Morales is accused of finance violations (Miami-Dade Mayor candidate)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Sep. 03, 2004


MORALES

Morales is accused of finance violations

BY OSCAR CORRAL

[e-mail]


An ethics complaint has been filed against Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Jimmy Morales, accusing him of violating campaign finance laws during the primary season, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Herald.

The complaint, which was filed by Luis Sanchez of West Miami-Dade on Monday, alleges that Morales, a county commissioner, ``grossly violated county ethics and elections laws.''

It accuses Morales of accepting prohibited gifts, violating campaign finance laws by accepting contributions from corporate entities, and accepting prohibited contributions by a political committee.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/9568607.htm
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You may find this interesting!

Democratic Mayor or Republican Mayor?
The county mayor's race is nonpartisan -- on the surface
BY BRETT SOKOL
[e-mail]

Have you heard about John Kerry's secret connections to Fidel Castro? How about the hidden financial links between Teresa Heinz Kerry and the Cuban government? No? Derek Newton rolls his eyes, and with a laugh plunges his hand into the six-inch-deep sea of paperwork that covers his entire desk. As political war rooms go, Newton -- campaign manager for county mayoral aspirant Jimmy Morales -- certainly has the chaos part down. "The top layer is the most important," he quips, still fishing through the papers until -- voilà!-- he pulls out the latest issue of the Little Havana periodiquito Spotlight Internacional, which details all manner of communist perfidy emanating from the Democratic Party.

Ridiculous? Sure. But in a town where even the most bizarre rumor of a Castro association quickly jumps like a virus from the coffeeshop counter to the Spanish-language talk-radio airwaves, this summer's county mayoral hopefuls are taking every accusation seriously. Cuban-exile voters remain Miami's electoral kingmakers, and with more than 80 percent of el exilio's votes going to George W. Bush in 2000, staying on the right side of that equation -- literally and figuratively -- is crucial to victory.
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If past presidential battles are any guide, Miami's voter turnout will more than double from the traditional sparse crowd that greets its mayor's races. And Cuban Americans will suddenly find their influence counterbalanced by Anglo and black voters -- whose support gave Miami-Dade to Bill Clinton in 1996 by 107,744 votes, and to Al Gore in 2000 by 39,246 votes.

That Democratic margin may be shrinking, but Newton says he and Morales are still counting on it. "Kerry is going to win Dade," he argues. "He may win by only 30,000 to 40,000 votes, but that's more than enough for me." While the rest of the mayoral field is holding Kerry at arm's length, fearful of offending Cuban-exile sensibilities, Morales hopes to embrace Kerry. Says Newton: "We just become the Democratic candidate -- the Anglo, black, progressive candidate. And everybody else goes wherever they go."
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http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2004-08-05/kulchur.html


Jimmy Morales (left) and his campaign manager, Derek Newton