FEC letter to Miami Beach candidate raises questions about 2018 campaign finances
Until the last few months, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez had her political sights focused on just one job, her old Miami Beach commission seat.
That changed in April — not long after she got a letter from the Federal Election Commission questioning how she had handled donations during a 2018 congressional race she lost in the Democratic primary to Donna Shalala.
The federal letter asked her to account for $43,550 that was supposed to be set aside for the general election that Rosen Gonzalez never reached, as first reported by the Miami New Times.. Her campaign account when the primary ended had just $23,863.
Rosen Gonzalez wouldn’t provide the Miami Herald with any information to shed light on the apparent discrepancy, but an expert said it could be a campaign finance violation if she used general election money in the primary. And once Rosen Gonzalez got the letter, she decided to run for still another political position — Shalala’s congressional seat — nine years from now.
That declaration in May allowed her to open a new campaign account for the 2028 race and put most of the donations in question into it — $39,850, according to her amended financial report. She also refunded $3,700 to two donors. That adds up to $43,550, the exact amount the FEC asked about.
Rosen Gonzalez, a speech professor at Miami Dade College, repeatedly told the Herald that she is in “full compliance” with the FEC.
FEC rules also say she was supposed to refund or redesignate for another campaign any leftover money within 60 days of the primary. It took her about eight months to do so.
In a text message to a reporter on July 16, she said questions about her campaign finances were a “distraction” orchestrated by political foes. She did not elaborate, focusing mostly on her Miami Beach campaign ahead of the Nov. 5 election. She filed to run for commission in March.
“We are in full compliance with all campaign laws and our leftover funds have nothing, and will have nothing to do with my efforts to return to the Miami Beach City Commission,” she said. “I am out knocking on thousands of doors and Miami Beach residents are much more concerned about safely walking down the street and City Hall giving away public land than they are about whether or not I may want to run for Congress again nine years from now.”
But on Wednesday, at a fundraiser on Miami Beach for her 2019 commission race, Rosen Gonzalez said she did not know if her 2018 campaign had used general election money during the primary.
“I have no idea,” she said. “It’s been crazy. That’s why I hired an accountant.”
She referred questions to her accountant but did not provide a name. The treasurer listed on her financial reports for the 2018 congressional race, Lilliam Rajoy, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The account is now down $8,737 as of June 30, the most recent report available.
Lee Goodman, the former chairman of the FEC, said campaign finance laws dictate that a candidate cannot spend general election funds on primary election expenses. And if a candidate loses the primary, the candidate “should have maintained a balance sufficient to cover all general election contributions in your bank account.”
The amount of money that the FEC said her campaign had to give back or redesignate didn’t match the amount she reported had been left in her 2018 coffers. And that could be an issue, Goodman said.
“I can imagine she’s getting ready to get another letter from FEC,” Goodman said.
FEC spokesman Christian Hilland said the agency can find campaigns in violation of the law if it is determined that they spent money designated for a future election. But the FEC said just because it sends a campaign a letter does not mean it has officially launched an inquiry.
He added that the FEC could not publicly comment on the actions of individual campaigns but said the FEC retained the right to inquire further about campaign actions and enforce civil penalties on campaign committees that respond inadequately.
Goodman said the FEC generally is “pretty dogged about chasing” infractions like spending general election funds in a primary, but that a case of this kind ranks relatively low on the political “Richter scale.”
“It happens a lot especially with first-time candidates,” he said. “Especially at the end of the campaign when volunteers and staff and treasurers go away and you end up holding on to this problem.”
He said Rosen Gonzalez’s decision to file for the 2028 race, and redesignate 2018 money for her future, is perfectly legal. But planning to run so far in the future? He said that’s out of the ordinary.
“That’s a creative trick,” he said.
After Rosen Gonzalez filed for the 2028 Democratic primary for Florida’s 27th district about three months ago, she told the New Times she thinks 2028 is when Shalala will retire from Congress.
And Shalala told the Miami Herald that Rosen Gonzalez called recently to tell her she was filing to run so she could keep her federal campaign account open.
Rosen Gonzalez was elected to the Miami Beach city commission in 2015. She resigned last year to run for Congress and argued unsuccessfully in circuit court that Florida’s expanded resign-to-run law did not apply to her.
McClatchy DC reporter Alex Daugherty contributed to this report
This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 8:30 AM.