Betsy Perez backed by Miami Beach special interest PACs

Betsy Perez backed by Miami Beach special interest PACs
  • Sumo

Just because the shady Relentless for Progress PAC was shut down after public outcry, moneymanthat doesn’t mean that special interests do not firmly have their hands on the Miami Beach runoff election Tuesday.

Sure, Miami Beach Commissioner Jonah Wolfson was forced to close RFP after residents and the media questioned more than $1.4 million in donations from developers and contractors doing business with the city. But special interest donors obviously found — or, er, were pointed to — somewhere else where they could try to buy public officials and who knows what favors.

Read related story: Kristen Rosen Gonzalez needs her turnout in Miami Beach

Mailers arriving at Miami Beach homes for Betsy Perez, Mayor Philip Levine‘s handpicked betsykristencandidate for commission — who is facing a tough runoff against Kristen Rosen Gonzalez — are coming from Tell the Public The Facts, Inc., a longtime political action committee run by campaign consultant/lobbyist David Custin for his multiple campaigns.  Tell the Public The Facts, which had been dormant since March of last year, got a sudden $212,000 in donations in the last two months.

The largest donor is developer Heinrich Von Hanau, whose company is building two towers on Fisher Island. He gave $75,000 to David Custin’s PAC in September.

Another $137,000 came in October from several different entities: 6800 Indian Creek LLC ($25,000), Deco Capital Group ($21,000), Sobe 17 Manager LLC ($20,000), and $15,000 each from LBL Group, 3425 Collins LLC, MRK Marlin Hotel and Boucher Brothers Management, which runs the Jet Ski and watersports and pool concessions on Miami Beach. The electrician’s union kicked in $1,000 and two law firms — Colson, Hicks Edison and Bercow, Radell & Fernandez gave $5,000 a piece.

Through October, Custin has been paid just over $137,000 for TV ads, direct mail and a phone bank. That would be before the Nov. 2 election, not for these mailers. We’ll get a final tally after the runoff.

But Custin’s work is getting sloppy. The latest mailer for Perez has her name spelled wrong twice and the word integrity spelled wrong. Which is classic since they have none.

They have enough money, however, to hire a proofreader. Go figure.

PerezmistakesAnd there’s yet another PAC pushing Perez for Levine.

People for Truth and Integrity is chaired by former State Rep. and attorney to politicians J.C. Planas. The PAC collected $83,000, of which the most, or about $56,000, came from Stephen Bittel through three of his companies, including one that seems to be inactive due to the annual report not being filed. Another $20,000 came from developer David Mancini and sons. Epik Financial gave $5,000, the Boucher Brothers gave another $3,000 and Commissioner Michael Grieco gave $1,500.

Read related story: Lobbyist/consultant David Custin cashes in on Miami Beach

So far, the PAC has spent $67,000 in October alone, mostly on mail pieces. But not through Custin. Remember, Planas and Custin had a falling out after the 2013 Beach election, so the attorney — who still represents Levine legally — now Betsy Perez maileruses a company in Teaneck, NJ, called Elect and Connect.

One of their more recent mailers takes Rosen Gonzalez’s quotes to the Miami Herald out of context and says she is opposed to the city’s “innovative plan” for pumping stations. But she is not as opposed to it as concerned about pollutants the city may be pumping into Biscayne Bay and curious about the rollout priorities and why streets that are dry now are tied to the mayor and his business partners.

Even the mailer quotes something — again out of context — from the Miami Herald: “With pumping stations active, as many streets flooded, “one corner of Miami Beach stayed perfectly dry.'”

Guess which corner. Alton Road and 10th. Where Levine’s office is.

The mailer doesn’t say that, of course. It simply questions if voters should trust Rosen Gonzalez “when she can’t see what’s right before her eyes.”

Ooooh, how dramatic. Custin-inspired.

But at least they spelled her name right.

11 Responses to "Betsy Perez backed by Miami Beach special interest PACs"

  1. I know Jim Deland doesnt have a 1555 German countship or sits on three German Jewish Memorial Funds n lives half a year since 1991 as director of family firms as any 10 old can see on google.

