Carlos Gimenez loses first congressional challenge – in court – for bad check

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Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez lost his first battle in the congressional contest last week when a Tallahassee judge denied his motion to dismiss a lawsuit that aims to take him off the ballot because he paid his qualification fee with a bad check.

Seems the lawsuit to disqualify Gimenez, filed by firefighter Omar Blanco in April, has merit. Blanco could face Gimenez, who is also his boss (until November), in the Republican primary in District 26, to challenge Democrat Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

The mayor’s attorneys said the wrong name on the check used to pay the qualifying fee was just a typo. But the bank in Athens, Georgia, says they have no account for either a “Carlos Giminez” campaign — with an i instead of an e — or a Carlos Gimenez campaign, with the correct spelling.

Read related: Congressional candidate Omar Blanco sues to get Carlos Gimenez off the ballot

So where did check #1011 come from?

Probably from the Residents First political action committee, a national multi-candidate PAC Ladra found online which does have an account at that bank, does have Carlos Gimenez as a listed affiliate candidate, sounds eerily similar to his Miami-Dade Residents First PAC in 2016 — and cannot pay his qualifying fee, according to the law. The Georgia-based PAC is run by Paul Kilgore, a conservative Washington D.C. strategist who owns Professional Data Services, a firm that was paid $2,055.20 in March from the real Carlos Gimenez campaign for “compliance consulting.” Kilgore, whose website shows he works for a multitude of Republican politicians across the country, signed the check.

Florida Statute 99.061 requires that a congressional candidate’s fee be paid with “a properly executed check drawn on the candidate’s campaign account.” Blanco’s attorney, Luis Navarro, argues that since this check was not drawn on Gimenez’s campaign account, he failed to qualify.

“This matter concerns one of the most important elements of our Nation’s fabric of freedom – the election of individuals to serve in the Congress of the United States of America. Defendant Gimenez would have you to believe that this matter is ‘solely’ about ‘the misspelling of the campaign account name,'” Navarro wrote in response the motion to dismiss filed by Gimenez attorney Robert Fernandez.

“That position is not only overly simplified to the point of being grossly misleading, but it is altogether patently false.”

Leon County Circuit Court Judge Ron Flury, who reads these arguments before he goes into a hearing, also seemed concerned about the source of the qualifying fee payment, Navarro told Ladra.

Read related: Carlos Gimenez qualifies with wrong name check for Congressional bid

“The judge wants to know where the check was drawn from. He only asked one question,” he said. “When judges ask a question, it’s really rhetorical. They typically know the answer already.”

Blanco didn’t know when he filed his lawsuit that the check was drawn on a PAC account. All he knew was that it had the wrong name on it.

But when Navarro subpoenaed the bank for their records of any Gimenez or “Giminez” campaign account, Alix Hoge, the lead processing specialist for Cadence, said their research turned up nada. “Cadence was unable to locate records for the information given in the subpoena.”

How could Gimenez do something so stupid as pay his qualifying fee with a PAC check instead of a campaign check out of his own campaign account? It’s not like he doesn’t have the money there. He had raised $415,000 by the end of March.

It must be arrogance. Gimenez has been getting away with doing whatever he wants for so long that he forgot he can’t control a federal process like he can the county. Remember when he provided a bad check to the Miami-Dade Elections department for his re-election in 2016. It was backdated by a year. The office stayed open until midnight so he could provide a new check after hours.

Read related: Carlos Gimenez submits late night campaign check (10:20 p.m.)

But the wrong name qualifying check for the congressional race is filed in Tallahassee, where Gimenez has little (read: no) power.

Doesn’t mean he’s not just as arrogant. Rather than respond to the lawsuit or send any of the requested discovery, the Gimenez legal team decided to file a motion to dismiss Blanco’s lawsuit. It failed to meet the criteria necessary when a judge denied that dismissal last Thursday.

The judge further ordered the Gimenez legal team — which has for some reason (hiding something?) failed to produce any of the documents demanded in the lawsuit — to respond to the complaint by this Thursday.

Ladra can’t wait to see that. Stay tuned.

  Carlos Gimenez, Congressional District 27, Omar Blanco