GOP Congressman David Rivera has a political death wish. Today's Miami Herald story -- of Rivera secretly funding a campaign to undo the primary of his Democratic rival -- is amazing of itself, but quadruply so because of his repeated near political death brushes with the law since his first election to Congress only a few years ago.
It all spilled out in the Herald and El Nuevo Herald this morning: "Fueled with $43,000 in secret money, Republican Rep. David Rivera helped run a shadow campaign that might have broken federal laws in last week’s Democratic primary against his political nemesis Joe Garcia, according to campaign sources and finance records. As part of the effort, a political unknown named Justin Lamar Sternad campaigned against Garcia by running a sophisticated mail campaign that Rivera helped orchestrate and fund, campaign vendors said. Among the revelations: The mailers were often paid in envelopes stuffed with crisp hundred-dollar bills. Rivera and Sternad have denied working together in his campaign, which ended Aug. 14. But Hugh Cochran, president of Campaign Data, told The Herald this week that Rivera contacted him in July and requested he create a list of voters who were ultimately targeted in the 11 mailers sent by Sternad’s campaign. “David hired me to run the data,” said Cochran, who is a retired FBI agent."
Amazing. You can't make this stuff up, including the ham-handed effort by the GOP to suppress the November early election vote in the Florida Keys. The image of GOP Gov. Rick Scott trying to push around Monroe County's election supervisor, Harry Sawyer, just makes me grin.
It all spilled out in the Herald and El Nuevo Herald this morning: "Fueled with $43,000 in secret money, Republican Rep. David Rivera helped run a shadow campaign that might have broken federal laws in last week’s Democratic primary against his political nemesis Joe Garcia, according to campaign sources and finance records. As part of the effort, a political unknown named Justin Lamar Sternad campaigned against Garcia by running a sophisticated mail campaign that Rivera helped orchestrate and fund, campaign vendors said. Among the revelations: The mailers were often paid in envelopes stuffed with crisp hundred-dollar bills. Rivera and Sternad have denied working together in his campaign, which ended Aug. 14. But Hugh Cochran, president of Campaign Data, told The Herald this week that Rivera contacted him in July and requested he create a list of voters who were ultimately targeted in the 11 mailers sent by Sternad’s campaign. “David hired me to run the data,” said Cochran, who is a retired FBI agent."
Amazing. You can't make this stuff up, including the ham-handed effort by the GOP to suppress the November early election vote in the Florida Keys. The image of GOP Gov. Rick Scott trying to push around Monroe County's election supervisor, Harry Sawyer, just makes me grin.
24 comments:
Vote GOP control of the House and Senate to makes sure we control the Supremes Court.
First Anon, we aren't as crazy as you. We don't need wacky pubs who believe that women spontaneously abort rape pregnancies and that there were dinosaurs 5,000 years ago. Rejecting science such as climate change is criminal. Don't vote for Repubicans in any federal office.
The latest Rivera story just swayed 17 West Kendall Republicans who voted for DR in 2010 to now vote for Joe Garcia. Enough is enough.
I didn't vote for Rivera last time around, but didn't vote for Garcia either. I guess I'll skip this vote again and let them fight it out. Garcia isn't any prize!
I know, I shouldn't do that, but you know what - I'm not going to vote for a candidate I don't like, or at least don't trust!
It's amazing the lengths this guy goes to win! Still amazes me that he got away with holding up a truck driver by gun to try and stop a bad mail piece against him. He reminds me f the playground bully.
How can voters continue to elect him?
Jv
To JV - I don't think the voters actually elect him!
As to Harry - he's the best! I love the Keys!
David Rivera is as low as you can go in politics -- a sleazy human being --- I am disgusted that voters have sent him to our US Congress. There is incident after incident. His former Roommate Marco Rubio is just as bad... He just doesn't get caught because he is more low key.
