Candidate for state rep touts salary donations — but doesn’t mention his salary was $1
A recent campaign mailer for Florida House of Representatives candidate Jordan Leonard proclaims that, over more than a decade as a Bay Harbor Islands town councilman, he “always donated his salary to charity.”
But the mailer leaves out a key detail: The salary was one dollar per year.
Elected officials in the small town near Miami Beach have received one-dollar salaries since the town’s inception in 1947. They traditionally donate it to charities of their choice.
Leonard, who is running in the August Democratic primary for House District 106, told the Miami Herald he didn’t write the mailer and said it “could have been phrased better to reflect that I served over a dozen years at no cost to taxpayers.”
“Next time I will make sure this is explained better,” he said.
The mailer notes that it was paid for and approved by Leonard’s campaign.
Leonard said he also served as the president of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities without compensation. And he noted that, when the Bay Harbor Islands town council voted last year to approve free health care benefits for council members and their families, he chose not to accept them.
Leonard is the Democratic frontrunner for House District 106, which was recently redrawn and includes coastal areas of Miami-Dade and Broward counties. His campaign has raised over $166,000, while his only current primary opponent, fellow Bay Harbor Islands resident Gustavo Ortega, had raised under $2,000 at the end of April.
Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson entered the race in March but dropped out in May.
One of the Republican candidates for the seat is Fabián Basabe, a former reality TV star and ex-Miami Beach commission candidate.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 10:25 AM.
