In House 114 race, Andrew Vargas won’t speak for himself, lets PACs attack

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Andrew Vargas, the Republican candidate in the special election for House 114 to replace Daisy Baez, hasn’t confirmed to an invitation to the first debate for the seat, held by the League of Women Voters this coming Tuesday.

He won’t. He can’t. Because it is much easier for Vargas to attack Democrat Javier Fernandez with fake voter letters and a secret political action committee that doesn’t file required financial reports than it is to discuss the issues, which would show what an empty suit he is and expose him as the proxy for his business partner and puppeteer, U.S. Ambassador and former State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.

When Ladra called Vargas to ask why he hadn’t confirmed, he hemmed and hawed. “I have an event in the Gables the 19th,” he finally said. “Wait. Is it the 19th?” No, it’s the 17th, I corrected him. “Well, um, er, right now we’re doing the whole absentee ballot thing,” he said, adding that he would call me back later that evening, after 6 p.m.

Surprise, surprise. He didn’t. He wouldn’t. Don’t worry. Ladra didn’t expect him to. Just as we didn’t expect him to pick up the phone again when I called him again twice later (not now that he has me on caller ID). Just as I didn’t expect him to respond to the text I sent after he didn’t respond to the second phone call.

Nobody should expect him to call because Ladra had some difficult questions that he doesn’t want to answer, which is why he won’t go to the debate on Tuesday, which is really at least a couple of weeks late since absentee ballots were sent out last week and already 7,131 voters (or almost 30% of the ones that went out) have mailed them back in as of Friday. By Tuesday, it could be twice as many. Really. Ladra is not even sure Vargas will show up to the Miami Herald editorial board screening the next day (Sorry Nancy). Because (1) he thinks he doesn’t have to, (2) he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on and (3) he knows that Fernandez is going to Facebook Live the shit out of it, exposing his ignorance on the issues.

Also — its why he didn’t call me back or pick up subsequent phone calls — he doesn’t want to answer a bunch of uncomfortable questions:

• Why did you change seats? You were filed to run in District 119, where State Rep. Jeannette Nunez (R-Doral) is termed out this year. Makes sense. You have roots there. You wouldn’t have to move. Why did you switch?
• Will you run in HD 119 if you lose here?
• How long did you live in District 119?
• Do you live in District 114 now? How long have you lived there? Or do you plan to move there? This is especially important in this district because the last state rep lived a few blocks away in 112.
• Why did you change from a Democrat to Republican in 2016? Did Trujillo “suggest” it?
• Can you explain what it means to be the second most litigious attorney in the state when it comes to those sketchy “assignment of benefits” lawsuits against insurance companies? How many of those cases have you filed? And how does that affect rising insurance rates for everyone?
• How much do you  pay for your insurance?
• How much of your campaign contributions come from the insurance industry (including trial lawyers)
• Are these kind of opportunistic switches, underhanded tricks and lack of access or accountability what we can expect if you are, either by sheer miracle or absentee ballot fraud, actually elected?

Vargas isn’t going to answer these questions. Not to me and not at any debate. Ladra asks voters to ask him directly when they see him — if they see him anywhere in either 114 or 119 — but I expect he’ll smile and shrug his shoulders and back away slowly. This is the kind of guy que tira la piedra y esconde la mano. Or he has someone else do the dirty work for him.

The anonymous attacks on Fernandez, for example, are almost certainly coming from his campaign.

The fake voter testimonials and other attack mailers from a PAC called People for a Progressive Florida with no financial activity — which should be investigated because mailers do not get made and mailed for free — are the way that Vargas speaks. It’s really pretty obvious. Sure, the attacks are made to look like they benefit Liz de las Cuevas, the independent who has denied knowing anything about the mailers or the JaviLobby.com website that attacks the Dem candidate for his profession. De las Cuevas has no money in her own campaign account (actually, she is in the red, spending $345 more than the $5,165 she raised) and wouldn’t know what to do with that money if she had it). Most likely, these are sneaky attempts by the Vargas campaign (read: Trujillo) to suppress the Democrat vote and peel NPAs off Fernandez. It’s smart, considering that Baez snatched this seat from under the nose of the better funded Republican John Couriel after Erik Fresen was termed out. And this was before unnatural disaster known as the Donald Trump Presidency produced the prediction of a national blue wave.

Of course the GOP candidates are turning to every dirty tactic to regain this seat.

Because Vargas isn’t going to be Trujillo’s bitch exclusively. Sure, he’s a proxy for Trujillo, who is President Donald Trump‘s Cuban amigacho and is now U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, but, at the same time, doesn’t want to lose the sizeable palanca he’s built in the Sunshine State. But Vargas was also always a proxy for the Republican Party (read: incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva), even when he was running in the other seat just the other day.

He switched to 114 as soon a Baez was caught living outside the district and was publicly pressured to resign for having lied about it. In fact, dicen las malas lenguas that Trujillo may have executive produced that public pressure by calling on his Miami-Dade Republican Party friends to plan a series of picturesque picket protests in front of Baez’s District 112 house, custom made for video, that were covered by the local press (including yours truly). Why? Because it’s easier for this Pepe Cualquiera proxy to win a seat in a special low-turnout election (just add gobs of money).

Vargas has raised $416,000 between his campaign account and money spent by the PAC he is obviously connected with, which is Citizens for Accountable Government, which gets its money from other PACs that get a lot of their money from a lot of healthcare interests and Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, who also gave generously to Vargas. The money includes a $60K loan to himself, almost $80,000 in money and staff and research from the Republican Party of Florida, and small bundled donations from the Munilla brothers, who built the FIU bridge and other things all over the county, HCA Florida hospitals — yes, the one where former Gov. Rick Scott was CEO when they bilked millions from Medicare — Disney and a few others (like auto mogul Norman Braman).

But if you add up the ten or so mailers and the money spent by People for a Progressive Florida, you have… wait, you can’t add those expenses up because the secret PAC has not reported any contributions or expenses. Ladra doesn’t know how they managed to send so many mailers or host a website but DM me please and tell me what your secret is. Okay, if we estimate what that PAC has spent, it’s at least $200,000, conservatively. So that’s a total of $616,000 that we know of. So far.

Meanwhile, Fernandez, has about raised $141,524 in his campaign account with a few bundles of his own, including at least $22,000 from a group of construction and real estate companies or entities at the same six addresses in New York. His Florida Future PAC — which has launched a saynotovargas.com website, has collected another $33,725, about $30K of which is from the same NY construction and real estate firms.

But Ladra is certain of one thing: We will ask Mr. Fernandez about the interest of those New York donors and he will answer, because he has never avoided my calls and even returned a text once after 11:30 p.m. That’s the accessibility you want from your electeds, by the way, Mr. Vargas.

But we can wait until the debate Tuesday and ask Fernandez there. Because he will be there. So will de las Cuevas. The only one who can’t speak for himself is Vargas.

The Miami-Dade League of Women Voters will be taking questions in advance submitted to [email protected]. Questions may also be submitted in writing the evening of the forum before it begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17th (not the 19th, Mr. Vargas) at the Riviera Presbyterian Church, 5275 Sunset Drive.

  Andrew Vargas, House Seat 114, Javier Fernandez, PACs