Surprise, surprise. Vanessa Brito lied again.
A very ill-planned recall of newly-elected Doral Vice Mayor Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera has died a quiet and unceremonious death. Especially when compared to its high-faluttin’, heavily-promoted and fraudulent birth.
Miami Voice Chairwoman and political gypsy conartist Vanessa Brito — who claims credit for recalling former Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Millan, although she was riding Norman Braman‘s anti-Carlos Alvarez coattails — could barely contain herself in every self-promoting TV interview about her pending recall of Rodriguez because she didn’t live there (which is hard to prove and it looks like she does) and didn’t desolve her business when she went to work for the city but transferred it to her son (which she can).
Let’s forget, for a moment, that those do not fall under the criteria she needs by state law. You don’t need a reason at the county level, which is ludicrous and led to the 2011 double recall circus. But with a municipality governed under state rules, there are defined reasons. Brito did not name any of those categories. Let’s forget, for a moment, that state law requires one to wait at least six months after an election before a recall can be launched. Let’s forget, for a moment, that the law requires her to submit them within a month of the first signature, which is almost a sure bet she passed.
Ladra is pretty sure that Brito, as the self-proclaimed recall queen of the 305, had not forgotten and knew all those things
Her client, or clients, however, probably did not. And they were duped. Whoever paid her got fooled, maybe again, by this new con.
Especially after the Miami-Dade Elections Department announced Wednesday that Brito had delivered only 1,038 petitions, not the more than 1,700 or so she needed as 10 percent of Doral’s 17,000 or so registered voters voters and certainly not the 2,000+ she claimed to have at a made-for-TV press conference Tuesday.
Of course, she has already claimed some sort of interference and threatened to take it to court in the El Nuevo Herald story written by Enrique Flor. Even though the box she took to Doral and paraded with in front of TV cameras was taken — as is, and with Brito following Doral City Clerk Barbara Herrera in her car — to the elections department.
“I didn’t open the box,” Herrera said. “I didn’t count the petitions. I didn’t touch them. I wanted to make sure that they went straight to the elections office.”
But Brito has to claim fake outrage and threaten legal action. Not just becasue those are two of her favorite things to do. But also because, otherwise, what is she going to tell the person or people who paid her to do this. Because she has to tell them something.
Soooo who was it? Because we know Brito didn’t do it for free. Several names have been floated around.
Was it Al Maloof, whose Brickell area government affairs law firm was potentially in line for the Doral city contract? He denies it. Even though Doral Mayor Luigi Boria said on the dais that Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi had told him Maloof was behind it (and Pizzi knows Brito better than most).
But Ladra met Maloof when we bumped into him unexpectedly — with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s campaign-loving daughter-in-law Barby Rodriguez Gimenez, who works for him — at The Globe at Coral Gables Commissioner Vince Lago‘s victory party earlier this month. And he seemed genuinely sincere when he said he had nothing to do with it. He inferred that it would be silly to fund a recall effort for such a reason. “We wouldn’t have to go that route.” But this is Greater Miami. Stranger things have happened.
Was it former and re-elected Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz, whose bitter war with Rodriguez goes back years and multiple ethics complaints from both sides? Ruiz says no.
Was it former Councilman Pete Cabrera, as a sideways slap at Boria, who kicked his pants off with his heavily self-financed campaign in November?
Was it the Ghost of Christmas Past?
Was it Floridians for Ethical and Responsible Government (pft!), who did pay Brito $1,550 on March 21 for “marketing and public relations.” Yet, we’ve never heard of these people. Hmmmm. Some marketing job. The PAC, chaired by Charlie Safdie, got more than $8,500 in in-kind donations (mailers and flyers) from the Genovese Joblove firm where — well, I’ll be — political strategist Al Maloof works.
More likely, it was linked to the Miami Lakes and Medley elections last year, based on the money trail. Miami Lakes and Medley have a big common denominator: Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi is also the town attorney for Medley, a relationship that has made many uneasy and some to wonder if he was in Tallahassee for Dade Days earlier this month, introducing everyone to a Medley councilman, to represent the city he was elected in or the one that pays him about $200,000 a year to represent its best interests.
The Floridians PAC is funded almost entirely by Coral Gables developer Wayne Rosen, who gave close to $19,000 (in strangely random checks for $9,767.77 $5,801.62 and $3,924.92) and another PAC called Miami Lakes Voters for Good Government, which is chaired by someone named McHenry Hamilton and exists to “promore citizenship in Miami Lakes and surrounding areas.”
Surrounding areas must include two cities over, through Hialeah and any part of Miami Springs and into Medley, since three Medley candidates got $500 checks from the PAC.
But wanna guess who also got paid by the Miami Lakes Voters PAC? GJB Consulting, where Maloof works, was paid close to $30,000 for mailers (yes, I know. This is why Ladra likes flow charts). And Brito got another $2,000 from that PAC last August for a poll to prepare for the upcoming election.
Doesn’t say what election, though — Miami Lakes or Medley?
Or, dare I ask, Doral?
Rodriguez Aguilera seemed relieved by the fact that this was going nowhere. But she said she was never too worried.
“I’m very confident that the voters of Doral have seen through the smoke and mirrors, the same way they did when they elected me,” Rodriguez told Ladra. “And I am confident that they are happy with the job I’ve done in the last five months.”
True to her ducking the issues and lack of transparency form, Brito did not answer the phone when Ladra called her Tuesday to talk about the petition, although she had a press conference to brag about her fake accomplishments earlier that day. A press conference I knew nothing about because Ladra is not on the Miami Voice mailing list.
But minutes later, Miami Voice Chief of Security, Brito’s bodyguard (and obsessed suitor) Ivette Lisa Taylor called me back. “We’re not giving any information out,” she said, perhaps aware that they missed the target. “The petitions have been submitted. It’s been a long day and we’re exhausted.”
Lying profusely can really take it out of you, I guess.
Doral recall busts. But who’s behind Brito’s bungled move? added by Ladra on
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