Coral Gables candidates trade barbs as first attack ads circulate ahead of April election
Mail ballots for Coral Gables’ April 13 elections went out Tuesday, but first voters received a series of attack advertisements in their mailboxes.
In the last week, at least four mail pieces funded by largely anonymous political committees have arrived at voters’ addresses, lobbing barbs at candidates for mayor and city commission and leading to finger-pointing among rivals.
All of the ads — which feature puppet strings, wads of cash and a “For Sale” sign — focus on development and construction, a topic that is top of mind for Coral Gables voters and candidates alike.
Two of the ads attack Vice Mayor Vince Lago, who is running for mayor against fellow Commissioner Patricia Keon. One ad shows Lago’s face in the literal pocket of developers and shows construction bulldozers plowing piles of money. The second shows Lago’s face alongside piles of cash, alleging he is “bankrolled” by developers.
Lago, who works in the construction industry, has raised $774,113 between his campaign account and political committee, including many donations from real estate developers and architectural firms.
The mail ads were both paid for by Floridians Against Career Politicians, a political committee formed last fall by Broward attorneys Jason Haber and Jason Blank. The political committee has spent about $245,000 on mail since it formed in October 2020. According to state records, most of the committee’s money came from fall donations by Vin Ryan, the founder of Schooner Capital in Boston, and Chris Findlater, a liberal businessman associated with the secretive Florida Alliance donor network.
In a campaign email sent Monday afternoon with the subject line “Transparency is my priority,” Lago accused Keon of being behind the mysterious political committee who sent the mailer.
Haber and Blank — who run more than 60 political committees — also serve as the chair and treasurer of Keon’s political committee, South Florida Accountability Project. Keon did not respond to requests for comment, but has denied any involvement with the ad, according to the blog Political Cortadito.
Lago told the Miami Herald Tuesday that the ads pegging him to developers are meant to “intimidate and confuse voters.” He ticked off his no votes on controversial development projects that were supported by Keon, such as the Agave Ponce group’s massive $600 million The Plaza Coral Gables. The project — the largest in Coral Gables history — will spread across seven acres and three city blocks on Ponce de Leon Boulevard just south of the recently revamped Miracle Mile.
“She has voted for the most egregious, out-of-scale projects in the city’s history,” Lago said.
Another piece of attack mail sent this week targeted Group Three candidate Kirk Menendez, a longtime Coral Gables figure, youth sports supporter and former assistant city attorney for the City of Miami.
The ad portrayed him giving a thumbs up and celebrating the sale of his home to developers. Menendez lives in the city’s so-called Crafts section, which the city commission recently voted to upzone. Menendez supported the rezoning and said the neighborhood was always meant to be a mixed-use area where residents could “live, work and play.” Menendez told the Miami Herald he does not plan on selling his home, where he’s lived for over 40 years.
The ad was paid for by Citizens for a Better Miami Dade Government, a political committee formed in 2019 by Bradley Cassel. Cassel is a former member of the South Miami pension board, on which he served alongside Javier Baños, who is competing with Menendez in Group Three.
The political committee has reported only $30,000 raised, all of it last month. Most of the money — $25,000 — came from Truth is the Daughter of Time, another political committee chaired by lobbyist and former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff. Alvarez, Carbonell, Feltman & DaSilva PL, a Gables-based firm, contributed the other $5,000.
The ad is “dirty campaigning,” Menendez said.
“It’s sad when it’s politics as usual in other parts of South Florida creep into our Coral Gables community,” he said.
The same committee that sent the Menendez ad also paid for an ad attacking another Group Three candidate, Alex Bucelo. The ad portrayed Bucelo as a puppet being controlled by his father, Armando Bucelo, and former Miami city manager Joe Arriola, who lives outside the Gables boundaries but has gotten involved in the election. The ad also lists the contributions to Bucelo’s campaign from developers and construction companies.
In an email to voters, Bucelo blamed Baños for the ad, saying his opponent “introduced City of Miami ‘dirty politics’ to the City of Coral Gables.” Baños, a CPA, has been the treasurer of Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo’s campaign accounts and political action committee. He was also Carollo’s appointee on the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
“[Baños] has chosen to cross the line and initiate an attack on my family and me by fabricating lies and defamatory falsehoods,” Bucelo wrote. “This is obviously an act of an individual with no respect for the family tradition and values that exist in Coral Gables.”
Baños denies any involvement in the advertisements, even though the PAC lists his email as its contact. He said as a CPA, “my email is free to have for a lot of PACs and a lot of institutions to use.”
“I am not an officer of the PAC, if this is someone who wants to support my campaign or highlight information about my opponents, it is that particular PACs’ ability to do that,” he said. “Mr. Cassel and the PAC can advocate for any particular issue or candidate ... I am not controlling this information, I am not controlling the PAC.”
He told the Miami Herald that “Mr. Bucelo and Mr. Menendez have in the past tried to create a caricature” of him by tying Baños to figures like Carollo, with whom he denies having any real relationship.
“There will be other mailers that come through PACs,” he said. “This is nothing new.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 6:07 PM.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct information about when mail ballots were sent to Coral Gables voters. The Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections says the ballots were mailed on March 16.