A secretive PAC has played a big role in the Miami Beach mayor’s race. What is it hiding?
For the past four months, a mysterious political committee has been peppering Miami Beach voters with mailers, text messages and social media ads taking aim at the mayoral campaigns of former City Commissioner Michael Gongora and former MTV executive Bill Roedy.
Keeping Citizens Informed has dubbed Roedy “British Bill Roedy,” depicting him in a British redcoat uniform and a tall bearskin cap while raising questions about his residency. It has dug up a mugshot from a decades-old arrest of Gongora for driving under the influence. In at least one case, it has spread inaccurate information, accusing Gongora of “staying silent” on a proposal to replace the Clevelander with housing when he had already come out against it.
But who is behind the group remains a mystery. No candidate has reported raising money for it, as is required for any candidate affiliated with a political committee. The group’s sole officer, Sasha Tirador, is a Hialeah-based political consultant with no apparent ties to the Miami Beach election on Nov. 7, when voters will pick three new commissioners and a new mayor to replace term-limited Dan Gelber.
Tirador has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Miami Herald.
This campaign cycle in Miami Beach has been vicious, with attack ads coming from several campaigns and political committees. Gongora and Roedy have ramped up their attacks in recent weeks on Mike Grieco, a former city commissioner and state representative who is running for mayor.
But Keeping Citizens Informed has been the most prolific of them all — and is the only group that isn’t openly tied to a candidate. It has paid for at least seven mailers, dozens of Facebook ads and text message blasts to voters, according to disclaimers on the ads that say the committee funded them.
Gongora and Roedy have suggested Grieco could be behind it, though they don’t have any proof.
The committee has repeatedly attacked Gongora and Roedy while staying quiet on Grieco’s campaign. A fourth mayoral candidate, Steven Meiner, has pledged not to engage in negative campaigning.
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Grieco has denied any connection, telling the Herald that Tirador’s committee has “nothing to do with me.”
“You’re looking for something that’s not there,” Grieco said. “I don’t have any affiliation with it.”
Grieco’s political consultant, Christian Ulvert, said he hasn’t been paid by the committee and doesn’t know who is funding it.
“I’m not getting paid by whatever that PAC is,” he said.
An overlapping vendor
There does appear to be at least one common element between Grieco’s campaign and Keeping Citizens Informed.
MDW Communications, which specializes in political advertising, has been paid more than $140,000 by Grieco’s campaign and a political committee that Grieco chairs, Strong Leadership for South Florida, since Grieco filed to run for mayor in February.
On a website for Keeping Citizens Informed, a Google form to sign up for updates from the group notes that the form was “created inside of MDW Communications.”
And the registered phone number for a Facebook page that has run more than three dozen ads from the committee belongs to a digital advertising manager for MDW, according to the Meta ad library.
Michael Worley, the president and founder of MDW, did not respond to requests for comment about whether there is any involvement by his firm.
“I’m sure that I’m not their only client,” Grieco said.
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Grieco’s previous run for Miami Beach mayor imploded in 2017 when it was revealed he had accepted an illegal donation from a foreign national to a political committee that he denied any connection to.
He says everything now is above board.
“I’m running a transparent campaign,” he said. “That’s how I’m operating.”
Financial disclosures shed no light
Tirador has reported just one substantial expenditure by Keeping Citizens Informed in recent months, a $5,000 payment for “consulting” on Sept. 5 to her own firm, G&R Strategies LLC.
Mark Herron, a Tallahassee-based election attorney who has overseen numerous political committees, said $5,000 would be a surprisingly small sum for the many mailers the group has put out.
He said committees generally need to disclose their payments to vendors for political advertising, even if they’re routed through another person or firm.
“It’s a legal requirement that you report the cost of the mailers, one way or another,” Herron said.
Political committees sometimes delay making payments to avoid having to disclose them in a particular financial report. Any payments they make after Oct. 1 don’t need to be reported until January 2024 under new, less stringent reporting requirements in Florida.
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Tirador has disclosed only one financial contribution made to Keeping Citizens Informed over the past year — and it offered little clarity on who is bankrolling the group.
The $5,000 donation was made on Aug. 29 by another political committee, United Citizens Leading Reform, led by Tallahassee election attorney Natalie Kato.
The transaction appears to have been the last in a flurry of donations that day between three committees that Kato oversees. Kato could not be reached for comment on why the contributions were made.
Also unclear from financial reports is how Keeping Citizens Informed has been able to pay for its attack ads that began in June.
The reports show the group was more than $700 in the red from January through late August. And it has currently spent more than it has received in contributions after the $5,000 donation on Aug. 29 was passed along to Tirador’s firm a week later.
Florida law says political committees can’t authorize spending unless they have “sufficient funds on deposit” to pay the expenses in full.
Tirador did not respond to a request for comment about the matter.
