Political campaigns can be downright brutal and dirty.  Some candidates, however, play dirtier than others.

#DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn, who is running against Ricky Arriola for Miami Beach Commission Group V, has already proven to be one of the dirtiest players of them all.

The husband of soon-to-be-term-limited-out Miami Beach Commissioner Deede Weithorn has been involved in so many shady political committees, it’s almost impossible to follow that money trail.

Make no mistake, this deception is by design.

We’ve already established #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn’s connection to sleazy lobbyist Randall “Prince of Darkness” Hilliard and the Electioneering Communications Organization (ECO) Common Sense.

Even shadier, according to Common Sense’s most recent campaign finance report, it received a $13,316.73 contribution on July 21, 2015 from a political committee called Alliance for Better Representation.

Curiously, Alliance for Better Representation TERMINATED ITS EXISTENCE ON APRIL 30, 2015, nearly three months before it allegedly donated to Common Sense.

In fact, this ECO reported ABSOLUTELY NO CAMPAIGN FINANCE ACTIVITY since June 13, 2014, MORE THAN A YEAR before it allegedly donated to Common Sense.

Someone needs to ask #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn where that $13,316.73 REALLY  came from!

As I’ve also pointed out in an earlier post, #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn has teamed up with two individuals who are also no strangers to the shady world of political committees – Stephen Cody and Pedro Diaz.

Stephen Cody’s organization, Save Miami Beach, filed with the City of Miami Beach as a political committee on June 22, 2015.  He’s been sending out hit pieces via email through this political committee against Weithorn’s opponent, as well as the Mayor, a sitting Commissioner and several other candidates running for office.

Pedro Diaz has contributed money to Mark Weithorn’s Common Sense ECO through his company, Diaz Consulting Group, Inc.  Diaz has also been paid a total of $12,982.12 so far by Weithorn’s campaign for consulting and direct mailing.

Cody and Diaz also worked together in 2011 in a now defunct Florida “non-profit” corporation by the name of Citizens for a Better Miami-Dade County, Inc.

Using his political committee, Weithorn-Proxy Stephen Cody’s latest attack email was directed at Mayor Philip Levine and Commissioner Jonah Wolfson for … get this … using a political committee.

#DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn is employing the exact same strategy he used when he inexplicably insinuated himself, via his own political committee, into May’s North Miami Beach City Council election.

Last April, Weithorn teamed up with Susie Smith, the daughter of North Miami Beach Council Parrot-slash-Queen of Absentee Ballot Fraud Phyllis Smith, and created a fake persona by the name of “Laura Smith,” claiming to be a “Mother of 2, Business Owner and Concerned Resident of North Miami Beach (NMB).”  They also created a now defunct Google+ page and a website called “SaveOurStreetsNMB.com.”

Mark Weithorn and Susie Smith stupidly – and ILLEGALLY – stole the name and image of a Pittsburgh real estate agent, who had no idea that her identity had been hijacked by the fraudsters until I contacted her.  Once I outed their scheme on this website, the photos of “Laura Smith” quickly vanished from their pages.  Unfortunately for Mark and Susie, screenshots are forever!

Aside from the fact that Phyllis Smith is the Pox of NMB, Mark and Susie’s smear campaign would have been political fair game, except for one tiny detail.

They dragged yours truly into their twisted little game.

They inundated me with email blasts and tweets, twisted everything I wrote to suit their agenda, screen-grabbed a Facebook picture of me and NMB Mayor George Vallejo taken at a political event we both attended, and used the both of us to further their agenda.

I followed the paper and money trails, and quickly discovered that the “mastermind” behind this attack was none other than #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn.  He screwed with me for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Even though I never met him, Mark Weithorn attacked me personally.

So I made it my personal mission to make his life as miserable as possible.

One blog at a time.

Here’s the thing.

For the record, I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not give a rat’s ass about Miami Beach politics.

I have absolutely no opinion about Mayor Philip Levine.  I have never met him, nor have I ever been in contact with him in any way whatsoever.

What I do know is that Mayor Levine is a polarizing figure.  People either love him or hate him.  He boasts on his website, “In November 2013, Philip Levine was elected Mayor of Miami Beach.  He received 50.48% of the total vote in a four-person race.”  Regardless of what his critics say, that’s a pretty impressive mandate.

