Dark money from unknown sources is once again influencing voters
Coral Gables commission candidate Ariel Fernandez — a well known activist and publisher of the Gables Insider website — is either a socialist or a Republican, depending on what party you identify with.
Democrat voters in the Gables got a text message Tuesday reminding them that Fernandez served as deputy district director for former Congressman David Rivera, listing Rivera’s sins from 2014 campaign finance violations through last year, when he was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent for Venezuela, stemming from his $50 million consulting contract with the country’s oil company to improve its image in the U.S.
Republican voters got a text message reminding them of his job with Rivera, too. But it only had the 2022 charges, which link Rivera to the socialist Venezuelan government this time.
Like Rivera never did anything bad before that.
“Who is the elephant in the Group 5 Coral Gables Commission race,” comes with a photo of an elephant, symbolizing the GOP. That’s pretty obvious. And, actually, attorney Alex Bucelo, who is also running in the open Group 5 race against Fernandez, is also a Republican. But pesky details don’t make for good hits.
And why is the image a cup of coffee for the socialist message? Are the beans rom the Venezuelan Andes?
“WE DON’T NEED A CORRUPT POLITICIAN REPRESENTING US ON THE CORAL GABLES COMMISSION! STOP ARIEL FERNANDEZ BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE,” says one of the messages, or yells it in all caps.
“It shows desperation,” Fernandez said. “Alex had commited to not going negative. We had a handshake and we were going to stick to the issues. “Our differences are striking when it comes to the issues.”
Bucelo is going to say he had nothing to do with this, of course. But the Getting PAC recently paid consultant Alex Miranda, who did work for newly-elected Miami-Dade Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, who endorsed Bucelo. Miranda got $8,500 for mail media consulting.
And Ladra thinks voters will see these in the mail soon, too. Why? Because they have disclaimers and we don’t get disclaimers on campaign texts.
Read related: Desperate Pat Keon attacks Vince Lago with more dark money in Coral Gables
The attacks are paid for by Getting Things Done, a political action committee out of Fort Lauderdale, run by Jason Blank, whose whole job is to run shady PACs. It’s existed since 2018 and Blank is very good at hiding where the funding really came from. Most of the contributions to Getting Things Done in the last few months are from other PACs.
Getting last got $10,000 from the Blank PC, which got $10,000 from the South Florida Accountability Project, another one of Blank’s PACs, which got $24,000 in February — $10,000 from Tampa beer tycoon and real estate investor Tom Pepin and $14,000 from New Jersey politics consultant Elnatan Rudolph, who practically invented political text messaging.
Blank was the source of attack ads two years ago against Mayor Vince Lago when he was challenged by former Commissioner Pat Keon.
But Lago endorsed and is helping Bucelo in the race, not Fernandez.
These dark money attacks do not do well in the Gables, where the posh people like to know who is giving them their information. Ladra does not expect these to go well.
But she also does not expect them to be the last of this kind of thing.
Coral Gables race gets ugly with separate texts for blue and red voters added by Ladra on
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[…] cool, Bucelo people. Prefieren pedir perdon que pedir permiso. They have done nothing but misinform and attempt to fool voters from Day 1. Bucelo is trying to distance himself by using a dark money political action committee […]
[…] Read related: Coral Gables race gets ugly with separate texts for blue and red voters […]
For heaven’s sake. No one in this race is a socialist. We are not in 1958 Cuba. These are people who have a different opinion on how our beautiful city is to be run. It is up to us the voters to swim through all the issues and get to the true nature of the candidates. Stop the cubanismo and the labeling of socialist or communist. It is 2023.
[…] vote for Fernandez. Unlike in 2021, when Bucelo was if anything the victim of dark money mailers this time the shadowy right-wing groups that pump out the mailers (and, now, ugly texts) are on Buce…. That’s pretty much always a sure sign of how to vote: do the opposite of what the sleazy mailers […]
Fernandez can be a socialist or a fascist but at least he’s not with Lago.
” Coral Gables residents tend to be more educated”
Yes and base it on that as of today you do not have to be Hispanic there in order to get elected unlike the embarrassments of Hialeah , Sweetwater and Doral .
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Calling someone a Socialist or un Comunista in Miami often works .
My sisters live in California and there it is the same con as far as calling someone a Fascist .
A party letter will protect the most worthless politicians .
When Will It Stop ? Consultants , Donors , Lobbyist , Contributors Are ALL Forms of LAY AWAY BRIBES To be Attended at a Later Day ! Vote for Rip Holmes !
The Lago slime surfaces.
Always lurking.
Expertly camouflaged.
Socialists? Really? Somebody needs top tell the senders of the obnoxious Socialist mailing this is not the City of Miami. Coral Gables residents tend to be more educated and able to see past these simple false and offensive accusations. It’s an embarrassment to be a part of this smear campaign.
Given Bucelo’s and Lago’s war chest, the mudslinging will continue. Note to Vince: you didn’t like it much when Keon’s dark money accused you of being a racist.
Cabrera and now Bucelo are both 30 something name calling school yard middle schoolers, who never take responsibility for their actions. Both are continuing the legacy of Miami Dade’s history of useless, self centered elected officials. Is Bucelo a Proud Boys sympathizer like Cabrera? Did Bucelo play political dress up as a child when shopping with mommy? Maybe they campaigned at Publix together as toddlers?
[…] Source link […]
So, nothing about the text messages is inaccurate. Fernandez’s ties to David Rivera and his former client’s (denied) relationship with Joe Carollo should disturb Coral Gables voters regardless of party affiliation. The fact that the flyers were sent to both sides is a good thing. And the fact that not a single person that he has ever worked for is endorsing him is noteworthy. Will Elaine equally cover that Fernandez removed his connections to Rivers from his bio on his website? How is that different then omitting certain aspects of the story from a flyer? Fernandez deleted Rivera completely. Wonder why?