Police raided the home of a former Florida state senator believed to be connected to an investigation into a sham candidate for the state legislature that could have swayed the race in favor of the Republican candidate.
Video of the raid, take by local media, shows law enforcement removing boxes of materials from Republican Frank Artiles’s house in Palmetto Bay.
Artiles was in the house with his attorney when the raid concluded before noon, according to Local 10 News. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office would not “confirm or deny the existence of any possible investigation,” the Miami Herald reported.
FLORIDA GOP OFFICIAL: THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATES HELP REPUBLICANS WIN ‘MANY’ ELECTIONS
Evidence coming out in boxes from Frank Artiles ‘s house… The warrant includes computer(s), his cell phone, a safe inside the house….They are looking for evidence of communications & financing of plant candidate Alex Rodriguez.@WPLGLocal10 pic.twitter.com/l394J5nzvu
— Glenna Milberg (@GlennaWPLG) March 17, 2021
Artiles bragged at an election night party about recruiting a candidate by the name of Alex Rodriguez for the Senate District 37 race, sources told the outlet for a report published in December.
“That is me, that was all me,” he was quoted as saying.
Rodriguez has the same last name as the Democratic candidate in the race, Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez. After a recount, the Republican candidate, Ileana Garcia, won by just 32 votes. In total, more than 215,000 votes were cast in the election. Alex Rodriguez received more than 6,000 votes.
Rodriguez was a registered Republican until just days before he filed to compete in the race as a no-party candidate. An investigation into his candidacy was opened in November.
In an email to fellow Republicans late last year, former state Rep. Matt Caldwell said, “Many of our victories can be attributed to 3rd party candidates dividing the vote and the effect on top of the ticket races cannot be underestimated.”
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Artiles did not respond to requests for comment from the Miami Herald. The politician resigned as a state senator in 2017 after using a racial slur and reportedly hiring a Hooters calendar girl and a Playboy model without political experience as “consultants.”
The Miami-Dade County Police Department did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