Nevertheless, Mayor Levine has apparently come under attack recently by activists and others, including Channel 10’s Michael Putney.  The fact that he’s a “major Clinton donor,” as noted by the Miami New Times, would normally not be a plus in my book.

I’m also aware that blogger and former Herald reporter Elaine de Valle, a/k/a Ladra, of Political Cortadito, has written scathing criticism about Philip Levine and about Jonah Wolfson’s alleged “Shady PAC.”  I have no reason or desire to argue with Ladra.

I also have no idea if the accusations by Philip Levine’s political enemies have any substance or not, even though most of the complaints I’ve heard so far seem to be more about his personality rather than matters of unethical practices and outright corruption.

That being said, however, I do have to admire a guy who can handily lambaste all of his critics in one venomous sentence.

As the New Times article noted, in response to criticism about his alleged role in Wolfson’s PAC, Levine sent out an email stating, “This whole ‘controversy’ was created by a commissioner who wants her husband to take over the family business, a disgruntled commissioner who failed his ethics test and cannot be a police officer, and Mt. Sinai, who tried unsuccessfully to coerce us into not allowing Baptist to come to Miami Beach!”

BOOM!

Despite all the intrigue behind the scenes in the Miami Beach, the only  reason I’m even writing about this election is because of one race in particular.

And, it’s entirely personal.

I really don’t care if Mayor Philip Levine is a good guy or not.

I don’t care if outgoing Commissioner Jonah Wolfson’s PAC raised a gazillion dollars from city vendors or anyone else.

I don’t even care what Ricky Arriola promises to do for Miami Beach.

None of that matters to me.

What does matter to me is uncovering the fraud and corruption perpetrated by Mark Weithorn, who made the mistake of getting on my radar in a most disingenuous – and dangerous – way.

I do find it ironic, however, that #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn is claiming that Commissioner Jonah Wolfson is committing an ethics violation with his political committee, Relentless For Progress, when Weithorn uses his political committee, Save Miami Beach, and his Electioneering Communications Committee, Common Sense, in more shady ways than I can count.

Talk about HYPOCRISY!

Earlier this month, the Miami Herald reported that Jonah Wolfson was shutting down his controversial political committee.

But not before taking a parting shot at #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn and his wife, Deede, for living large on the public tab.

Per this mailer sent out by Relentless for Progress, it appears that Mark accompanied Deede on not one, but two annual trips to Switzerland in 2010 and 2011 for “Swiss Art Basel,” courtesy of Miami Beach taxpayers.

Well, isn’t THAT special?

It is especially interesting to note that four years before the first of the Weithorns’ “free” (read: taxpayer funded) junkets to Switzerland, this very issue had already been brought before the Florida Ethics Commission by a citizen who requested to remain nameless.

On December 6, 2006, the Florida Ethics Commission rendered an opinion specifically about these annual trips to Swiss Art Basel.  The Commission stated, “For purposes of Section 112.3148, Florida Statutes, a city official has received a “gift” when the city pays travel expenses for the official’s spouse or other guest to accompany the city official on a city-sponsored trip.”

The Commission opined further that, “when a public official travels on official agency business paid for by his agency, he has not received a “gift” for purposes of Section 112.3148,” the Commission views “the spouse or guest’s travel as an indirect gift to the public official and, to the extent that it exceeds $100, it must be reported on a quarterly gift disclosure form.”

Finally, the Commission determined, “Accordingly, under the circumstances presented, we conclude that the City’s payment of companion travel for City officials is an indirect and reportable gift to City officials on their quarterly gift disclosure form—CE Form 9.”

I’ve already requested copies of Deede Weithorn’s quarterly CE Form 9 filings from the Florida Commission on Ethics and from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, for all the years she has been in office, and I will report on my findings in a future blog.

And, lastly, I accidentally came across a document that made my jaw drop as I shook my head in disbelief!

According to Case No. FEC 13-267 filed with the Florida Elections Commission against a political committee (ECO) called Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, the principle of which is none other than Randall Hilliard!

