Last-Minute Dirty Campaigning Alert

The candidate running for Coral Gables Commission Group 4 is named, according to his filing statement, Frank C. Quesada. His office is at 355 Alhambra Circle, Suite 801, Coral Gables, Florida 33134. There is no misconduct on his record.

That would seem to make him an entirely different person from the Coral Gables lawyer by the name of G. Frank Quesada who was the subject of a public reprimand by the Florida Supreme Court in 2009 for his actions in connection with a real estate deal. His office is at 1313 Ponce De Leon Blvd # 200, Coral Gables, FL 33134.

Beware anyone trying to suggest otherwise in, say, an unsigned email.

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14 Responses to Last-Minute Dirty Campaigning Alert

  1. Walter says:

    Little Havana style politics at its worst

  2. Vic says:

    Dirty? or just lazy?

    One of the downsides of the ready availability of so much info on the Interweb is that 25-30 year olds, who have always had instant access to things (through computers, cell phones, etc.) in their teen and adult lives is that they have been trained to see this firehose of data as normal. So they almost never bother to vet anything. If it says it on the Interweb, it must be real data from somewhere, so I can rely on it. Or at least that’s how life is so I just do what I can with it. After all, wikipeadia is edited by hundreds of thousands of people, how could it be wrong?

    Hence, I get phone calls from debt collectors looking for a deadbeat with my name on a constant basis. Not because I am being targeted personally, but because the collector no doubt is calling everyone that has that name, with info readily available to them on the Interweb, until the real one is found. Which is going to be never, since he seems to be the one that’s in Prison right now. (I checked once.)

  3. MAndersonCG says:

    Pretty disgusting tactics that have arrived in Coral Gables, mostly usually engineered by those who have no ethical standards. I hope voters tell these carpetbagger campaign consultants (from outside our city) to get the heck out of dodge.

  4. Jerry G says:

    This fake outrage is just outrageous.

    I’ve been reading this blog for a while now, and I’m wondering just what world some of the commenters have been living in. The same goes for the useless Miami Herald, which is completely out of touch with reality.

    Every single race in Coral Gables involving credible candidates has been heated. For as long as anyone can remember. In the 1970s, when a few incumbents were tossed out, to the 2001 repeat when Slesnick, Cabrera and Anderson were swept in, to most recently Anderson’s race in 2009, etc.

    Every single person, including Withers, Kerdyk and the lions of the past, have played rough — or let their proxies play rough.

    Any candidate or incumbent who claims to have run purely “positive” campaigns is so full of it.

    Blogs like this don’t help things when they don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to campaigning. As an example, why do you keep saying “push poll” unless you are sure it was a “push poll.”

    From what’s been described, it doesn’t sound like any “push” polling has been going on.

    I also find not-so-subtle racism on this blog to be offensive with references to Little Havana and Hialeah.

    Alert to Anglos — some of the worse campaigning in the country takes place in Anglo communities in South Florida. Right in lily white Broward County.

    There. I got that off my chest!

    • Push polls are when the supposed pollster tells you something negative about a candidate in the hopes of moving your vote.

      I suppose it is conceivable that some of the early polls were sincerely testing the effectiveness of negative messages that campaigns were thinking of using. Although a lot of people seem to have gotten those calls (another sign of a push poll is that they don’t just call a small sample — the point is to spread the message).

      It is not very persuasive to me that a poll taken only a few days before the election, in which you’re asked who you are for then told negative things about them and asked if you still are for them, is anything but a push poll as by that time it’s late to change a media buy. And I got one of those and blogged about it.

      If you have an alternate explanation, please let us know what it is.

      As regards the comments about campaigning styles, please note the distinction between what I write and what commentators write.

      • Jerry G says:

        I’m not that familiar with the most recent poll you are talking about, so I will defer to you on that one. I will say it goes to intent — whether the goal is to gauge or sway opinion.

        I would just call them “attack calls” instead of push polling, since the term push polling is misused and misunderstood.

        It seems the early poll was called a push poll by you and other bloggers. They seemed to zero in on the question about Rosenblatt’s sexual orientation. That doesn’t sound like a push poll at all.

        You might not like the question, but it doesn’t sound like a push poll. Questions similar to that are asked all the time, by groups of all political persuasions.

        All that said, I think your blog has done a civic service by giving daily reports on the ads and such going on. We can’t get that anywhere else. Of course, you are Anglo, so you obviously didn’t get everything, or got only certain things.

        I do very much want to find out why on earth no one has written about Korge and his connection to the Tampa group that is dropping attack mail pieces on Cason.

        I’ve heard ad nauseum about the CG cops beating up Rosenblatt (who did NOT question a word about the attack being less than factual, btw), but nada about Korge.

