The New York Times
How a Sham Candidate Helped Flip a Florida Election
MIAMI — The recruitment of the sham candidate started with a Facebook message at round 4 a.m. on May 15, 2020. “Call me,” a Florida legislator turned lobbyist wrote to an outdated buddy. “I have a question for you.” Later that day, former state Sen. Frank Artiles, a Republican, requested Alexis Pedro Rodriguez by telephone whether or not he nonetheless owned a dwelling in the suburban Miami village of Palmetto Bay. Because in that case, Artiles needed one thing else: to place his buddy’s property and final identify to make use of in the upcoming election. The incumbent Democrat, state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, was on the poll. And Artiles, a artful political operator with a doubtful fame, had a plan: to plant his buddy as a candidate and siphon off votes that may defeat José Rodríguez. Sign up for The Morning publication from the New York Times The plan labored, setting off one among Florida’s most brazen electoral scandals in years — even by the heady requirements of a state that has lengthy been fertile floor for political scammers. What is nonetheless unsure is how broad the scandal is, whether or not it had touched different races and whether or not it was a part of an organized effort by Republicans or an curiosity group to sway legislative races. Alexis Rodriguez, a machine-parts supplier who had been struggling financially, agreed to assist Artiles, who promised him $50,000 in return. He switched from Republican to no social gathering affiliation and certified for the poll as Alex Rodriguez. He didn’t disclose that he truly lived removed from the district, in Boca Raton, or that the cash for his candidacy got here from Artiles. In November, José Rodríguez, an efficient legislator who had crusaded for Florida to face the local weather change disaster, misplaced to the Republican challenger, Ileana Garcia, by a mere 32 votes out of greater than 215,000 that had been forged. Alex Rodriguez had acquired 6,382 votes and performed the spoiler. It was a devastating loss for Florida Democrats in a 12 months of Republican successes in the state. It was additionally the results of felony habits, prosecutors say. On Thursday, Artiles, 47, and Alex Rodriguez, 55, turned themselves in for arrest. They have been every charged with three third-degree felony costs associated to violating marketing campaign finance legislation, together with for conspiracy to make marketing campaign contributions in extra of authorized limits, making these extra contributions and false swearing in connection to an election. Artiles declined to remark to a scrum of reporters who chased him out of jail on Thursday as soon as he posted a $5,000 bond. “This will be decided in the courts, thank you,” he stated. His lawyer, Greg Chonillo, stated in a assertion Friday that his shopper, whose dwelling was raided by investigators on Wednesday, had been cooperative with prosecutors “throughout the course of this investigation.” “We will be investigating this matter fully and zealously, representing our client in court against these charges,” Chonillo stated. The story of how Artiles plotted the scheme, based on the arrest paperwork, is a basic South Florida racket full with the sale of a nonexistent Range Rover and wads of money saved in a dwelling secure. But it leaves unanswered the questions of the place the cash for the scheme got here from — the Republican Senate president stated the social gathering had nothing to do with it — and whether or not the funds have been tied to secretive darkish cash that oozed via two different state Senate races final 12 months. Republicans have managed the state authorities for greater than 20 years. On Friday, Democrats known as for marketing campaign finance reform — and for the resignation of Garcia so that a new election could possibly be held. “Her victory is clearly tainted,” stated Manny Diaz, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party. Prosecutors stated they’d discovered no ties between her and the scheme by Artiles and Alexis Rodriguez. On Friday, state Sen. Wilton Simpson, the Florida Senate president, issued a joint assertion with Garcia saying that they “support the ongoing efforts of law enforcement.” “Senator Garcia has the full support of President Simpson as she continues to serve her constituents,” the assertion stated. South Florida has an ignominious historical past of political and electoral shenanigans, each excessive profile — fraud that was so rampant in a Miami mayoral election in 1997 that a choose threw out the outcomes — and low hire, reminiscent of small-time brokers getting caught unlawfully harvesting absentee ballots. In 2012, former Rep. David Rivera, a Republican, was concerned in a shadow marketing campaign to attempt to harm the electoral possibilities of his Democratic rival, Joe Garcia. The recruited candidate and Rivera’s ex-girlfriend, who acted as a go-between, wound up in jail. Rivera, who was by no means charged, final month was ordered to pay the Federal Election Commission a $456,000 tremendous. On Thursday, Katherine Fernández Rundle, the state legal professional for Miami-Dade County, a