#Florida Cong. Matt Gaetz is now tied to shill candidate in a state senate election. This thread shows how *that* ghost candidate is directly connected to two So Fla shills we busted last Nov.
It’s in the money trail that led to Frank Artiles arrest.
Here we go: @WPLGLocal10
The three shill candidates planted in three #Florida state senate races last November are:
Celso Alfonso (in D39 #MiamiDade), Alex Rodriguez (in D37 #Miami Dade), Jestine Iannotti (D9 Central FL - no pic) ....
All 3 filed as no-party-affiliation, did no campaigning, no fundraising, nothing. And yet they were backed by two Political Action Committees: “Our Florida” and “The Truth”. Both PACS were created the same day, Oct. 2nd - a month before the election.
And that’s just the start..
Both PACs have only 1 contribution & only 1 expenditure.
And they’re identical.
The only contributor (10/3, a day after opening): “Proclivity”, which suddenly changed in Florida campaign records to “Grow United”. Both are untraceable co’s registered in Delaware...
... Notice $370,000 went to “Our Florida” PAC, supporting the two South Florida shill candidates, Rodriguez & Alfonso.
$180,000 went to “The Truth” PAC, supporting one Central Florida shill candidate, Iannotti.
Two days later, 10/5, both PACs made what would be their only expenditure - all the money, $550K - to the same Clermont, FL printing company “Advance Impressions”.
It’s owners are from Miami: the mom & stepdad of a GOP strategist tied to both PACs.
The product?..:
Here are the flyers they printed: identical in graphics but for the shill candidates’ names.
They were mailed to the respective districts’ voters to make the shills appeal to Democrats, to siphon votes from the real Dems in the race (all of whom lost).
Back to #Florida Cong. Matt Gaetz, whom NYT connects to D9 shill candidate Jestine Iannotti...
Shill “schemes” are not illegal in #Florida; illegal campaign funding is.
That’s how #Miami SAO charged Artiles & Rodriguez.
No indication Central FL SAOs are on the case. @WPLGLocal10
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Hello from South Dade Landfill, where $millions in brand-new medical ventilators were dumped & destroyed.... infuriating some who know the need for the most serious #covid19 patients.
It’s here On video (*salty language alert*). Also, threading what we’ve learned @WPLGLocal10⏩
2/ The stamp on the crate shows the ventilator manufacturer is a 35yr old company in Beijing: Aerospace Changfeng Ltd.
The shipment likely came through US Customs last May. @WPLGLocal10
3/The model number, ACM812A, indicates it’s an anesthesia ventilator. We found this broker’s listing👇🏼selling it for $26,000 US last spring, when ventilators were in shortt supply for an exploding number of #covid19 patients.
🚨🚨Coming for arrest right now🚨🚨
Ex-#Florida Sen. Frank Artiles (in lawyer’s car) for planting & funding a fake candidate, manipulating Nov2020 elections
*illegal campaign $$$
*conspiring to do it
*False swearing-in
First stop: #Miami Dade Co. jail
More coming @WPLGLocal10
His car drive right past the jail entrance when he saw our camera. But eventually, they had to U-turn and come back.
Here’s the seriously quick right through @WPLGLocal10 : local10.com/news/politics/…
From Alex Rodriguez‘s attorney... arrest warrant shows he (the shill candidate) has been spilling the beans on Frank Artiles since the day police brought him in for questioning.
We heard the shots, a dozen or so .. right here on Biscayne Boulevard .. dozens of police already here investigating an earlier shooting near Bayside ran toward the gun fire… 1/ @WPLGLocal10
Shot in the leg ... we are now seeing two people detained, possibly a third. Biscayne is closed between NE 1st & 2nd Streets
Still trying to confirm whether this has any connection to the shots fired in front of Bayside an hour+ earlier... a young woman grazed by a bullet.
That’s why dozens of police were already here...
Casings litter the boulevard
(Thread) We are waking up to the sad news that Don Ryce has passed - the man whose life in is defined in South #Florida by an unrelenting push for justice for his son Jimmy’s abduction & murder. It took 19 years from that 1995 crime to his killer’s execution in 2014 ...
1/
... one of the first cases I covered from its beginning to its end, including as a witness to the execution.
I wrote this personal look-back the night before. I hope you will take the time to read it, now as a tribute to Don Ryce.
I hope he is resting In peace.
2/
... 2/12/14 Starke, Fla -
“
So this is the end of the story.
And we were there from the beginning.
That day Jimmy disappeared, we couldn't click his picture around Facebook, couldn't instantly put the collective call out on Twitter about a missing almost-10-year-old boy...
3/
🚨We have some answers on the #Florida Vote By Mail ballot that boomeranged for 7 weeks through the US mail, from a North Carolina post office to a #MiamiBeach home, and ultimately cost a resident her votes.
The headline: human error.
This thread has the rest:
2/ “I was furious my ballot wasn’t counted”
Laura Quinlan mailed from NC 3wks before the Aug #Florida primary. It landed at her home Tuesday “returned to sender” & “insufficient address”, tho clearly it’s the preprinted envelope destined for #Miami Dade Elections HQ @WPLGLocal10
3/ #MIami Dade Elections has a @USPS liaison who says: the envelope should have been put in a separate, dedicated election mail stream. Instead, a carrier misfiled the envelope into the track that processes mail for return (despite the “official” logo at the top) @WPLGLocal10
1st full #Miami Dade School Board meeting since virtual school meltdown- now 3hrs into parent & teacher comments.
A sample: “disaster”, “injustice”, “useless platform”, “malfeasance” & “show cause why board should not be on unpaid leave along with superintendent “ @WPLGLocal10 1/
2/ Meeting started, as usual, at 1pm. A budget hearing is scheduled at 6pm. Six items added late to the agenda are meant to figure out what went wrong & fix the disaster.
Question: Will any of it get done today?
Meeting now stopped down for budget hearing, will restart afterward with more hours of public comment.
No board discussion/decisions about K12 items until that’s exhausted. Late night ahead...
Meanwhile - here’s our wrap of the public unloading⏩