Curbelo’s $93,000 error and other red flags
Weasel: a person regarded as sneaky or treacherous; to be evasive – The Free Dictionary
MIAMI – Meet South Florida’s newest member of Congress. He has yet to take office and he’s already in hot water.
The fact is I don’t know Carlos Curbelo. I’ve never met him. I’ve never seen him in person. Yet I don’t like him.
My dislike for the man begins with a Carl Juste photo that ran in the Miami Herald. A smiling Curbelo is pictured victorious in the congressional race where he bested Joe Garcia earlier this month. Standing behind him that night looking like bodyguards appear the ugly mugs of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart on the left, and smug former congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart to the right of his brother.
For many, this alone would be plenty reason for not liking him. But there’s so much more.
Curbelo often agrees with the tea party. And as a member of the Miami-Dade School Board he often favored privatization of education over the funding of public schools.
Anyone who lives in South Florida and lived through the Congressional District 26 race is also aware that Curbelo seems not to believe in Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. He appears in a video calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme.
The soon to be member of congress has made his living milking the system – as a politician, working at the side of politicians, and other times as a lobbyist. And often he’s done all three – at the same time.
Conflict of interest? you ask. Curbelo has ably deflected the charge by accusing anyone making them as corrupt. Ask Joe Garcia.
Those who question his integrity he attacks with wrongdoings he probably identifies with. It’s as if he was looking at himself in the mirror.
There are others who’ve followed his career on the Miami-Dade School Board who have accused him of voting on items presented by clients of his government and public relations consulting firm (lobbying firm), Capitol Gains – an outfit he founded in 2002 to make money via his political contacts. He later turned it over to his wife on the advice of lawyers who warned him it might create conflicts. And although not technically an owner, Capitol Gains paid his six-figure salary.
His client list (he claims its his wife’s client list) contains names he refuses to divulge. Although, during the Garcia campaign, we learned he has represented two wealthy brothers, Roberto and William Isaías, from Ecuador and who live in Miami, who were convicted in that country of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars.
Then there’s the Monday Miami Herald headline that read, “Newly elected Miami congressman asked to explain errors in campaign reports.” It’s not new news. It had come out the last few weeks of the contentious campaign. But it’s a telling report anyway. Anyone who has run for office understands that errors on a campaign report are not unusual. But a $93,000 error of omission and mislabeling sounds almost… corrupt.
As the Herald reports, “The Federal Election Commission has asked the Miami Republican to respond to a series of questions for omitting or mislabeling more than $93,000 in campaign contributions, which Curbelo has blamed on a computer software problem.”
I’m not sure whether to be alarmed by this guy, or just say he’ll fit right in with so many other members of congress.
The Herald also reports that “It’s not uncommon for the FEC to ask campaigns to clean up their financial reports. But Curbelo’s reporting missteps were noteworthy because of the large amount of contributions in question so close to Nov. 4 election. Among other things, more than $50,000 in contributions from political action committees were omitted. More than $40,500 were mislabeled, including $5,000 from KochPAC, run by billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch.”
Ahh the Kock brothers! If you’ve never heard of the Koch Brothers, I’d advise you to click on their names and read the Rolling Stone report of how these two pillars of our capitalist system are trying to undo what is left of our dwindling democracy by way of their billions and through puppets like a Curbelo.
As for Carlos Curbelo… he won an election where the majority of voters in his district elected not to vote. It reminded me of Luke in the bible. I’ll paraphrase and take him out of context by saying that we get what we deserve.
