Prosecutors in Florida are reportedly investigating a statewide Senate race in which a third-party candidate who shared the last name of the incumbent Democrat might have entered the race to tilt the election in favor of Republican challenger and Latinas for Trump co-founder Ileana Garcia.
In a concession speech following his 34-vote loss to Garcia, ousted incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez noted a third-party candidate who shared his last name won more than 6,000 votes without even hosting a campaign website.
“Democracy requires transparency,” Rodriguez said in the video. “In order to achieve that, I believe this election requires a full investigation so that those who may have violated the law are held to account and so that such tactics are not used in future elections.”
State prosecutors have already begun an investigation into Alex Rodriguez, a one-time mechanic with scant evidence of political involvement in Florida, who Jose Javier Rodriguez accused of entering the race to siphon away votes from his campaign, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Miami Herald.
Jose Javier Rodriguez said in the video that Alex Rodriguez was a “shadow candidate” designed to draw away votes from him and tilt the election to Garcia.
In Florida, candidates for office must recite an oath that they are not falsifying information about their residency, but breaking the oath is not penalized, allowing for the potential abuse of the oath to tilt races.
Florida Senate Democratic Leader Gary Farmer bemoaned the lack of “teeth” in state election laws.
“Alex Rodriguez may have lied about his address, but that would not have been enough to knock him off the ballot, in any event,” he said. “We really don’t discourage this type of activity in any way under our laws. It’s those types of things that create a distrust in the overall system.”
When reporters from Florida Local 10 visited Rodriguez on Nov. 10 to inquire about the status of the race, Alex Rodriguez reportedly lied about his identity, prompting further questions about his involvement in the race.
