She may not be running for the seat, but Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall — who has announced his intent to run for Congress in District 26 in 2014 — seems to be campaigning against Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
And vice versa.
MacDougall has asked Florida Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a special prosecutor to the investigation of absentee ballot fraud stemming from the 2012 campaign for U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia. And in his request, as well as his press statements, he has been very critical of the SAO’s handling of the inquiry. Okay, more than critial: He practically accuses her of waiting for the statute of limitations to run out.
“Here we are, well more than a year after these felonies were committed, and not a single person has been indicted or arrested, despite the full admission of guilt by Congressman Garcia’s campaign team,” MacDougall said in his statement to the press. “I hate to say this, but I’ve lost faith in the ability of the State Attorney’s Office to competently prosecute this case.
“I don’t understand what exactly she is waiting for. Perhaps she is waiting for the statute of limitations to run out, again?”
Ouch. He leveled the same accusation in the letter to the guv.
“With nearly a year elapsed since the first fraudulent requests were submitted, the statute of limitations is in danger of running out. This is not the first time Katherine Fernandez-Runde has allowed a political corruption case to fall apart,” MacDougall wrote to Scott in a letter Wednesday, asking him to take over.
“Just last year she bungled a very high profile case involving a Miami congressman, where her office failed to tile charges because the statute of limitations had elapsed,” the mayor continued, no doubt referring to former Congressman King David “Nine Lives” Rivera, the longtime Republican legislator Garcia handily beat last November.
“I think you will agree that by allowing these perpetrators to slip through the cracks it will only embolden others, perhaps more sophisticated operatives, to continue committing electoral fraud,” MacDougall added, perhaps not realizing that he has addressed his letter to a politician that has availed himself of questionable absentee ballot operations.
About half an hour before his scheduled press conference at her door, Fernandez-Rundle struck back.
“Mr. MacDougall must understand that a complicated investigation involving multiple targets, the serving of search warrants, the seizing of computers and papers and the ongoing forensic analysis of computer hard drives, takes time,” Fernandez-Rundle wrote in her statement to the media. “Mr. MacDougall certainly understands that bringing in a new team of prosecutors at the tail end of a lengthy investigation will only result in delaying the case and elongating the process.”
I mean, it’s not like they sat on it or anything … oh, wait, yes they did. They said they hit a dead end and had closed the probe because the internet protocol address on the computer virus generated email AB requests were out of the country. They only re-opened the investigation after the Miami Herald found a Miami address. That led to the seizure of computers at two campaign staffer’s homes, including the home of Garcia’s former Chief of Staff Jeffrey Garcia (no relation), who admitted his role and was subsequently and swiftly fired in the crisis management that followed.
But Fernandez-Rundle has enough confidence in her investigation now to ask that she be given more time. And she challenged him.
“If Mr. MacDougall has some credible evidence regarding what he has characterized as ‘widespread voter fraud’ then we and our multiagency Voter Task Force team of 40 police investigators are and have been available to meet with him and consider the evidence,” the state attorney wrote, and yes, having the gall to put widespread fraud in quotation marks.
“As a former police officer, surely he knows the importance of providing law enforcement with any evidence available which may assist a criminal investigation,” the state attorney wrote. “As of this date, he has neither contacted us nor has he called our Voter Hotline at 305-547-3300.”
The number is answered by a receptionist at the public corruption unit who didn’t know anything about a task force.
Then, the state attorney basically called the small town mayor a political opportunist.
“I would hope that Mr. MacDougall is not using an ongoing criminal investigation as some kind of political fodder for his campaign.”
Uh, duh, Kathy. They’re all using it. School Board Member Carlos Curbelo, who has also announced his candidacy for that seat, issued a statement last month requesting that the Monroe County State Attorney look into possible fraud with their voters and mentioned the inquiry several times when he announced his candidacy earlier this month. And Ladra would not be surprised to see other candidates take shots at you on this, especially next summer.
And, yes, it’s obviously a politically advantageous move. Because while one might say that this is, indeed, the right thing to do and the correct position to take, we do not see, say, candidates in other congressional or state races bringing the issue up, do we? Or electeds, for that matter.
I do wish MacDougall — who told Scott he spoke on behalf of 47,000 voters in Cutler Bay, but actually is speaking for many more of us — would have given Ladra a head’s up on the letter. We could have apoliticized it by having it signed en masa. While it may have whittled away at it’s political value, I would definitely have signed, as would several other journalists I know. And I know one firefighter in Hialeah and several voters in Hialeah, Miami Lakes and the city of Miami, who would have happily added their Hancocks, too.
It’s not that MacDougall is right and Fernandez Rundle is wrong. He says, she says. Will we ever know?
It’s that this widespread absentee ballot fraud (notice no quote marks are necessary) is far too important to fall through the cracks. Again.
But here’s a prediction: Now, we may see some more activity. All the SAO really needs is an embarrassing story in the city daily or letter to the guv.
BREAKING UPDATE: Maybe great minds think alike. About 20 minutes after this post, Ladra noticed a tweet from MacDougall promoting his new website petition www.stopmiamielectionfraud.com asking for signatures to get the governor to intervene. Yes, Ladra is signing.
It comes complete with this photo collage of both Garcias, the Congressman and his admitted fraudster, and the state attorney. Look for it soon in a mailbox near you.
State Attorney pulled into Congressional race war added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
