 |
|
Many
believe this flyer is targeting the Commission Group 6
race. Four are running. Only three are depicted here.
|
William “Bill” Smatt declared his candidacy for Miami
Beach mayor in July by hanging a huge banner in front of his
house proclaiming that “God created Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and
Steve.” The resulting outcry from neighbors and the gay
community didn’t persuade Smatt to take down the banner.
Citations that code compliance issued because of the size of the
banner did. Days later, the banner was replaced with a sign of
Smatt sporting a long, white beard and holding two puppy dogs.
After that, no
one reported racially or sexually offensive signs or campaign
materials — till now.
A campaign
flyer that appears to be aimed at the candidates in the Group 6
Miami Beach Commission race has generated a mix of outrage and
finger-pointing among Beach politicians.
The flyer that
was delivered Oct. 4 to some Miami Beach voters’ mailboxes shows
a blond-haired Barbie doll, the purple Teletubby Tinky-Winky and
a brown-skinned Dora the Explorer doll. The three characters are
circled and crossed out in red ink.
Underneath
them, the ad states, “Stop the Candidates that represent Special
Groups of Voters. Vote for a Candidate that will balance our
budget and that Looks and Talks Like YOU and that will represent
you with Brains on the Miami Beach Commission dais.”
The general
assumption is that the characters are meant to represent
blond-haired Linda Grosz, openly gay Frank Kruszewski and
Hispanic Elsa Urquiza.
“It is clear
that three specific candidates in the Group 6 race are being
targeted in this mailer,” Kruszewski wrote in a campaign e-mail
denouncing the flyer. “It is ethnically bigoted, homophobic and
sexually demeaning.”
Commissioner
Michael Gongora, also openly gay and who is running for a full
four-year term in the Group 5 race, decried the flyer as well,
saying that “it is important that all candidates in all the
races this year denounce this type of campaigning as wrong and
not what the voters of Miami Beach want to hear.”
And on
Wednesday, SAVE Dade, a local gay rights organization, sent out
an e-mail attacking the flyer. “SAVE Dade strongly condemns
personal attacks based on race, gender, or sexual orientation
and urges that the citizens of Miami Beach elect their officials
based on each candidate’s merit and platform.”
The only
candidate in the Group VI race not depicted is Deede Weithorn, a
certified public accountant with an engineering degree from MIT.
Weithorn denied any responsibility for the flyer.
“It is
offensive and the citizens of Miami Beach deserve better,”
Weithorn said.
Kruszewski,
Urquiza and Grosz also expressed doubts that Weithorn had
anything to do with it.
“I think it’s
too obvious of an approach,” Grosz said. “I don’t think she [Weithorn]
would have anything to do with something like it.”
Said Kruszewski,
“I haven’t jumped to any conclusion [on who sent the flyer]
other than it was put out by a racist bigot.”
The group
claiming responsibility for the flyer, Citizens for a Sound and
Balanced Miami Beach, is not registered with the Miami Beach
City Clerk’s Office or the Florida Department of Elections. The
direct return address — 636 51st Terrace, Miami Beach — does not
exist. However, 636 W. 51st Terrace, Miami Beach, is the home of
Jo Asmundsson. As such, 35 flyers with incorrect postage were
returned to Asmundsson.
Asmundsson
denies she had any involvement in sending out the flyers.
“I did not send
out the cards, nor would I even dream of sending out such filthy
literature,” an agitated-sounding Asmundsson said. “If you find
out who did it, let me know.”
Asmundsson is
no stranger to Beach politics. She lost a bid for a commission
seat to Richard Steinberg in 2001 and had opposed Mayor David
Dermer and the Save Miami Beach initiative. Weithorn lists
Asmundsson as one of her supporters in her campaign material.
Asmundsson said
she has talked to a lawyer about the flyers. “I got in touch
with an attorney in Washington D.C. I asked him if [he] thought
it was a federal offense. He said yes,” she said. “Once the name
[of who sent the flyers] is known, I don’t care if it ruins
them, I will prosecute.”
