Suit Filed To Have David Rivera Taken Off Ballot
The race for US House District 25 between Republican David Rivera and Democrat Joe Garcia has been ugly. Thursday things got uglier.
Attorney Roland Sanchez-Medina Jr. filed suit in Miami-Dade court alleging Rivera has lied about his finances by hiding income and falsifying documents.
Roland Sanchez-Medina told a pack of reporters on the courthouse steps “I want his name removed from the ballot.”
According to the complaint, from 2003 to 2009 Rivera stated on forms filed with the state’s Commission on Ethics that he received a “major source” of income from the U.S. Agency for International Development (“USAID”), a federal agency that offers aid to developing countries.
On the forms Rivera stated that he worked for USAID through Interamerican Government Relations, a Puerto Rican corporation, and Millenium Marketing, a separate business entity, performing “international development consulting.”
What’s strikingly odd is Rivera submitted all new disclosures last week with all of his financial information missing.
“To substitute a false disclosure with a non-disclosure is not an adequate compliance with the constitution.” said Richard Klugh, co-counsel with Sanchez-Medina.
If the documents were false, a judge could pull Rivera out of the election. However, Rivera believes the suit has no merit.
In response to the suit, the Rivera campaign pointed out that the law firm that filed it was connected to Joe Garcia who is also running for Florida’s 25th District congressional seat.
According to Rivera’s campaign, Garcia worked for Roland Sanchez-Medina’s firm and Sanchez-Medina gave him $2,500 in 2008, as well as serving as his campaign treasurer.
In a statement from his campaign this afternoon they stated: “This latest publicity stunt to knock David Rivera off the ballot, just shows that Garcia is a typical Washington-insider who thinks he should get his way- even if it means circumventing the democratic process and suing his way into office.”
Rivera’s camp also provided pay stubs showing the attorney filing the suit at one time worked on Garcia’s campaign staff.
But by 5 p.m., Garcia’s campaign had released this statement: “David Rivera has been caught in yet another lie. Voters deserve to know how he makes his money, who his employers are and why he lied to the Miami Herald and the Florida Ethics Commission.”
With less than two weeks to go before the election, one has to wonder about the timing of this suit. The attorneys expect an emergency hearing on all this sometime next week.
If Rivera is pulled from the election by a judge, votes for him would simply not count. However experts believe it’s highly unlikely a judge would interfere this late in the game.
