Did a Florida House candidate in Miami really live at a state senator’s family home?
Just before launching his campaign in March for a Florida House seat representing south Miami-Dade County, Alian Collazo reported that he’d moved out of the house he owns in the Tampa Bay area and into a new residence inside the district: the family home of his former boss and longtime friend, state Sen. Alexis Calatayud.
But was the senator’s former chief of staff actually residing at her home?
To find out, the Miami Herald knocked on the door. The answer, delivered by the senator’s father, was no.
Tony Calatayud, the senator’s father, now denies ever saying that Collazo did not reside at the family’s house just south of Kendall, in Florida’s 115th House District. But the doorstep interaction casts doubt on where Collazo has claimed to live — and registered to vote — during his campaign to win the Republican primary for an open seat in the Florida Legislature.
Where a candidate for state Legislature lives matters in Florida, where the state Constitution requires that candidates be a resident of the district “from which elected,” often interpreted as a requirement to live inside the district by Election Day in November. The address a person lists on their voter registration is also of consequence, given that submitting false information can be considered a third-degree felony. In 2017, Miami lawmaker Daisy Baez resigned her seat in the Florida House and pleaded guilty to perjury after prosecutors said she lied about living in a condo in her district where, in fact, she’d never spent a single night.
Collazo says he is being honest about the 10 weeks he says he spent at the family’s home while “engaged in the process of looking for a permanent residence.” On May 8, he switched his voter registration again, according to Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections records, this time to a house in Palmetto Bay in the district, where he says he now lives.
“My campaign remains fully focused on engaging with voters and spreading our positive message from Westchester to Pinecrest to Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay,” Collazo, 29, told the Herald in an emailed statement.
Sen. Calatayud, who is also registered to vote at the family home, declined to comment through a Senate spokesperson.
ON CALATAYUD’S DOORSTEP
Though Calatayud’s father now denies it, he told a Herald reporter during a brief interaction outside the family’s house on July 18 that the home — owned by the senator’s mother, Maria Calatayud — had never been Collazo’s residence.
When the reporter explained that the Calatayud house was formerly listed as Collazo’s residence on his voter file from February to May, while motioning to a Collazo campaign sign lying on the front porch, Tony Calatayud again denied that the home had been Collazo’s residence.
But after the Herald began contacting Collazo and the state senator to ask about the discrepancy, Tony Calatayud sent an email saying that he “never stated that Alian Collazo never resided at” their home.
“Anything reported by a Miami Herald staff writer to the contrary is an utter fabrication and a misrepresentation with the intention of distorting the truth,” he wrote.
Collazo has not answered follow-up questions, such as where in the house he lived and whether he paid rent. The house, according to Miami-Dade property records, has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths.
Attempts to reach the owner of the house where Collazo now says he lives in Palmetto Bay were unsuccessful.
LONGTIME FRIENDS TURNED COLLEAGUES
Collazo’s professional relationship with Calatayud dates back to 2022, when he worked on her state Senate campaign. After she was elected, he began a 15-month stretch as her legislative aide, according to a senate spokesperson. His employment as Calatayud’s aide ended on March 9, shortly after he listed the Calatayud house on his voter registration and two days before he launched his campaign.
But their friendship dates back years, to their days as students at Florida International University.
Both Collazo and Calatayud graduated from the university in 2017, according to the senate spokesperson and Collazo’s Linkedin profile. Collazo and Calatayud both also served stints as president of FIU’s Student Government Association.
Records kept by the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections show Calatayud has listed her family’s address on her voter registration since 2012. The same property has been listed by Collazo as his address on campaign contributions, campaign paperwork and as a forwarding address for the two-story, corner-lot house he owns in Largo’s Whisper Highlands neighborhood.
Property records show he purchased the 2,520-square-foot house from his mother in 2021 and claimed it as his homestead until this year.
Collazo’s family fled Cuba when he was 8 years old and ultimately settled in the Tampa Bay area, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Collazo’s opponents
Whoever wins the Aug. 20 Republican primary will face Democrat Norma Perez Schwartz on Nov. 5.
Omar Blanco, one of two Republican candidates running against Collazo in the primary, told the Herald in an interview that he had heard Collazo was registered at Calatayud’s address. But he said he generally “knew very little” about Collazo in the beginning of the race except for the fact that he wasn’t from the district.
“I think most people are aware that he’s not from around here,” said Blanco, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue captain and former president of the county firefighters union. “And we’re not talking about if he lived across the street from the district. I mean, this gentleman obviously lives, you know, four hours from the district.”
Collazo’s other Republican opponent, Moises Benhabib, said he didn’t think it’s fair for Collazo to run in the election just “parachuting in.”
“If I get elected as state rep, I’m going to look into changing the law to say that you have to live in the district for a full year to avoid problems like this,” said Benhabib, a former employee of the U.S. Department of State and past intern to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
This story was originally published August 1, 2024 at 3:24 PM.