Mention the name Daphne Campbell to any public official in Miami-Dade County, and the first words you’ll hear are, “That woman is bat shit crazy.”
People tolerate Daphne (the same way they tolerate North Miami Beach Faux Councilwoman Phyllis Smith) solely out of respect for the political office she holds, but certainly not for the politician herself.
Far too many have told me they avoid Daphne Campbell like the plague. When they inadvertently find themselves in her presence, they smile through gritted teeth while they politely try to get the hell away from her.
While it’s true that Phyllis Smith may be the most irritating politician in South Florida, one who is completely self-unaware that she’s the laughing stock of the county, for the most part, she’s harmless.
Daphne Campbell, on the other hand, is flat out insane.
And, according to some, very dangerous.
Interestingly, Phyllis Smith and Daphne Campbell have a lot more in common than just their toxic personalities. For one thing, both of them have egos the size of Texas. For another, they both share a fondness for absentee ballot fraud.
In the 2015 North Miami Beach council election, Phyllis paid Daphne’s husband Hubert “Bob” Campbell the sum of $1,400.00 during her last campaign for what everyone in northeast Miami-Dade County knows is his, um, “expertise” with absentee ballots. Even though Phyllis Smith’s Campaign Treasurer’s Report listed the payment for “radio time,” Bob Campbell was seen hanging with her throughout the campaign, most notably on election day. Hence, it’s no coincidence that there was rampant absentee ballot fraud during that election, the flawed results of which are being contested in a lawsuit filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court.
It’s also commonly believed that Daphne was elected in 2010 to the Florida House of Representatives (and re-elected again in 2012) only because she and her husband are the King and Queen of absentee ballot “gathering.”
In addition to suspected absentee ballot fraud, Daphne Campbell’s political career has been plagued by scandal from the time she first ran for office in 2010.
Her husband, Hubert “Bob” Campbell, was convicted of mortgage fraud in 2007, according to CBS Miami, which also reported that in 2006, group homes run by Daphne and her husband were shut down by the state.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, the facilities “were shuttered after a patient was raped, three died and others lived in such squalor that the state shut off their state funding.”
Not surprisingly, and in order to protect her own interests, in 2011 Daphne “co-sponsored a bill to block public disclosure of dangerous group homes.”
In that same article, the Times also reported that her top legislative aid, Janice Shackelford, was a convicted felon, who pleaded guilty to grand theft charges in 2006.
But, even more suspiciously, the Times article noted, “Daphne Campbell also made a curious cameo in a ballot-fraud investigation connected to an assisted living facility in November 2010 when someone fraudulently cast mail-in ballots in the names of three seniors. Investigators couldn’t determine who committed the fraud, but they pointedly noted that Campbell had visited the North Miami Beach facility months earlier.”
In 2012, there were calls for her resignation by members of her own party when the IRS and the Florida Attorney General opened investigations into Medicaid fraud against Daphne, her husband and her son, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax liens that she publicly denied owing.
Her son, Gregory Campbell, was also arrested for falsely billing the federal government over $300,000.00. That case is still ongoing, having been kicked back to Circuit Court for a new trial by the Florida Supreme Court.
Daphne’s Medicaid fraud troubles began when she convinced the owner of a health care provider in Lee County (“coincidentally” where her good friend Marie Steril, who is now running for Daphne’s seat, owns rental properties), to hire Campbell’s firm to manage her company. Nebert Whyte discovered that the Campbells set up bank accounts in her name without her consent and collected Medicaid funds on her behalf without her knowledge. Another health care provider, Rose White, discovered that the Campbells also opened bank accounts “controlled by Hubert Campbell” in her name without her knowledge or consent, and collected $153,000.00 in fraudulent Medicaid payments for his own benefit.
The Tampa Bay Times reported, “Both women said the billings between 2007 and 2009 prompted the IRS to send them statements saying they owed hundreds of thousands in back taxes,” and quoted Rose White as saying, “Those people are dangerous.”
To add to the long list of unethical, corrupt and illegal actions, in 2011 Daphne Campbell’s husband “racked up five tickets for running red lights.” So, of course, she sponsored “legislation to ban the traffic-surveillance cameras that shot video of her husband’s Honda Odyssey breaking traffic laws,” according to a Miami Herald article published on February 10, 2013.
Despite all of these scandals, Daphne Campbell is still a sitting member of the Florida House of Representatives (where there is also a seat with the incredibly über corrupt Joseph S. Geller‘s name on it), and is now running for a seat in the Florida Senate against five other opponents in the Democratic primary to be held on August 30, 2016.
There were originally six others in that race, but Phillip Brutus (who has his own ethical issues) dropped out of the Democratic primary to run as an independent. He will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the general election on November 8, 2016.
The other five Democrat candidates for State Senate District 38 are (in alphabetical order) Anis Blemur, Kevin Burns, Don Festge, Michael Gongora and Jason Pizzo. You can read about each of them in a Miami Herald article posted yesterday. I will also be writing about these candidates in upcoming blogs before the primary election takes place.
But, the latest scandal in the Daphne Campbell saga was covered by the Herald last week in an article announcing that she hired the infamous – and convicted felon – Nacivre Charles as her campaign manager.
You may also remember that “Good Time Charlie” was also the campaign manager of former North Miami Mayor – and convicted felon – Lucie Tondreau.
The Herald article also noted, “In 2013, during Tondreau’s North Miami race, Charles was pulled over with numerous absentee ballot forms in his 2008 Toyota Tundra after county elections officials noticed 60 absentee ballot requests from the same online IP address.”
That Charles “was not charged in that case,” as the Herald reported, should come as no surprise.
When North Miami Beach Faux Councilman Frantz Pierre was caught red-handed ON VIDEO VIA UNDERCOVER WIRE with “numerous absentee ballot forms,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle refused to prosecute him.
If the State Attorney, who is the top corruptocrat in the county, continues to cover for corrupt politicians, no one should be shocked that crooks like Daphne Campbell brazenly run for office time and time again.
Worse, they get re-elected.
I could write, and have written, blog after blog exposing all the unethical, immoral and illegal baggage of well known serial candidates like Daphne Campbell, Marie Steril, Kevin Burns, Joe Geller, and many others, but as long as voters let these corruptocrats stay in office NOTHING WILL CHANGE!
It’s bad enough that Daphne Campbell is bat shit crazy.
What’s even worse is that she is a criminal.
Come on, people, STOP ELECTING CRIMINALS!
PLEASE VOTE RESPONSIBLY!
Stephanie
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