For all of the fake QAnon, Tea Party, Trump- and Republican-led misinformation about election fraud and the need to suppress votes in the name of election fidelity, the only cases of real voter fraud and election malfeasance have always been, and continue to be, perpetrated by those on the right-hand, fascist side of the aisle. In November, Florida’s 37th District race was decided by 32 votes. Those 32 votes gave Republican Ileana Garcia the victory over incumbent Democratic Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez in a tough loss for the Democratic Party. Of course, there was a shadowy third independent candidate running in that race: a person named Alex Rodriguez (not the baseball player) who pulled in over 6,000 votes as a third-party candidate. And while seeming to do nothing to promote his campaign, Alex Rodriguez—not Jose Javier—had thousands of dollars’ worth of advertising and flyers sent out that espoused tons of Democratic Party platforms. We’re talking about Alex Rodriguez’s campaign, not Jose Javier Rodriguez’s campaign. You can see the confusion and where we’re going with this.
On Thursday morning, WPLG-ABC10 News reports that former disgraced Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges related to election shenanigans like the one that took place in Florida’s 37th District. The charges against Artiles include: making or receiving campaign contributions over or in excess of limits; conspiracy to make or receive two or more campaign contributions over or in excess of limits; and false swearing in connection with voting or elections. According to a report, Alex Rodriguez told reporters that Artiles offered to pay him $50,000 to run in the race in order to “siphon votes from the incumbent.” The money was paid in two halves, one before and one after the election. According to the Herald, the actual amount of money Rodriguez received from Artiles was $44,708.03. Maybe Artiles taxed him?
In November, reports came out of super duper shady stuff going on in Florida with newly formed political action committees and large quantities of money, Republican operatives, and support for shadowy third-party candidates in tight races. On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Artiles’ Palmetto Bay house was raided by authorities in connection with a state investigation into these election fraud activities that likely had a real effect on Florida elections. Artiles was connected with the 37th District race back in December when a report came out in the Miami Herald saying Artiles boasted about helping to fix the results in that election on election night. This came alongside reports that the third-party candidate had put a false address on his registration and had been in financial straits for some time.
Some of the more glaring flags in this case included reports of a “mysterious” company called Proclivity, Inc., which had donated a total of $550,000 to two separate Florida political action committees just one month before Election Day. Proclivity was registered in Delaware in 2019 by a man named “Richard Alexander” who no one was able to locate; a paper trail seemed to only lead to a mailbox in an Atlanta strip mall UPS store.
The Florida PACs in question also received this payload just one day after both PACs were registered on Oct. 2, 2020. “Our Florida PC” and “The Truth PC” received $370,000 and $180,000 respectively. The two PACs, supposedly run by two very young women no one had ever heard of before, also seemed to throw this money for advertising support into three mysterious third-party candidates with similar Democratic platforms in three different local races. The only connection the two women who ran the PACs seemed to have had with politics was through a young Republican political strategist named Alex Alvarado.
That’s a sign from when he was being forced to resign
Alex Rodriguez’s loss was Ileana Garcia’s win. Reporters fanned out searching for Alex Rodriguez and other candidates and were on the receiving end of some strange behavior from candidates like Rodriguez, who at first said he wasn’t who he was before later admitting he was indeed the guy who ran for office. Other third-party candidates with connections to these PACs had similarly dubious responses to reporters’ questions. Some, like Rodriguez, had worrisome legal histories like pleading guilty to two counts of “felony grand theft” back in 2012.
Artiles’ name came into the conversation a month later after the Herald did a report about the former state senator. According to sources, Artiles had “outlined the early stages of his so-called ‘siphoning strategy’ in the summer of 2018 with a friend.”
Artiles resigned in disgrace after a “alcohol-fueled tirade against Sen. Audrey Gibson” revealed how much of a misogynistic, racist dirtbag he is. That came on top of an investigation into his campaign’s very questionable use of funds to hire a Playboy magazine model and a Hooters “calendar girl” as campaign “consultants.” To put his entire political career into stark focus, Artiles’ big thing was railing against transgender bathrooms. The Herald says that Artiles is now a lobbyist in the Sunshine State. Hopefully, Artiles will receive the full investigation, trial, and justice he seems to so clearly deserve.
Jose Javier Rodriguez’s election attorney Juan Carlos Planas told reporters: “In our investigation, we realize Alex Rodriguez was someone who owed money to many people in town.“ But sadly, Planas explained, there isn’t enough recourse here to overturn an election. “At the end of the day, Jose Javier Rodriguez lost the election, but the victims here are the voters in the district who were not made fully aware as to who was financing a third-party candidate.”
Since the fraudulent votes can’t just be given over to one candidate or the other, it doesn’t change the results of how many votes Garcia received versus how many Jose Javier Rodriguez received. The only way this could be fixed would be for the district to hold another vote—something that’s unlikely to happen. Instead, more campaign finance controls and some kind of meaningful oversight on this kind of activity before elections must take place.