Congratulations to Hugh Cochaan a former FBI agent for his honesty and straight professionalism. David Rivera has been going out of his way doing what ever it takes to win elections for himself and others. The time has come for the federal and state authorities to put a stop to his shenanigans.
Now that you know that he got illegal campaign cash, you have to ask where it came from. To paraphrase Deep Throat, "Follow the money to its source." The first place I'd look is to Norman Braman and his wife, Irma. Check their accounts. You'll be surprised.
Anonymous 3: not voting is not an option. Do your research. Talk to Joe Garcia. Don't let others make your decision. I would never vote for David Rivera ever. I would vote for a goldfish over Rivera. So I would be making your decision, in effect, if I voted in that district.
I agree! You'll take time to post in a blog but you don't take the time to vote. nice.
Congrats also to Cochran. He is a honest worker in a corupt areana.
You know the saying "you cant kill a cockroach"
He is a slimmy one at that.
Why would Rivera do business with an honest guy like Cochran? Doesn't make sense does it.
Anonymous 2 above... The voter, or should I say non-voter, is conflicted, not lazy. In his/her case they have to choose the least worst in the race. The least worse is of course Joe Garcia. No one could be much worse than David Rivera.
Absentee ballots. That's the root of all evil in Miami politics and the crooks we have holding office.
As long as naive voters continue to vote for the illusion of "Freedom in Cuba", we will continue to elect these slimeballs.
And as far as Joe Garcia is concerned, I don't know him personally, but I don't get all the hatred toward him. Grant it, he's run for office twice for Congress and lost, he's a Cuban American Democrat, and is for our constitutional right to travel anywhere we want. From his website and the Herald I see that he headed the state Utilities Commission and he was against raising FPL rates.
So far I find nothing objectionable about him:
1. We know where he has worked - Cuban American National Foundation, then as an attorney, was on the US Department of Energy for a few months.
2. Is not under investigation by the FBI for taking campaign money under the table and blaming his mother, nor by the IRS for tax evasion (alledged, HA!) and lying about his employment.
3. Has not held up any mail trucks or funneled illegal campaign cash contributions to anyone's campaign.
In my book, that makes Joe Garcia a normal decent candidate. I don't believe any of this nonsense that Rivera's "Dem" candidate said about Joe and his wife. Believe me, as a divorced woman, if my husband would have left me when I was sick, I would not even talk to him. The Herald reported Joe's ex-wife held a fund raiser at her house and gave him a contribution.
At least Joe was married and formed a family. That they broke up, hey, it happens to the best of us. David Rivera has not been able to find any woman, or man for that matter, that wants to stick around long enough to marry him and form a family. And he ain't no spring chicken. Says volumes about his "character"!
So, I'm an independent and am going to vote for Joe Garcia because I like what he's about and what he wants to do in Congress. And if he gets elected and does not do what he said, I will vote against him, as long as it's not David Rivera, Marco Rubio, nor any of these GOP clowns that only talk about Cuba.
God bless that island and hope that they get rid of their crooked dictators, just don't keep sending them to us in Miami, PLEEEEEEZZZZZZ!
I was one of those voters targeted by the mail-outs. While I have thrown out garbage bags full of campaign literature, I had a few pieces that had come late and had not been discarded. When I read about the scandal, I checked the residual and low and behold, I had three mailers from Lamar Sternad! They were all 8 1/2 x 11, had Lamar at the top, and all were geared to Black voters. One had a photo of the whitehouse with the words "APPROVED March 23, 2010" and a huge Barack Obama signature taking up half the page. On the back was reasons why he would fight to protect Obamacare, a photo of him and a photo of Obama signing the bill. The next one had a huge photo of MLK on the front with a quote "Freedom must be demanded", and "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends", by MKL. On the back was another quote from MKL, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed". He also had a brief letter saying he would continue the fight for civil rights. The last one had a presidential seal with Obama facing the seal and his back to the audience with a quote from Sternad saying, "I've got his back. Are you with me?" On the back was a statement "The Bush Administration tried to stop us- Gov. Rick Scott's administration continues to try and stop us. Are we going to let them? Then there is a brief history of racial voter discrimination in FL. At the bottom is a photo of the back of Obama's head and a Black hand on his shoulders with a statement "We've got his back. Punch 28." This is a another unbelievable FL story.