According to the massive, 227-page case file, which resulted in a mere $1,000.00 fine against Randy Hilliard’s ECO, the Commission determined that Hilliard’s ECO violated elections laws by failing to file campaign reports during the 2013 Miami Beach Commission election.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

While Randall Hilliard’s ECO was behind mayoral candidate Michael Gongora in his campaign against Philip Levine, Hilliard was also conspiring with none other than #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn to collect untraceable donations through a shell Nevada corporation, Womens Leadership Conference (WLC) set up by Hilliard.  Hilliard filed WLC with the Federal Elections Commission, but not with the Florida Elections Commission, and indicated that it supported candidate Michael Gongora for Miami Beach Mayor.

After a thorough investigation was completed, it was determined that Womens Leadership Conference was able to collect funds without having to report the source of those funds in the State of Florida since it wasn’t registered in Florida.  WLC was then able to contribute to Hillard’s ECO, Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility (CFR), without “revealing the true identity of the contributors.”

SWEET!

The best part is paragraph 18 of Staff Recommendation FEC 13-267 reads:

18.  WLC contributed 87% of the $215,202.41 to CFR between October 1, 2013, and October 31, 2013, the month immediately preceding the Miami Beach municipal election.  Notably, because WLC does not file campaign reports in Florida, the public had no way to find out the true identities of people and entities making contributions to WLC which then contributed the money to CFR in its name.

Paragraphs 21 and 23 of Staff Recommendation noted that FEC Investigator Smith interviewed two individuals who contributed to Womens Leadership Conference under the impression that they were donating to the “Weithorn PAC,” referring to Mark Weithorn, who had run unsuccessfully for State House District 113 the previous year.

Furthermore, in Attachment H of Staff Recommendation, Investigator Smith noted that three individuals who were interviewed claimed that they were contacted by Mark Weithorn and/or Ed Tobin, who claimed to be “endorsing Mark Weithorn for public office,” and solicited contributions to Womens Leadership Conference.  All of whom were led to believe they were donating to a PAC for Mark Weithorn.  In one instance, Mark Weithorn personally went to the donor’s house to pick up the check.

It’s important to note that Ed Tobin is a Miami Beach Commissioner, who was first elected in 2007, and who will be termed out this November.   #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn and his opponent, Ricky Arriola, are competing for his seat.

As you can see, shady business is hard work!

It’s totally ridiculous that #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn is crying foul at Mayor Philip Levine, Commissioner Jonah Wolfson and his opponent, Ricky Arriola, for using political committees to win elections, when that’s EXACTLY what he does.

Only not as successfully.

Despite the uber shady fundraising activities of Mark Weithorn and his demonic crony Randall Hillard, both Weithorn and Gongora lost their respective elections.

#DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn is and always has been a loser.

May that losing streak continue!

As I said, political campaigns are brutal.  Candidates use every trick in the book to discredit their opponents in any way possible.  An onslaught of attack ads and hit pieces may be the new normal, but the real losers are the voters.  By the time election day rolls around, it’s hard to figure out who’s lying and who’s telling the truth.  Some might argue that it doesn’t even matter since almost all politicians lie.

However, I’m pretty sure I proved that Mark Weithorn is the lyingest, dirtiest, shadiest politician of them all!

I have never personally met Weithorn’s opponent, Ricky Arriola.  The company for which he is CEO, Intel Holdings, is a city vendor that “handles call center services for the city’s building department.”  Mr. Arriola claimed early in his campaign that he would deal with any potential conflict of interest before the election.  As promised, the Miami Herald reported last week that Arriola asked the City of Miami Beach to allow his contract to expire and to put out a bid for a new vendor.  He also stated that should he win the election before the contract expires, he will recuse himself from voting “on any items related to call center services.”

Whether he wins the election or not, Ricky Arriola, who has NEVER HELD A POLITICAL OFFICE, is willing to give up a lucrative $200,000.00 contract just to run for this office.

On the contrary, #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn and his wife, Career Politician Deede Weithorn, have done nothing but line their pockets with taxpayer money for years!

That alone should tell you something!

If all the shady business that I’ve been able to uncover up until now about Mark Weithorn isn’t enough to convince you that a vote for him is a vote for CORRUPTION, I still plan on digging more dirt.

But in the meantime, I’m not above playing the Girl Card.

In case you need one more reason to vote for Ricky Arriola instead of #DirtyPolitician Mark Weithorn, this should do it.

That’s right.  VOTE FOR THE HOTTIE!

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”