  2. As one of the activists supporting Israel when I lived on Miami Beach I helped organize the largest support Israel Demonstration at the Holocaust Memorial n am featured in the full page photograph of it taken by the Miami Herald with which I became at odds over their anti-Israel n pro Palestinian coveragw of the event. I know full well who supported Israel n who was more interested in currying favour with the Miami Herald. Kristen Rosen Gonzalez was NOT WEAK ON ISRAEL while the contributors to Perez including at least one member of a Nazi official’s family certainly arent defenders of Israel. Mr Norman Braman lead our Demonstration n any lying attacks on Kristen Rosen Gonzalez are the gutter politica of sleazy developers like Philip Levine Scott Levine their Nazi friends n corrupt lobbyist David Custin and bottom of the ethical pool Jonah Wolfson – a Jew who converted to get into – what a better north New Jersey country club? Faternity at his historically anti-semitic alma mater?

  3. Professor Kristen Rosen Gonzalez is the grass roots choice. But, on the Beach, money talks, especially when developers and realtors get involved.

  4. See what sea level rise expert Dwight Kraai has to say in re: the absurd claims in another nasty Perez flyer:

    Dear Letters-to-the- Editor:

    Betsy Perez, a candidate for the Miami Beach Commission, has said that Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, her opponent, does not believe in climate change and resulting sea level rise. This could not be further from the truth.

    Ms. Gonzalez and I started communicating about this issue more than two years ago. Just about that time, a leading expert on sea level rise spoke at Books and Books in Coral Gables. Kristen came to learn more about climate change and sea level rise. She truly understands the issues surrounding the problems of sea level rise.

    Conversely, this spring, soon after Betsy Perez started her campaign, she was introduced to me. I said that it was important that she become familiar with climate change and sea level rise. She handed me her flyer listing her major concerns: there was no mention of sea level rise and flooding.

    I hope that this will set the record straight.

    Dwight Kraai, Ph. D., Engineering

    Member, Miami Beach Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Sea Level Rise and Flooding

  5. So Heinrich Von Hainau’s contribution of $75,000 is to make sure that this new Commission allows height increase from 45′ to 93’for a parking garage on Terminal Island.
    Land Use and Development Chair Commissioner Malakoff ,presiding over the destruction of Miami Beach ,was most regretful that she could not accommodate this chutzpah request from Fisher Island Board’s “grandee “when he came before her earlier before the Election.
    Good Commissioner Ed Tobin would have none of it .He knew it was a give away of the last remaining light industrial zone and that the land could be put to better use .
    Building two massive towers with apartments at $25million apiece, have created gross over development and “dangerous congestion on the streets of Fisher Island” laughably pleaded their lawyer Michael Larkin, so they pay for Miami Beach to solve their self- created parking problems
    Fisher Island have made their up front contribution with all these machinations of the iniquitous Custin
    Its a done deal with Philip Levine’s Corrupt Commission .They won’t even require a traffic study for the the most dangerous exit on the McCarthur Causeway.
    Its sickening .
    Apathetic residents should wake up to and vote for Kristen Rosen Gonzalez
    Come on folks,it can be done .John Aleman only won by 74 votes!!

    • Those contributions reveal a great deal, do they not? Now Rosen Gonzalez is being attacked on two fronts: sea level rise and support for Israel. Plus, one of the losing candidates in her group race put out an unbelievable sexist-tinged statement against Rosen Gonzalez…and misspelling a word — independent — in his support for Besty Perez. And the mayor praises his rubber stamp choice for her dignity and decorum. (Yes, women do need to know their place!) It is disgraceful, all of it 🙁

  6. Ok Count Friedrich von Schaumburg is third generation descended from an Elector and Sovereign Landgraf of Hessen-Kassel by a commoner who was a divorcee.The grant to her descendents says descendents married with royalty mediatized counts or others mediatized between 1803 and 1826 are princes von Hanau however children issued from marriages with non mediatized baronesses or commoners mean the children n their descendents are non mediatized counts under the name Schaumburg or Schaumburg-Hesse not Count Schaumburg-Lippe which is a sovereign n therefore royal line.
    Apparently even the funders of David Custin Philip Levine Scott Robins Jonah Wolfson cant spell the unmerited names they mis-use!

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