More mysterious dark money attacks on Miami-Dade’s mayoral candidates

The radio ad has been playing on Spanish-language and Cuban radio for more than a week. It warns voters to be on the lookout for absentee voter fraud and targets two Miami-Dade mayoral candidates who have had a history with it: Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who was removed from office in 1997 after the Miami Herald uncovered widespread AB fraud committed by one of the commission candidates, and Commissioner Esteban Bovo, whose county-paid staffer was caught stuffing ballots into the trunk of her car at the commissioner’s Hialeah district office in 2012.

“Protect your vote,” the spot says, reminding voters that President Donald Trump himself doesn’t trust absentee or mail-in ballots. “Watch out for Bovo, Suarez, and the boleteros trying to steal your ballot,” says the narrator.

The required disclaimer at the end says the piece is paid for by A Better Miami-Dade Inc., which also paid for a separate video spot defending former mayor Alex Penelas, who wants his job back, and attacking Bovo for his ties with former Congressman David Rivera, who was in the news recently for having some kind of contract with the Venezuelan government.

The video disclaimer says A Better Miami-Dade is “independent of any candidate.” Yeah, right.

A Better Miami-Dade is the same name as a political action committee for Bovo, which seems intentional more than coincidental, and caused some early confusion among political observers. But we may never find out who really funded it. That’s because this Better Miami-Dade is a 501(c)(4), a non-profit that can collect campaign donations but doesn’t have to disclose them the way a committee does.

It’s a sneaky yet traditional platform to attack political opponents in that tirar la piedra y esconder la mano type of way. Always has been. And this election looks like it’s going to be a hurricane of dark money that can’t be traced.

Political Cortadito has already published information about multiple mailers against Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava attributed to a corporation called True Progressives LLC, which was formed on June 12 by Sean Anderson and F & L Corp with officers in Milwaukee.

More have arrived since that story posted, like this one pictured to the left about a vote to let a questionable company keep a $4 million contract. There was also a video against Penelas attributed to a PAC run by David Custin and therefore attributed to Bovo.

In the case of the pro-Penelas Better Miami-Dade non-profit, everyone has made a big deal about the staffer for Congresswoman Donna Shalala, whose name is on the National Broadcasters Association’s “political broadcast agreement form for non-candidate/issue advertisments.” It’s not only odd because Shalala has promised to stay neutral (everyone thinks she’s helping Daniella). It’s also odd because Carlos Condarco, Shalala’s press secretary and a Florida lawyer, is also chairman of a legal PAC that is actually registered at the state (or was, read on) called Defender la Justicia, which trashes Penelas in text messages that lead to an anti-Alex website about his “carousel of corruption.”

How can Condarco, who was once the chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic committee be behind both ads against and for Penelas? Because he’s not. Several really solid sources told Ladra that Condarco is simply renting out his name, the way many attorneys and accountants do for PACs that want to operate anonymously. He wanted to make a little extra money during the election cycle and may have not realized that he would be creating a conflict of interests, working for competing candidates.

Ladra’s theory, after speaking to many political operatives and folks close to three of these campaigns, is that Condarco rented his name to consultant Christian Ulvert, who is the campaign consultant for Levine Cava, to put another face on the Defender la Justicia PAC that attacks Penelas with the website. And then he was hired separately by Freddy Balsera and his team, who represents Penelas.

Who else could it be? Bovo would not have hired Shalala’s guy, a Democratic Party operative. He is, instead, attacking Penelas through David Custin‘s (read: State Rep. Jose Oliva‘s) PAC, Citizens for Ethical and Efficient Leadership. And Suarez doesn’t play this game. If X puts out an attack ad, he will have his Imagine Miami PAC’s name on it. He owns what he says and doesn’t hide behind someone else.

The paperwork at one of the stations shows that Dwight Sterling, a DC media buyer, purchased the air time for A Better Miami-Dade. And one might want to think Ulvert was behind both — after all, defending Penelas brings attention to the offensive attacks and provides a platform with which to attack Bovo. And also because A Better Miami-Dade once sponsored a mailer for State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, another Ulvert client.

But folks at one radio station, at least, call the AB fraud spot “the Balsera run.”

