Comcast halts county Census ad with Gimenez in it, gives Mucarsel-Powell equal time
Comcast pulled Miami-Dade County’s ads that aired as far as Key West showing Mayor Carlos Gimenez urging residents to complete the Census, spots his congressional opponent claimed violated federal rules requiring candidates be given equal time.
The cable provider confirmed Wednesday it granted deep discounts to Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell after airing public service announcements about the Census in Miami-Dade and the Keys that included screen time for Gimenez. Gimenez is challenging Mucarsel-Powell in Florida’s 26th Congressional District, which includes the southern part of Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys.
The Mucarsel-Powell campaign objected, and secured cheaper rates from Comcast, said DeeAnn Rich, Comcast’s political director in the Florida area. Comcast pulled the county ad, which Miami-Dade said stopped airing on Aug. 21.
“When the political team received a complaint from Debbie for Congress agency, we investigated and pulled the spot,” Rich said Thursday. “It created a political ‘use’ of the system, so Debbie received the same schedule the county got on the nets and [the rates] the county paid.”
Mucarsel-Powell’s camp points to the county’s buying ad times for the Keys, because the island chain sits entirely in Monroe County. While not part of Miami-Dade, it is part of Florida’s 26th Congressional District. Mucarsel-Powell campaign manager Andrew Markoff said in a statement that “taking cash from Miami-Dade taxpayers and using it to run ads in the Keys is a new low.”
The county’s Communications Department, which buys ad time for public service announcements, said standard Miami-Dade contracts with Comcast use the Homestead-Keys zone, which includes southern Miami-Dade and the Keys. Agency director Inson Kim provided a contract for Miami-Dade’s hurricane season PSA, which features the county disaster guide. It also includes time purchased in the Homestead-Keys zone, and no county officials appear on screen.
“When we do a buy with Comcast for countywide, they give us all of the zones to be able to reach all of Miami-Dade County,” Kim said in an email. “This [Homestead-Keys] zone is included in our other countywide campaigns.”
NBC 6 was the first to report on the dispute on the Census ads.
The county’s two-month campaign ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline for residents to complete the Census cost about $23,000, but Comcast cut the advertising short once the Mucarsel-Powell campaign complained. Comcast said it granted Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign the same rate for a two-week campaign that cost less than $6,000. That’s an estimated savings of about $70,000 compared to the usual rate campaigns must pay for cable time.
The county’s Census ads included brief appearances by Audrey Edmonson, chairwoman of the County Commission, and Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, who heads Miami-Dade’s Census effort and is running for mayor in 2020. Bovo’s fall opponent, Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, touched on the issue last week in a letter to Gimenez urging more neighborhood Census outreach instead of “PSAs and television ads that have limited reach.”
The dust-up over the county ads highlights the advantages officeholders bring to their races.
In July, Mucarsel-Powell’s congressional office sent Miami-area residents an oversized mailer touting her first-term accomplishments. Bovo and Levine Cava have played host to county relief efforts while running for mayor, including food giveaways. Gimenez’s name appeared in emergency text alerts the county briefly sent across Miami-Dade and into the Keys during the early days of the coronavirus crisis.
Objecting to the Census spots was a boon for Mucarsel-Powell, who got discounted rates for an official campaign ad, which included a play on her initials with the slogan: “Don’t Mess with my People.” The county spots with Gimenez only had the two-term mayor telling viewers: “We’re counting on you to get counted. Complete the Census.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 1:00 PM.