Florida Politician Charged With Backing a Ruse Candidate in Bizarre Scheme to Sabotage Incumbent With Same Last Name
Former Republican Florida state senator Frank Artiles is facing felony campaign finance charges for allegedly funding a sham candidate to manipulate voters in November 2020, a local Florida news station reported Thursday.
Artiles was booked into an an area correctional center, along with the fake candidate Alex Rodriguez, Miami’s WPLG reported. Both are facing third-degree felony charges of making or receiving campaign contributions over limits, conspiracy to make or receive two or more campaign contributions over the limits, and false swearing in connection with voting or elections, according to the report.
According to a warrant obtained by the station, “investigators say Artiles offered to pay Rodriguez $50,000 – half during the election and half afterward – for Rodriguez to enter November’s District 37 state senate race, where he shared a last name with the incumbent Democrat candidate Jose Javier Rodriguez.”
The warrant also shows that the investigation into Artiles and Alex Rodriguez began one day after WPLG ran a story outlining “evidence that some state senate candidates in the election were plants funded by dark money,” the report said.
WPLG reported that Alex Rodriguez told investigators that Artiles reached out to him in May 2020 through Facebook Messenger. During an in-person meeting later that day, Artiles outlined the plan: Alex Rodriguez would enter the state senate race to confuse voters and pull votes from the Democratic candidate, who had the same last name. Investigators also found that Artiles paid Alex Rodriguez nearly $45,000 for “changing his party affiliation, qualifying as an independent candidate for Senate Seat 37, and attempting to [siphon] votes from the incumbent candidate.”
Republican challenger Ileana Garcia ultimately won the race, defeating Jose Javier Rodriguez by just 32 votes. Alex Rodriguez lived two counties away from the district, and got more than 6,000 votes, despite not campaigning, according to WPLG.
The story also notes that “masterminding a sham candidate is not illegal, but financing one is.”
Artiles resigned his senate seat in 2017 after using a racial slur while at a club with colleagues.
