PACs behind ‘ghost’ candidates were run out of business lobbying group’s HQ, records show

Two political committees that spent more than half a million dollars promoting so-called “ghost” candidates in three important state Senate races last year were based out of the Tallahassee headquarters of a big-business lobbying group, according to records obtained in a criminal investigation.

Tax and bank records for the now-defunct political committees used the same street address as Associated Industries of Florida, a lobbying group that represents corporate giants such as Florida Power & Light, U.S. Sugar Corp. and Walt Disney World.

Emails show that a Republican political consultant who helped set up the bank accounts for the two political committees asked the bank to mail checks to the same address, where AIF operates out of a 15,000-square-foot mansion one block from the Florida Governor’s Mansion.

The tax, bank and email records were subpoenaed by investigators in Miami, where they are prosecuting former state Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles and the financially struggling friend they say Artiles bribed to run as an independent candidate in one of the three Senate races. Authorities say it was part of a scheme to confuse voters and siphon support from the Democratic candidate in the race — which the Republican candidate ultimately won by 32 votes out of more than 210,000 cast.

Artiles and Rodriguez were charged in connection with the race for Senate District 37, where Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia of Miami defeated a Democratic incumbent. But similar independent candidates also appeared on the ballots in Central Florida’s Senate District 9, which covers Seminole County and part of Volusia and was won by Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford; and Senate District 39, which covers part of Miami and the Florida Keys and was won by Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez of Miami.

The independent candidates did no real campaigning themselves, but they were all featured in nearly identical mailers that appeared designed to appeal to Democratic voters. Those mailers were paid for by the pair of political committees based at AIF’s headquarters, which election records show received all of their money — a combined $550,000 — from a Denver-based nonprofit organization that does not disclose its own donors.

The three Republican victories helped the GOP retain majority control in the 40-member Florida Senate, where Associated Industries lobbies for everything from lower corporate taxes to looser environmental regulations.

AIF was also one of the largest donors to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the fundraising operation led during the 2020 elections by Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Pasco County Republican who is one of the most powerful people in Florida politics. Records show groups controlled by AIF leadership donated more than $2.5 million to the Senate Republican committee during the cycle.

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