In 2021, a former Republican lawmaker in Florida was arrested and charged with attempting to spearhead a fake candidacy for a person with the same last name as the Democratic opponent in a state senate race.
If that sounds familiar, it may be because Alaska’s Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola and her campaign were accused of searching through the state’s voter records to find someone with the name Dan Sullivan — the same name as her Republican counterpart. The effort was ultimately successful.
The Times also spoke to Elisa Rios, a former Peltola aide and campaign manager, who said her former boss was “definitely aware” of the attempt.
Back in 2021, Frank Artiles was charged by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office for “allegedly enlisting a friend with the same last name as a Democratic candidate in a state senate race in South Florida in an effort to siphon votes from the Democrat to ensure a Republican victory,” The Independent reported at the time.
The race in question was ultimately won by the Republican, Ileana Garcia, by 32 votes. Artiles previously served in both the Florida state House and Senate, before resigning amid a scandal in 2017. He recruited his friend to run in order to help Garcia secure victory.
Artiles enlisted Alexis Rodriguez and paid him $45,000 to operate as a “ghost candidate.” He ended up getting 6,000 votes. The state’s Democratic Party called on Garcia to “immediately resign.” Both Rodriguez and Artiles were charged with various felonies. Rodriguez pleaded guilty and testified against Artiles, while Artiles was convicted and sentenced to 60 days in jail for the scheme.
Notably, no reporting has come forward to suggest that the Peltola campaign or anyone associated with her paid Sullivan to run in Alaska.
Garcia did not, and she was reelected in 2022. Prior to the election, she served as the Deputy Press Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration.
She has become an outspoken critic of the second Trump administration’s immigration policy. The New York Times reported in January that a TSA agent in Tallahassee heard her speak Spanish and asked if she was an American citizen, and that she “worried for the first time that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents might stop her son, a young adult, because he looks Hispanic.”
Garcia also cited the death of Minnesota nurse Alex Pretti as a sign the party had “gone too far.”
The post FLASHBACK: Florida Republican Lawmaker Was Charged Over Similar Dirty Trick Dems Used In Alaska first appeared on Mediaite.