KENDALL, Fla. – As investigators look into two candidates that were possible plants in state Senate races for District 37 and District 39, the bigger issue for voters remains finding out who might have put them up to it, and who was funding the dark effort.
Local 10 has found that both candidates are connected to family that includes Republican strategists and campaign flyer printers.
One of them pretended he was someone else to Local 10′s Glenna Milberg, another insisted to her that it was his dream to run for state Senate.
Now, both are being investigated as possible shill candidates, plants to pull votes from democrats in two South Florida state Senate races.
Local 10 looked into the one political action committee (PAC) that funded them both.
Our Florida PAC was created just a month before the election. Its address is a UPS Store in Kendall.
Although the listing says “Suite 502”, it’s just a mailbox inside UPS.
The PAC’s chair and treasurer is listed as Sierra Olive, who failed to file required reports and didn’t return any calls. Olive may be a shill too.
The PAC’s only expenditure went to one campaign materials printer owned by a man named Luis Rodriguez, who used to work at Matrix2 in Doral, where a former colleague says they had also done political printing, for Luis’s stepson Alex Alvarado.
“I think he’s into politics and he may have done the flyers for him,” said Matrix2 employee Claire Saavedra.
Alvarado is a Republican strategist, and $1,000 donor to the Republican in one of the Senate races in question, who won by 34 votes.
He did not return Milberg’s message, though after receiving it, he did follow her on Twitter.
On Facebook, Alex Alvarado, his stepfather the printer and the PAC’s named Sierra Olive all know each other, all connected to that $370,000 in dark money that funded the campaigns of two apparently shill candidates.
Continuing to follow the money, Local 10 found that the PAC was funded by a company called Proclivity with an address in Atlanta, Georgia.
There is no listing for Proclivity in Florida or Georgia business records.
The address in Atlanta leads back to another UPS Store.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE OF DARK MONEY SENATE CANDIDATES:
Evidence suggests several state Senate candidates were plants funded by dark money