GOP-funded attack mailer targets Miami Dem. over PPP loan

A South Miami-Dade candidate hoping to flip a competitive Senate seat has become the latest target of a GOP-backed political mailer that criticizes the Florida Democratic Party and by association, its candidates, for taking $780,000 in federal coronavirus stimulus funds for small businesses earlier this year.

A mailer that reached voters in Senate District 39, which encompasses parts of southern Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, reads: “Javier Fernandez has our tax dollars in his war chest!” It calls on Fernandez, a Democrat who early on criticized the party’s decision to take the money, to “return the money now!”

The mailers quote Politico and Washington Post stories about the Florida Democratic Party receiving the money in Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loans earlier this year. They also pull quotes from Democrats Sen. Jason Pizzo, of Miami Beach, and Rep. Anna Eskamani, of Orlando, who were critical of the party’s decision to apply for the loan, meant for small businesses hurt by an economic slowdown related to the pandemic.

Nearly identical mailers funded by a mysterious political group, Economic Improvement Fund, were sent to voters in District 9 in Seminole County and parts of Volusia County where Patricia Sigman is running in a competitive race to flip the seat blue. Another batch of similar mailers were sent in District 3, where Tallahassee Rep. Loranne Ausley is looking to make the jump from the House to the Senate. District 3 encompasses Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Hamilton, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor and Wakulla counties in North Florida.

Fernández, who was critical of the party’s decision to apply for the loan, denies that any of the money he received in his campaign account is associated with the PPP money. Fernández is competing with Republican opponent and fellow House member Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez to replace term-limited Republican incumbent Anitere Flores on Nov. 3.

“I joined the call to have [FDP chair] Terry Rizzo and [FDP Executive Director] Juan Peñalosa return that money. I firmly believe it was a mistake. I was very happy to see them reverse course and return that money,” he said.

The party said it returned the money in July after receiving criticism from both Republicans and Democrats like Fernández, Pizzo and Eskamani. The party, however, never answered questions about how and whether the money — intended to help small businesses make payroll — was spent before it was repaid. At the time, a party spokeswoman blamed the Small Business Administration for granting the loan, one of thousands disbursed as part of the program in the roughly $2 trillion CARES Act coronavirus relief package.

Calls for the party to return the money began after the federal government released information in July detailing grants worth $150,000 or more. The list showed that the Florida Democratic Party Building Fund, Inc. accepted between $350,000 and $1 million. The money saved 100 jobs, according to the SBA. The lender was listed as “Newtek Small Business Finance.”

State records show the party formed the not-forprofit corporation in April of last year as an entity to construct, own or operate “the headquarters of the state executive committee of the Florida Democratic Party and related political organizations.”

Pizzo and Eskamani said their quotes on the mailer are a symptom of GOP leadership manipulating story lines to its benefit and deny that Fernández took any money once associated with the PPP loan.

“What I find to be most apparent for all of this is how scared Republican leadership is in losing these competitive races,” Eskamani said. “They have turned to outright lies to distract from the issues around us.”

Erin Isaac, a spokeswoman for the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which sent the mailer, said the message is meant to reach voters who are “sick and tired of politicians who think the rules don’t apply to them.”

The last check Fernández accepted from the Florida Democratic Party was in January, before the party received the PPP loan. However, he accepted a number of in-kind contributions from the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee between April and July. He defended the contributions, noting that “they are not cash.”

Senate Victory, the Democrat-affiliated political committee that has backed Fernández and other candidates, says it did not receive any money from the state party, a legally separate entity.