MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A man whose candidacy for a Florida state Senate seat that pushed the race into a recount appears to have had no intent on being elected.
Local 10′s Glenna Milberg first spoke to Alex Rodriguez prior to the recount, though he pretended to be someone else.
“He’ll be back tomorrow,” Rodriguez said to Milberg, who was looking to speak to the candidate.
Milberg’s investigation revealed that wasn’t the first lie Rodriguez has told.
One of the most recent is the fake home address he listed under oath when he filed to run for state Senate.
Since then, Local 10′s investigation found evidence Rodríguez was a shill candidate, a former Republican planted in the District 37 race. He’s the likely reason the democratic incumbent, who has the same last name, lost by 34 votes.
Rodriguez' actual address is in Boca Raton, not in District 37, not even in the same county.
There are also arrests on grand theft charges.
Two different customers of Rodriguez’s now-defunct company bought tens of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment that he never delivered. The checks he wrote to reimburse them bounced.
Rodriguez avoided jail and a criminal record by taking a plea.
There are also collection letters for thousands more in debts, which begs the question of where the money funding Rodriguez’s run for Senate came from.
His sole contributor was a Political Action Committee called Our Florida.
The PAC’s sole expenditure was for flyer printing from a company called Advance Impression LLC.
Listed as a Claremont address, Advance Impression also has an address in Cutler Bay, in Senate District 37.
Answering the door at the home in Claremont was a man named Luis Rodriguez, who is also listed on the Cutler Bay address. Once again, the same last name.