Evidence suggests several state Senate candidates were plants funded by dark money

SNIP
Why would candidates for Florida Senate seats do no campaigning, no fundraising, have no issue platforms, nor make any effort to get votes?

Local 10 News has found evidence to suggest three such candidates in three Florida Senate district races, two of them in Miami Dade County, were shill candidates whose presence in the races were meant to syphon votes from Democratic candidates.

Comparisons of the no-party candidates' public campaign records show similarities and connections that suggest they are all linked by funding from the same dark money donors, and part of an elaborate scheme to upset voting patterns.
ENDSNIP

https://www.local10.com/news/local/...-candidates-were-plants-funded-by-dark-money/

Everybody should read this entire article... it's not very long, but it makes a reasonably clear case that there is something fishy going on (it's Florida, that's the state motto)...

Shouldn't it be against the law to falsify your application to be on the ballot??

Ultimately, it is on the voters to know who you are voting for, but this is the kind of thing that gives US elections a real bad name.

Anybody agree that people running for office get to remain essentially anonymous?

 

Be honest, they are anonymous. The only two names I recognized on my ballot were Trump/Biden.

 

Well, that's sad for you, not even knowing who the VP candidates were...

One of them is pretty fly, they other one had a fly on his head....

If that helps...

 

The people aren't anonymous, but the money was. In the case where the 3rd party candidate filed false information but had the same last name as the D candidate, that is dirty politics. But the D candidate should have looked into her from the beginning and had her removed from the ballot.

 

As long as they were real people it's fine. Lots of candidates don't campaign.

 

I was told election shenanigans never happen - ever! Anyway, if this is true, I'll have to ask my ex (if she ever responds to me) why didn't the democrats this of this, or is it possible this idea was stolen from democrats? Anyway, who votes for a candidate who did no campaigning? Since the article says the intent was to siphon votes, then they probably targeted the same democrats who were swayed by Russian facebook ads. We're not dealing with intelligent people here.

 

Who told you shenanigans never happen in elections? Was it someone who never heard of Kanye West? Lol

 

jesus, Ego, almost put my fist thru another monitor after reading that link...

So not only does the District 37 no-party stooge conveniently have the same last name as the Dem candidate, but the same full name as a famous baseball player who is very well known in South Florida.

Not only is this yet another example of filthy, CORRUPT republicans rigging the system ... but it's a reminder to Dems of the truly VILE human garbage that they're up against...

 

ROFL!!!!! You can't make this one up. That sounds exactly like China Joe Biden!

 

That's your fault. This is completely knowable. I guess you aren't a state's rights kind of person. It's one of my biggies.

 

I think the point of the article was that the 3 candidates were essentially anonymous. State Senate is not like Clerk of the Court or other more minor State election positions.. .

I'm not sure it should be on the candidates to vet each other either... Seems to me there should be a basic simple set of standards by the various election boards to verify each candidate meets... Is willing to provide a head shot for the election website would be one...

 

Yeah, that part of it wasn't specifically mentioned in the article, but Alex Rodriguez, baseball player, is a LEGEND in South Florida, even if he never played professionally down there.. The article mentions the mans full name is Alexis, but Alex Rodriguez on a ballot will get any voter in Miami-Dade over 40 to take a second and wonder.

I suspect this story will continue to get some oxygen in South Florida, but little nationally...

 

Candidates who do no campaigning do not need "dark money" LOL

PS we have a conspiracy section here, do we not?

 

I don’t know whether it’s true or not. And I will reserve judgement pending more information.

But it does fit the pattern of scam pacs and direct mail fundraising scams that are rampant

And there appears to be a lot of it in Florida.

Back when Alan West was running for re-election, a bunch of scam pacs appeared to purportedly raise money for the West Campaign. In fact, the were pocketing the money. As a result donors who thought they were giving to Alan West, were, in fact, giving money to anonymous fraudsters using his name to pocket donor’s money.

Armstrong Williams is a big player in this fake PAC and fake campaign racket.

He later teamed up with West to do more of it.

Of course, Armstrong Williams is one of Ben Carson’s BFF’s. They ran a fake Presidential campaign. Raised all sorts of cash from gullible evangelicals, and pocketed at least 70% of the money.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/right-wing-scam-machine-jonah-goldberg/

The greed of the scam obviously attracted the attention of Donald Trump, for whom scams come naturally.

Carson got the HUD job so he could entertain the bible thumpers while his agency was doling out money to the Kushner Companies.

 

I don’t know. This isn’t the first election scam pac to operate in Florida. It’s the first (that I know of) that may have fielded fake candidates.

But Google Armstrong Williams or Alan West, and you’ll find a whole rat’s nest of fundraising front groups that are just as sketchy.

Not that Florida’s Attorney General at the time was likely to do anyything about it. She was taking payoffs from Trump’s fake charity to drop the Florida case against Trump U.

 

Good point... it probably should have said personal campaigning, which was the case here... All they had done with the untraceable money was fliers..

I don't believe news reports from local TV stations are filed under conspiracy. If I wanted to claim this was all the work of Eric and Lara Trump and the 3 MIA candidates were harvesting the blood of children, then I'd post it in conspiracy....

 

I was under the impression that the New York Times already cleared this up for us.

I thought linked somewhere in another thread I just don't have access to it right now

 

It doesn't allege that this was any attempt to scam people financially... I can't imagine you'd make that much trying to raise massive money for a State Senate race...

But fake candidates is scary enough... It sounds like a relatively cheap way to try and affect a few local races...

 

Sure, because when a NYT article is posted, all conservatives on PF.com take it as gospel....

I cannot find anything under a quick google search..

This is State Senate in Florida... I'm not sure how the NYT would have lurched into this story so quickly, but it's a good one for a local news station to break....

 

Let's see.....ignore all evidence of shady goings on in the presidential election as fake news, THEN be aghast that some maybe shady doings in Florida might pull some votes away from Democrats...OH THE HUMANITY!!! Sorry, I lack the words, hypocrisy doesn't even come close...

 

Glad you said it so I didn't have to...

 

It is against the law to falsify your application to run.

 

$370,000 is a lot of money,, when one of your “candidates” is an 81 year old man.

 

There’s no evidence that fliers were ever printed. The company that allegedly did it doesn’t exist.

 

Hmm... I'm not sure about that.... this article indicates fliers were made and that company does exist..

SNIP
Both candidates' support appears to come from the same Political Action Committee, “Our Florida” - that have no previous political contributions or expenditures listed. It is the PAC that paid for campaign fliers for the candidates, all done by the same Clermont, Florida mail house, Advance Impressions.
ENDSNIP

It's the "entity" that funded the PAC that cannot be fully traced..

That's my understanding from the article...