Ulvert did not return calls and texts in the last few days. Neither did Balsera. His associate, Sonia Diaz, who does PR for the campaign, returned the call for him. She said Ladra’s theory made sense and that she was going to get back to me with confirmation and details because she doesn’t make the media buys. She did not get back to me Saturday.

Condarco couldn’t speak about it with Ladra, claiming attorney-client privilege. In a statement to the Miami Herald, however, he said his involvement in these “political activities” (plural) was outside his job with the congresswoman and that, yet, he was taking steps to remove himself from “all campaign work not associated with the congresswoman.”

Ladra still thinks Condarco, who will likely resign in a few weeks for some unrelated opportunity, should disclose who paid him to be the straw man for each group. He was not hired as an attorney, was he? He was hired as a decoy.

Lots of malas lenguas confirmed that Balsera was behind the AB fraud ad. That doesn’t mean that we know who paid for it — other than a Penelas supporter. In fact the shadiness of the funding source is questionable enough that at least one radio station pulled the spot temporarily to get clarification.

Bovo said he was not surprised that Penelas was behind it. “He’s had a history of shadiness and cronyism. It’s not brand new. It’s Alex 2.0,” Bovo told Ladra.

Suarez issued a press release that was more like an open letter to his mayoral opponents asking them to stop the negative attacks and calling on civility and transparency in campaign ads:

“The recent attack ad which sought to defame my name and also accused another mayoral candidate of electoral misdeeds is another example of a sad sequence of surreptitious attacks.

My three principal opponents are attacking one another using dark, political action committees whose addresses turn out to be, in one case, a UPS store, and in the other a furniture store. The officers listed for these phantom organizations claim not to know and not to have authorized the placement and payment of the ad in question.

This and prior negative ads are making this mayoral election a battle of negativity instead of a contest of platforms and ideas.

My three main opponents are very well funded and can easily spend the next 48 days bringing to light what they can do for our county, instead of trying to demean each other.

Attorney David Winker, who is representing Suarez, sent a cease and desist letter to several radio stations Tuesday advising them that the 30-second AB fraud warning spot violates disclosure rules for political ads. He plans to file a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission this week, he told Ladra.

“Someone paid for the ad and that is not being properly disclosed,” Winker said.

Even shadier: Right after the Miami Herald wrote the story centering on the Shalala staffer, the non-profit filed an amended annual report with the Florida Division of Corporations and changed all of its officers. Every. Single. One.

Not that Condarco was on the corporate documents. Just on the NAB form signed June 26, listing him as chairman of A Better Miami-Dade and Allison Norris and someone named James Slater as directors.

The annual report filed March 9 has Noreen Fenner, Iris Barrios, James Harden and Jacob Tighe listed as registered agent and directors, respectively, with an address on Hays Street in Tallahassee. On June 30. the amendment named the directors as Andres Osorio, Ross Militello and Allison Norris, with an address at 2045 Biscayne Blvd., which is a P.O Box at a UPS store.

One of those people, Andres Osorio, is also now listed as the new chairman of the Defender la Justicia PAC that was officially listed as Condarco’s last week. That’s the PAC attacking Penelas. That change was also made on June 30, according to the Florida Division of Elections. That means there’s still a conflict of interest — unless the same party or candidate is behind both groups. Which is exactly why the public disclosure laws exist to begin with: We deserve to know.

Winker said the changes on A Better Miami-Dade’s structure indicate that something is amiss.

“Both the timing and the wholesale change of all directors, the registered agent and the address of the corporation are red flags of fraudulent activity, especially in light of the fact that this was done by an Amendment to Annual Report of the Annual Report filed just a few months ago,” Winker said.

“What these guys did was concoct a scheme to get attorney Carlos Condarco to act as a ‘straw man’ to place and pay for these attack ads in order to hide who was really behind all this,” Winker told Ladra. “This is not only disrespectful to the democratic process and to the voters they are seeking to persuade to vote for their candidates, it also violates Florida’s election laws designed to enable voters to make informed decisions and ensure transparency.

“None of this seems on the up and up,” Winker said.

And that’s why now everybody is rushing to cover it up. And also why Condarco should speak up.

Alex Penelas, Christian Ulvert, Daniella Levine Cava, Esteban Bovo, Freddy Balsera, Xavier Suarez

More mysterious dark money attacks on Miami-Dade’s mayoral candidates added by Ladra on July 5, 2020
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