shame on both of you! If we had a worthwhile justice system in this state maybe both of you would be in prison already! Choke on your own nastiness! You will someday pay for all your crimes in front of almighty!
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! Kathy & Joe have GOT TO GO! As long as they’re in office, corruption will go unpunished in Dade. A more enlightened electorate would never have let her stay at SAO for nearly 20 years now. What a joke she is. When I recall one of the sorriest, most corrupt mayors in recent time — ex-North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre — and the fact that Rundle NEVER busted him in all the time he was mayor…it confirms what a joke she is.
If Lady Justice wears a blindfold, it’s so she doesn’t have to witness what Kathy & Joe do in the name of “justice.” She ought to also wear a clothespin on her nose to block out the stench of corruption which their indifference has helped spread.
Next time Herr Benjamin should get some contribution checks from the Dominican Republic.
I wonder how many downsized Miami herald reporters/writers have been hired by joe centorino at “Miami dade commission on ethics and public trust.” small wonder the public has been left in the dark re the toothlessness of this money pit.
Gee. Was David Rivera a serious candidate? Will he EVER be charged with a crime?
Too bad he doesn’t have an autistic child, then he would have had no charges at all. Add in a lost 40,000 and that would qualify him to run for Mayor. Way to go Kathy,