Former Florida Republican Party state senator Frank Artiles was arrested on Thursday for allegedly violating electoral laws in last year’s state senate race.
The local WSVN station reports that Artiles is facing several charges, including illegal campaign contributions.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle alleged that Artiles planted a shadow candidate in the Florida Senate District 37 elections to defeat Democratic candidate José Javier Rodriguez.
“What is a crime is to make illegal campaign contributions to make a candidate run,” said Fernandez Rundle.
When voters voted last November, Republican candidate Ileana Garcia, current Democrat José Javier Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez were presented as candidates, reports the WSVN. Investigators argue that Artiles put Alex Rodriguez into contention in the hope that voters would be confused and thus votes would be withdrawn from the Democratic candidate.
According to the WSVN, the arrest warrant alleges that Artiles paid Alex Rodriguez $ 44,000 to run for election. Artiles reportedly started his electoral plot in August, when he first contacted Rodriguez on Facebook.
Artiles’ arrest comes a day after authorities broke into his home and took several boxes of evidence.
William Barzee – Rodriguez’s lawyer, who was also arrested – seemed to admit the plot, placing the blame on Artiles and suggesting that the former state legislator had taken advantage of his client.
“Frank Artiles and his co-conspirators knew that they could not defeat Jose Javier Rodriguez in a fair election, so they defrauded,” Barzee told WSVN. “Artiles cynically targeted and used a vulnerable ‘friend’ with a big name to confuse voters and steal the election. Alex Rodriguez deeply regrets having allowed it to be used in this way and hopes that, by revealing the truth, he can help correct these errors.”
Artiles resigned from the Florida state senate in 2017 after using the word n in a conversation with black colleagues. Artiles had talked about how Senate President Joe Negron was elected leader of the Republican Party, saying that “six n ——” elected Negron. It is not clear who Artiles was referring to, since there were no black members in the Florida Republican Party caucus when Artiles made his comments.