Neither Miami
Beach nor Weithorn and Urquiza are strangers to negative
campaign mailers. Both candidates ran to fill the remaining year
of the Group 5 seat Commissioner Luis Garcia vacated when he ran
successfully for state representative in 2006. Michael Gongora
won the seat and is running again this year for a full four-year
term. Gongora, Weithorn and their respective supporters, in that
2006 race, attacked each other in flyers. However, there was
also an anonymous flyer circulated that said Urquiza was
affiliated with former Attorney General Janet Reno and helped
deport Elian Gonzalez, called Gongora a liberal and claimed
Laura Leyva was a lesbian communist. No one ever claimed
responsibility for that flyer, which targeted the Miami Beach
Hispanic community. Urquiza, a retired official with the Equal
Opportunity Employment Commission who fled her native Cuba more
than 40 years ago, denounced the flyer to the local news media.
So far no one
has proven who was responsible for the recent Barbie-Teletubby-Dora
flyer, but there are plenty of opinions. Several SunPost
sources, including local activists, political consultants and
municipal employees, pointed to the same two people: Frank
Pintado, president of Standard Parking (a company contracted to
operate city-owned parking garages) and political consultant
Charlie Safdie. The theory: They created the flyer to make it
look as if Weithorn’s campaign did it.
Pintado, at
times yelling into the phone, vehemently denied the accusation.
He even suggested it might not be aimed only at Group 6.
“What makes you
think it’s against candidates?” asked Pintado. “It might be
anti-gay, it might be anti-Hispanic, it might be anti-Anglo and
Jewish.”
Safdie also
denied responsibility.
“It would be
really stupid for me to do that,” Safdie said. “I’m helping Elsa
Urquiza. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Urquiza used
Safdie to print her campaign materials. She doesn’t believe
Pintado or Safdie had anything to do with it.
“The travesty
of all of this is that I’ve always worked to fight
discrimination, and here I am the victim of discrimination,”
Urquiza said.
Pintado
suggested that with Smatt’s history, perhaps he was behind the
flyer.
Smatt, 76, said
he was offended that anyone would imagine he was involved
“I’m shocked
and surprised that any jackass, ignorant scum could do something
like that,” Smatt said. “I have nothing to do with it
whatsoever.”
The flyer is
the second piece of election material in less than a month to
make waves in this year’s Miami Beach election.
The first was
an e-mail purporting to show the results of an anonymous poll
taken in early September that had Urquiza ahead, followed by
Weithorn, Kruszewski and Grosz.
It also showed
Michael Gongora leading Group 5 and Luis Salom ahead in Group 4.
An e-mailed
copy of that poll acquired by the SunPost showed it was
sent from
frankpintado@gmail.com.
Pintado denied having anything to do with the poll. He said
there’s a simple explanation why the copy acquired by the
SunPost appears to have originated from him: “I received the
poll and sent it to some of my friends,” Pintado said.
Safdie also denied being behind the poll, despite having
received more than $30,000 from Salom, Gongora and Urquiza for
printing and consulting services. He said the results of that
poll don’t surprise him.
“In Elsa’s race, she’s the only Hispanic, and the three Anglos
are fighting for the Hispanic vote,” Safdie said. “Michael [Gongora]
is an incumbent so that made sense. Luis [Salom] has walked a
lot and he’s been involved in North Beach with children for
years, so people know him.”
Besides, Safdie said, a poll taken that early doesn’t mean much.
Once the absentee ballots are sent out, he continued, the
race will heat up. Absentee ballots will be released by the
Miami-Dade County Elections Department on Friday.
Said Safdie, “Whatever happens in the last three weeks will
determine who wins.”
Another suspect of who produced the flyer is political
consultant Randall Hilliard, the self-described “Prince of
Darkness” for his often controversial campaign methods. In 2005,
Hilliard cooperated with federal prosecutors and testified that
he bribed Monroe County Mayor John “Jack” London $29,000 on
behalf of a Marathon resort owner. Hilliard is working for both
Weithorn and Commissioner Simon Cruz in his bid for the mayor’s
seat.
Said Hilliard, “If I’d been responsible, the postage would have
been correct.” |
