Miami Beach: Levine and Wolfson on defense for shady PAC

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Two electeds in Miami Beach are scrambling to defend themselves after their shady political action committee — the one taking $100,000 checks from vendors and developers who work in the city — came under fire from the local media.

The latest salvo is a full page ad in the Miami Herald — the back page, which is the really expensive real estate — where Commissioner Jonah “Potty Mouth” Wolfson bashes veteran TV journalist Michael Putney, who had editorialized on the PAC both on his This Week in South Florida show at WPLG Local 10 and in the Miami Herald and who had Mayor Philip “The Fixer” Levine on the show shortly after to attempt a rebuttal.

Putney had questioned the ethics behind a PAC that had elected officials soliciting contributions from vendors, contractors and developers with interests in the city. They are either already providing services or building projects or they want to.

Read related story: Shady Miami Beach PAC costs — what for?

“Whether or not the city attorney says it’s illegal, it strikes me as unethical to go to city vendors who have contracts or want to have contracts and say to them, ‘Do you want to make a donation?’ How can they say no?” Putney asked Levine on his show a couple of weeks ago, using air quotes to make his point.

In an op-ed piece for the Herald, Putney wondered if a move by Wolfson to rescind a $15 million city grant to Mount Sinai Medical Center was punishment because the hospital did not donate to the PAC, which is called Relentless for Progress.

In Wednesday’s ad, Wolfson called Putney unprofessional. He said Putney was the “sleazy” one and that the revered newsman had a conflict of interest because his co-host, Glenna Milberg, is married to an executive at Mount Sinai. It infers that is the only reason why Putney touched the issue.

Oh, puh-leeze!

Putney got the idea for his editorial on the subject from Political Cortadito, which was the first to expose the fact that the PAC is ridden with conflict of interests and smells like a quid pro quo about to happen. Maybe Michael should have given Ladra credit to deflect some of this attack he’s getting right now. Ladra — who Levine called a “political assassin” and barred from his campaign events two years ago — would have loved to see Potty Mouth in a full page ad bashing her. Where’s the love, boys?

Read related story: Ethics Commission looks into shady Miami Beach PAC shakedown

So, in the hopes that Relentless for Progress, the PAC that has collected $1.3 million so far will spend some of that vendor/developer money attacking little ol’ Ladra, here are just a few reasons why the multiple and trying-too-hard arguments in the PAC’s defense are ridiculously hollow:

• Wolfson and Levine say the PAC’s mission is to support the candidates they want to see elected to the city commission. Problem there — besides the fact that the mayor wants a slate he can control — is that none of the PAC ads so far are for those candidates. The two slick (read: expensive) TV ads feature Levine walking around the “new Miami Beach” touting all the wonderful things that he is now taking credit for, like flood mitigation. A mailer from Wolfson that arrived weeks ago to voters’ home made no mention of any of the candidates in the upcoming races but was more of a self-promotional piece telling voters that good ol’ Jonah was going to stay involved and keep taking care of them. Even Wednesday’s full page ad on the back page — the priciest of newspaper real estate — is curiously not about the three candidates they are going to be supporting, which, contrary to Levine’s lies on Putney, have already been determined (read: hand-picked).
• In his Herald ad, Wolfson says that Putney doesn’t have a problem with other PACs that collect contributions from interested parties. He cited Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s PAC, which does get donations from many companies doing business with the county. But, number one, that is harder to avoid at the countywide level — where, by the way, there is no ordinance prohibiting donations to candidates from business entities with interests or contracts at the county, like there is on the Beach — and, number two, not one single check to the Miami Dade Residents First PAC is for $100,000, although Ladra knows that would just make Brian Goldmeier‘s day. The largest checks are two written for $20,000, whereas five checks in the Relentless For Progress PAC — whose acronym is the same as the “request for proposals” that municipalities put out to vendors and developers — are for $100K. One contribution from a real estate investment firm is for $118,000 — which is practically unheard of for a municipal election PAC.
• Wolfson wrote in a July op-ed in the Herald that Commissioner Deede Weithorn — who was the one that first raised questions about the PAC at a public meeting — was trying to silence and intimidate donors. Instead, she was actually trying to protect the contributors by making it more difficult for Levine and Wolfson to secretly call them and shake them down for donations.
• In his TV attempt at a rebuttal, Levine said part of the reason to start the PAC was to defend candidate Ricky Arriola from some attack ad that Ladra has not seen (even though in the same breath he said he had not decided who he would support yet). But we haven’t seen Relentless for Progress do any ads for Arriola yet. And, another one of the candidates, John Elizabeth Aleman, sent out a mass email that said it was paid for by her own campaign fund.
• Levine told Putney that 80 percent of the contributors were city residents who love what is being done in the city. That doesn’t take away the fact that they are still interested parties who have business before the very people they gave $100,000 to.

Wolfson had to do something because Mayor Levine failed miserably to rebut Putney when he went on the Sunday morning show a couple of weeks ago. He dodged questions, bobbing and weaving like a professional boxer. He stroked Putney’s ego — comparing him to Walter Cronkite twice (“…but you’re younger”… I almost gagged on my toast) — and deflected the issue over and over again, throwing attention to other PACs — for Gimenez, for Raquel Regalado, for Sen. Marco Rubio, even.

He even told Putney he would stand with him to make legislative changes that would require electeds to disclose what PACs they raise funds for.

Read related story: Miami Beach PAC seems to cast wider net than city race

But the most interesting part of that show was something some people may have missed. Please go back and watch the video again so you can see how Levine, at one point, called the commissioner Mayor Wolfson by mistake. Wink, wink, nod.

Because that’s the plan, isn’t it? According to multiple malas lenguas. Levine will win this election — especially since he has nobody challenging his overly self-agrandizing acts — and then run for something else next year, Miami-Dade Mayor or even state senate maybe, since his friend, Hillary Clinton, will likely top the ticket. That will leave the post open for a special election … and guess who is going to get Levine’s blessing and endorsement? Commissioner Wolfson. (Update: Ladra has since learned that the city commission could appoint an interim mayor until the next election, which is better for Wolfson and worse for the rest of us).

Because that’s what the PAC is really all about, people. It’s the offspring of an unholy alliance born in 2013 when Wolfson — who is termed out this year — was promised the city attorney’s job or the mayor’s post or something for his trouble. Wolfson must first prove his worth by raising funds to get the mayor’s hand-picked slate elected.

And that’s why he’s so defensive. He’s got a job on the line.

  Jonah Wolfson, Philip Levine