Democrat, famous that recruiting a sham candidate to intentionally affect an election was not unlawful, except the candidate was additionally secretly financed. “Is it an attack on our democracy? Is it a dirty political trick?” she stated. “Absolutely.” At the heart of the newest scandal is Artiles (pronounced are-TEE-less), who earlier than his arrest this week was maybe finest recognized in Tallahassee, the state capital, for resigning from the Senate in 2017, after he cursed at and used a racist slur earlier than a group of Black lawmakers. His political committee had spent cash on “consultants” who have been fashions from Hooters and Playboy with none marketing campaign expertise. He as soon as denied punching a faculty scholar at a bar close to the Capitol. His involvement in recruiting the sham candidate for the Senate District 37 race final 12 months grew to become public in December, when The Miami Herald reported that Artiles had boasted about planting Alexis Rodriguez on the poll to a crowd at an election night time social gathering held at an Irish pub in Seminole County. “That is me, that was all me,” The Herald quoted Artiles as saying, citing an nameless supply who was current. The furor round Rodriguez’s suspicious candidacy had begun after Election Day, when the outcomes separating José Rodríguez and Ileana Garcia, a founding father of the group Latinas for Trump, have been so tight that they led to a handbook recount. Local reporters in Tallahassee, Orlando and Miami discovered that Alexis Rodriguez together with two mysterious under-the-radar candidates in two different Senate races, one in the Miami space and one in Seminole County, have been all possible crops. (Results in the different races weren’t shut.) Politico Florida tied the three candidates to darkish cash from two political committees that had despatched a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars}’ value of assault flyers to voters throughout the marketing campaign. The solely donor reported was an entity that listed a UPS field in Atlanta as its mailing tackle. The committees amended their monetary reports after Election Day, altering the supply of the cash to a completely different donor, this time in Colorado. Investigators with Miami-Dade County’s public corruption investigations unit started sniffing round on Nov. 11, eight days after the election. “It was suspicious that Rodriguez did not appear to have actively campaigned,” Detective Eutimio Cepero of the Miami Police Department wrote in one among the arrest paperwork. “Additionally, it was learned that political committees were spending money in support of Rodriguez’s candidacy, even though Rodriguez did not actively campaign.” Investigators discovered that Artiles finally paid $44,708 to Alexis Rodriguez in violation of the state’s $1,000 marketing campaign contribution restrict for legislative races. The funds got here in varied kinds, together with funds of $3,000 after which $5,000 that Artiles had saved in his dwelling secure and recorded in a ledger on his desk, in addition to $2,400 that Artiles had wired to Rodriguez’s landlord. There was a lot mistrust between Artiles and Rodriguez, who informed investigators he thought Artiles wouldn’t come via with the cash he had promised him. At one level, when Artiles was searching for a used Range Rover to purchase his daughter, Rodriguez concocted a story about discovering one in Jacksonville for $10,900. Artiles paid Rodriguez for the automobile, although it didn’t exist. (That cash was not thought of by prosecutors as a part of Artiles’ funds to Rodriguez for his candidacy.) But the place Artiles bought the money is nonetheless unknown. “Frank Artiles is not a lone wolf,” stated William Barzee, a lawyer for Alexis Rodriguez. “Over half a million dollars was spent by political operatives working in the shadows to prop up ghost candidates in three separate Senate races, all in one cycle. This was a well thought out, calculated and coordinated plan to steal Senate seats throughout Florida.” The “greatest beneficiary of these actions,” Barzee added, “is the Republican Party of Florida.” Simpson, the Senate president who ran the Republican Senate campaigns in 2020, has stated that he had nothing to do with the effort. “I think we don’t have all the facts,” he informed reporters in Tallahassee on Thursday. “We’re learning what you’re learning as you report it.” “I hope this is just the tip of the iceberg,” stated former state Rep. Juan-Carlos Planas, generally known as J.C., who was José Rodríguez’s lawyer throughout the recount and who himself as soon as fought a candidate who had been planted in opposition to him: his second cousin, who appeared on the Republican major poll as Juan E. “J.P.” Planas. José Rodríguez, 42, lamented that weak enforcement mechanisms proceed to permit questionable candidates to make it on the poll. “It’s a shame that it has to reach this level of criminality for there to be any kind of consequence, because this is not the first time these types of schemes have been put together,” he stated. “But this is the Wild West here in Florida.” This article initially appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company