I was one of those voters targeted by the mail-outs. While I have thrown out garbage bags full of campaign literature, I had a few pieces that had come late and had not been discarded. When I read about the scandal, I checked the residual and low and behold, I had three mailers from Lamar Sternad! They were all 8 1/2 x 11, had Lamar at the top, and all were geared to Black voters. One had a photo of the whitehouse with the words "APPROVED March 23, 2010" and a huge Barack Obama signature taking up half the page. On the back was reasons why he would fight to protect Obamacare, a photo of him and a photo of Obama signing the bill. The next one had a huge photo of MLK on the front with a quote "Freedom must be demanded", and "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends", by MLk. On the back was another quote from MLK, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed". He also had a brief letter saying he would continue the fight for civil rights. The last one had a presidential seal with Obama facing the seal and his back to the audience with a quote from Sternad saying, "I've got his back. Are you with me?" On the back was a statement "The Bush Administration tried to stop us- Gov. Rick Scott's administration continues to try and stop us. Are we going to let them? Then there is a brief history of racial voter discrimination in FL. At the bottom is a photo of the back of Obama's head and a Black hand on his shoulders with a statement "We've got his back. Punch 28." This is a another unbelievable FL story.
Never fails. Rivera does something and you link it to Rubio. I am sure when Joe loses you will blame the ABs.
A peak into a Republican brain:
Does honesty trump ideology? Could Joe do damage? Move more to the center, Joe, and I make make it a go.
So confused ...
For those who forget about Garcia serving in the Bush Admin and was best bud's with the Enron crew. That's when he was an Independent, but hey, at least he's not under FBI investigation or chasing mail trucks or paying a lady an obnoxious amount of campaign funds!
Talk about a lessor of two evil campaign! Enron with National implications or Election Fraud!
Great! I'm so proud to live in Dist. 26!
I know Garcia... and I worked with Garcia...
He is no GOOD.
I give you 100% guarantee that he will be at least tice as bad as Rivera.
And yes, he voted to raise utility rates many times including FP&L.
So you chose!!!
Garcia of course. I stand by my statement that no one could be worse than David Rivera. He is being investigated all over the place by The Feds and police on a myriad of offenses. The statute of limitations got him off the hook on one charge. Boo hoo on your piddly complaints on Joe. They are small potatoes in comparison. U. S. Representative David Rivera is a disaster.
Does it even matter in Miami? Voters there are numb to fraud.
To Anonymous August 22 and Anonymous August 23:
1. David Rivera and Marco Rubio were co-owners of a house in Tallahassee when they were legislators, and it went into foreclosure because they could not steal enough money from the republican party's american express card to cover the mortgage.
2. David Rivera was marco Rubio's henchman, gatekeeper and majority leader in the state legislature.
3. Marco Rubio and David Rivera share a one bedroom apartment in Washington DC ***NOW*** as senator and congressman
4. The only real fundraising that Rivera has done in the past year was done by Marco Rubio
Now...how are they not connected????!!!
P.S. Yes, Joe Garcia lost to Rivera because of Rivera's absentee ballot fraud. Look at the 2010 results!
No, Joe Garcia did not work for dummy Bush nor Enron. He was chairman of the Florida utilities commission appointed by Democrat Governor Lawton Chiles, and he voted against utility rate hikes every time. When was the last time you checked your friends marquito's and davidsito's votes on utility hikes, insurance rate hikes, fees hikes, sweetheart deals to their friends, etc.?? They are tied to the hip. One of the reasons why Rivera has not gone down yet. Rubio knows if Rivera goes down, he sings.
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