        • The Herald asked Korge about the attack mailers. He told them he had no idea who was behind it.

          You say that despite this denial that you think Korge is connected to the ‘Tampa’ group (actually, according to the Herald, a UM Law student). But you don’t say WHY you believe this, or offer any evidence. I think that until there is some actual evidence offered, no one with principles will write about it.

          • Jerry G says:

            Now we’re getting somewhere. So, let’s refresh a bit before i get to your point…….

            The Herald makes a big fuss about the CG cops disseminating accurate, truthful information about Rosenblatt. information that came from the herald and a tv station. information that rosenblatt didn’t deny, but rather tried vainly to spin away.

            the herald reporter interviewed the cops and guy who did these attack pieces (that’s exactly what they are), all on the records as far as i can tell.

            now turn to korge, and the complete opposite situation — virtually NO coverage.

            korge pleads ignorant, and the story mostly DIES, gets buried.

            the moral here is don’t talk to the herald, or in the case of korge, lie to them, and the story will die!

            as to your point….this tampa group MUST file finance reports with the city clerk of coral gables. it’s all there. three — yes, three — herald reporters worked on the last story this weekend, and none bothered to get off his/her ass to bother getting these reports.

            it’s absolutely amazing that the herald — or any other entity — hasn’t told us about their finance reports.

            now, if the reports weren’t filed, then that’s an infraction of campaign finance laws.

            THAT’s a story, too.

            it’s very simple electoral equation — you beat up cason, and his votes gravitate to korge, the other challenger to the incumbent. politics 101. ok, maybe 201.

            So, to sum up…. all evidence leads to korge. someone just needs to bother to get the evidence.

            i guess to prove my point i will have to get the reports myself, since no one else will.

  5. Just me says:

    I have to agree with Jerry G regarding the “not-so-subtle racism on this blog [involving] references to Little Havana and Hialeah.” The comments are pretty annoying, but I usually ignore them.

  6. Al says:

    In the case of The Herald, do you mean handing them a smoking gun, and the suspected shooter cooperating with them fully, on the record.

    I think the term is “reporting.” Professor, there’s no clear and convincing standard in the news business.

    • In Saturday’s article the Herald reported that it had gotten the information off the mystery group’s registration with Coral Gables, and this is what it was:

      The mailers against Cason came from “The Committee for Coral Gables’ Future,” with a return address in Tampa. Slesnick denied any involvement; Korge said he didn’t know who the group was.

      “Whoever did this did it in a hurry, and did it sloppily,” Cason said. “This is a group no one’s heard of. They’re running scared, whoever it is.”

      According to a Statement of Electioneering Communication filed with the city of Coral Gables, Jordan Behlman is the committee’s chairman. When contacted by The Miami Herald on Friday, Behlman would not comment about his involvement with the group. Behlman, 30, is a registered student at the University of Miami School of Law.

      The mailer’s return address is 3606 S. Waverly Cir., Tampa, which Behlman listed as his permanent address on the electioneering statement. It’s the address of Behlman’s parents. Behlman’s mother, Jaynee, said Friday they have nothing to do with Coral Gables.

      That doesn’t spell K-o-r-g-e to me, although I suppose it’s possible that he might have met the student while teaching a tax class.

      But maybe what you mean is that there should an additional report, which shows where the group got its money. I’m not actually sure that they have to disclose their funding if all they do is election communications in municipal elections. But I don’t do elections law, and the Florida statute is a bit opaque on first glance.

      So, yes, it would be nice if someone went down to city hall and found out if there is such a report and what it says.

      But in the absence of that, what evidence is there for tying it to Korge or anyone else?

  7. Whatsup says:

    G Frank Quesada, is Frank Quesada’s father. Being the offspring of an attorney myself, to have a complaint issued against him after so many years of law practice, especially in Miami, is a non issue.

    • A complaint maybe, but an adjudication of guilt? That’s a bit more serious, or at least potentially so. But in any case, father or not, it’s not the candidate and thus irrelevant.

  8. Jerry G says:

    the kid in tampa is irrelevant. follow the money.

    Yes, there should be a financial report, with contributions, expenditures. Yes, they must disclose those to the reporting authority, on a regular basis, where they are doing electioneering communications.

    How about interviewing a disinterested expert in these matters about who would gain when Cason is attacked?

    At this point, that looney former Herald reporter who now rants and raves in her blog seems like a star in comparison.

    Look, some real reporters would have gotten this story done. The Herald does have a few left who know campaigns and campaign finance.

    Most telling, The Herald has written blog items and even stories with a lot less “evidence.” They pretty much do what they please.

    Just saying….

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