![rolando rodriguez attorney rolando rodriguez attorney](https://cdn.arrests.org/Florida/PalmBeach/mugshots/2010/2010044976.jpg)
State Senate District 9 includes Seminole County and a part of southwestern Volusia County. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has confirmed that it has opened a preliminary fact-finding investigation related to the District 9 race. But the money flowing through the Alvarado-created PACs to Advance Impression also paid for print jobs for ghost candidates in those races that used similar left-leaning messages that seemed similarly intended to siphon off Democratic votes. Garcia ended up beating Jose Javier Rodriguez by just 32 votes, while Alex Rodriguez, despite not campaigning, received more than 6,400 votes.Īrtiles has not been charged in connection with any involvement in the other two state Senate races in districts 39 and 9. The mailers positioned Alex Rodriguez as a left-leaning independent and helped siphon votes away from the Democrat, Jose Javier Rodriguez. From there, a portion of the funds were used to support Alex Rodriguez and the other ghost candidates.
![rolando rodriguez attorney rolando rodriguez attorney](https://www.newsroompanama.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/PKenia-Porcellorcell-funcionarios-Procuraduria-Rolando-Rodriguez_LPRIMA20180911_0035_36.jpg)
Alvarado then moved all those funds to the company his stepfather owns, Advance Impression LLC. Grow United put a total of $550,000 in the two PACs Alvarado created. Grow United is the creation of Richard Alexander of Cullman, Alabama, records released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office show. Those dollars originated from a Super PAC called Grow United Inc. with a Denver postal box address. But behind the scenes, Alvarado arranged for the hundreds of thousands of dollars that were spent to purchase postcards that were to be mailed to Democrats in that district and two other districts where similar ghost candidates were running. Artiles is accused of recruiting and paying Alex Rodriguez to run as a third candidate in the District 37 state Senate race between incumbent Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez and Republican challenger Ileana Garcia.Īlex Rodriguez laid low during the campaign.
#ROLANDO RODRIGUEZ ATTORNEY TRIAL#
owner Pat Bainter have been charged with any crime.Īrtiles was scheduled to have gone on trial this week, but that's been delayed as a co-defendant and one of the ghost candidates, Alex Rodriguez, pleaded guilty last week and agreed to testify against Artiles. Neither Alvarado, his stepfather, Tyson, Smith or Data Targeting Inc. And, Artiles was receiving $15,000 a month during the 2020 election season from Data Targeting Inc., a powerful Gainesville firm closely linked with the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. Records show Artiles had also been receiving a $5,000 monthly consulting check from "Let's Preserve the American Dream," an organization headed by Tyson. He is accused of paying one of the ghost candidates in south Florida. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office has levied criminal election-related charges against Frank Artiles, a former Republican state senator. In the end, $220,000 to $250,000 of the original $550,000 paid to Advance Impression LLC ended up going toward mailers for the three ghost candidates, Luis Orlando Rodriguez estimated. Still another $26,500 was paid as a referral fee to a company run by Ryan Tyson, a Tallahassee political operative. In his interview, Luis Orlando Rodriguez said he also returned more than $65,000 of the money he received from the two PACs back to his stepson's company Alvarado Strategies, as a referral fee.Īnother $100,000 was paid to '96 Consulting and Marketing, a Tallahassee company that supplied artwork for the ghost candidates' campaign mailers. Money for nothing?: PAC chair helping ghost candidate in Brodeur race got $4,000, had 'no responsibilities' 'I'm not going to jail, right?': Texts show worry as dark money scheme to help Florida GOP candidates unraveled
![rolando rodriguez attorney rolando rodriguez attorney](https://s3.amazonaws.com/CFSV2/obituaries/photos/8901/728454/5e6654e59e705.jpg)
Guilty plea: Ghost candidate pleads guilty in Frank Artiles' Miami election corruption case Alvarado set up "Our Florida" and "The Truth," political committees that were used to funnel dark money for mailers for ghost candidates who did not campaign after filling out paperwork entering the races for state Senate Districts 9, 37 and 39. Luis Orlando Rodriguez, 55, is also the stepfather of Alex Alvarado, a Tallahassee-based strategist. The interview occurred in December 2020 but was released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office on Tuesday. The man who brokered a printing job - campaign mailers for three "ghost" Florida Senate candidates last fall - told investigators he took home a profit of $136,000 for what the investigators suggested may have been less than a week of work.Īn investigator's interview with Luis Orlando Rodriguez, owner of Advance Impression LLC of Clermont, sheds more light on how $550,000 in dark campaign funds ended up helping three no-party affiliation candidates in state Senate races in South and Central Florida.