Other $10,000 donations:
Kendall Properties & Investment - RONALD BERGERON OF PARKLAND DEVELOPMENT
Krome Mining Partners - RONALD BERGERON
Coastal Construction Group - THOMAS P. MURPHY
Ernesto A. Perez - EDUCATION
Argo-Industrial Management - FLORIDA CRYSTALS???
Nsoro Mastec, LLC - JOSE MAS
T.Y. Lin International - ENGINEERING IN SAN FRANSCISCO
Suffolk Construction - (Boston Company at a Genting Cocktail party in June)
$5,000 donors:
Blue Lagoon Associates LTD - MARC MILGRAM
Carlton Fields - LAW FIRM
Jeffrey L. Berkowitz Trust -
LSN Partners, LLC - ALEXANDER HECKLER MGR.
Lydecker, Lee, Berga - LAW FIRM
Waste Management - HERBERT GETZ IN HOUSTON
ARMAG II, LLC - SAME ADDRESS AS CODINA PARTNERS
The Related Group - JORGE PEREZ
Pictured: Steve Bateman Homestead Mayor with a Gimenez $10,000 donor, Ernesto Perez.
23 comments:
The Fanjuls just can't keep their hands off EVERY level of Florida politics. They get all that free ching from the Farm Bill and Congress, and spread it like manure over the political landscape. Why rotate crops when you get free fertilizer?
I'm waiting for a candidate other than Gimenez or "I'm not a crook" Martinez!
I think we’re all missing the bigger picture here. Forget “Genting”, well not totally, but this PAC has raised over half a million dollars in the last few months. Lobbyist, developers, law firms, bundlers, and much more… I guess our honeymoon with transparency and ethical government was short lived.
That's why: Occupy Miami.
Occupy the 29th floor at county hall!
The lobbyist "occupy" the 29th floor already. There's no more room up there for JQP and/or taxpayers and/or voters! (well, I'm sure the AB bundlers are there too!)
The cheapest democracy money can buy.
I think democracy is lost in Miami Dade County, thanks to an entrenched BCC! It's so funny to know the majority of them are Republican's, but vote like Socialists when it comes to "their" special interests, which isn't any of us!
What the hell does the BCC have to do with this story?
Actually, instead of having shadow PAC's, Gimenez has one ECO that everyone knows about, and can check per reporting requirements. That is transparency. For those of you that think you can run without money in any town in the US, well, your a little naive. If he takes positions against the County on behalf of one of the contributors, then, you have grounds to complain, but, until then, like it or not, it is part of the political process as it currently exists.
I may be naïve, but I don’t lie. PAC’s as well as ECO’s are public record too. All donations and expenditures are reported equally… to get better informed you can visit: http://www.voterfocus.com/ws/mdccand/candidate_pr.php?c=miamidade&el=13
In addition, it sucks to see you make distinctions to justify the Mayor. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck.
I guess I will have to explain this better. At the end of the day, PAC's and ECO's are essentially the same thing, with different names. What most politicians do (see Julio Robaina the bad), is they have friends create shadow PAC's, ECO's, CCE's, etc., just like Keith Donner's Accountability Project PAC that takes money from supporters of the candidate, works on messaging with the candidate, etc. When asked about the 14 hit pieces most of us quality voters received, Robaina said, oh, those didn't come from me. What Gimenez did was open an ECO, with his name as the chair, making it clear that what came from that ECO was coming from him, and there was no attempt to hide around some legal technicality. That had never been done in any local race that I am aware of, and it was certainly a step in the right direction. The distinction is not in the name ECO, PAC, etc., there is no substantive distinction between the any political committee... The REAL DISTINCTION is in the use, and disclosure.
There is an interesting post on investigationmiami that goes into Sarnoff's use of a Robaina like PAC structure. It really does give you a good idea on how it works in practice, when done under the table, without accountability, and how hard it can be to follow the money:
http://investigationmiami.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-this-sarnoffs-pac.html
To the anon Gimnenez defender… So we are to be comforted by the idea that in Gimene’z case we know who the perpetrator is. Hmm. Interesting. Never mind that he’s being bankrolled by every special interest, lobbyist, developer and the like. Never mind that $ 500.000is probably the largest amount raised in a mayoral race in a three month period that I can recall. It’s all fine and dandy, because we know it’s him that’s doing it. You’re right anon. Definitely a new political moral standard is born. Kudos!
Reality is that you need money to run a campaign. It is what it is. He has accepted developer money before, and still voted against the UDB move. Robaina raised more than $5 million in less than six months, granted, a lot of that money went to his Shadow PACs and ECOs. The reports are there. If he ever takes a position against the best interests of the County and its residents, to the benefit of any contributor, that is certainly legitimate grounds for scrutiny. That's why disclosures are required by law, and that is good public policy. The better public policy would be to revamp election finance, but, until that happens, what do you want him to do, not raise any money at all, and have another Robaina like candidate come out of the woodwork and undo the positive steps that have been taken in the last few months??
Nobody will be elected mayor of dade county without the big heavy hitting contributors who have unlimited funds and ways of insureing that the money winds up in the right candidate's bank account. If you think for a second that there is a candidate who will refuse PAC money and other big contributors think again.
So who gets heard: the $10, $100, $1000, or $10,000 donor. If you don't have skin in the game, your piddly little contributions don't mean jack.
. .But if enough $10, $20, $50 and $100 dollar ones come together, they can easily knock off the $10,000 one and get in front of the line. . .
I know I’ll get blasted for this comment but Carlos Alvarez first got elected without all the trash of lobbyist and special interest money that the anon above claims is needed to get elected. It can be done. Poor excuse to justify Gimene’z actions.
I don’t know when the Coastal Construction Group gave the donation to Gimenez, but I do know that Thomas P. Murphy better known as TERRY MURPHY’S BROTHER, had an item that came in front of the BCC and it was voted down. Poor Thomas doesn't have his brother working the agenda for him. Sweet
Terry Murphy is working for Suarez, isn't he???
You will see many of these guys contributing (investing) in all strong contenders. It does not surprise me or freak me out. Bad governing freaks me out.
To Anon 1 - the Fanjuls have a stake in Miami Dade County's Port of Miami expansion - they just inked a deal for use of the 850-acre "inland port" near South Bay (Everglades).
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