Absentee ballots dropped in Miami Beach this week and that means that the temperature has gone up in the four races that could effectively put a new majority on the city commission. The candidates know this. And Mayor Philip Levine and his slate of pocket rubber stampers have been desperately trying to cling on to […]
Miami Beach campaign consultant and lobbyist David Custin is raking in the bucks representing vendors and developers with business deals before the very same people he helped get elected. It’s nice work if you can get it. It also smacks of influence. If you put people in office it stands to reason they owe you. […]
UPDATED: David Custin wasn’t always so successful in Miami Beach. Before he played a crucial role in electing Mayor Philip Levine and Commissioners Joy Malakoff and Michael Grieco in 2013, Custin was really just a glorified mailboy-turned-campaign-consultant who dabbled sometimes as a lobbyist. He only had one client, the red light camera American Traffic Solutions, Miami Beach […]
Just because the Relentless for Progress PAC is quitting doesn’t mean we have to stop talking about how shady it was. The PAC’s chairman, Miami Beach Commissioner Jonah Wolfson, said last week that he was going to dissolve the shady political action committee, which raked in close to $1.5 million in contributions from lobbyists, contractors, […]
Miami Beach Commissioner Jonah Wolfson announced Thursday that he was going to close down the shady Relentless for Progress political action committee he chairs and has been championing and defending for months. He says he will return whatever is left of the $1.4 million they had collected as of the end of July on a […]
The photos and videos are startling. They show clouds forming in Biscayne Bay where the city of Miami Beach pumps water out to keep the streets dry. Activists say that the the thousands of gallons of storm water are accompanied by plastic bags, Styrofoam, construction debris and other pollutants — creating a cloudy and sometimes […]
Just what are a couple of Miami Beach electeds who are not in contested races this year going to do with the funds they shake out of city contractors and would-be developers for their political action committee? That’s the $1 million question. The two ads produced so far by Relentless for Progress — the PAC […]
Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and Commissioner Jonah “Pottymouth” Wolfson tried hard to quash a motion by Commissioner Deede Weithorn to have the Ethics Commission look into their brazen shakedown of vendors and developers who want to do business, or continue doing business, with the city. And they may have won at the dais, after the motion […]
A lot of speculation has been made about whether Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine is exploring higher office, perhaps a senate seat or a run for Florida governor in 2018. But, for now, he’s simply running for mayor of Miami Beach again. Political consultant Christian Ulvert, a key Levine campaign man in 2013, told Ladra […]
Miami Beach Commissioner Ed Tobin, who has reportedly wanted to be a police officer since he was a child, will have to wait a little longer. And Ricky Arriola, who was thought to be the mayor’s pick to replace Tobin and serve out the rest of his commission term (through November), will also have to […]