Florida Democrats are calling for special elections for a seat in the state Senate after a Republican was accused of manipulating last year’s contest that could have launched the race in the Republican Party.
Democrats are calling on state Sen. Ileana Garcia (R) to resign and officials to hold special elections after former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles was arrested Thursday for allegedly planting a shadow candidate for defeat its Democratic leader José Javier Rodriguez. State Senate District 37.
“His victory is clearly tainted and will forever leave a cloud in his service in the Senate, not to mention the entire Florida Senate. In the interests of justice and the sanctity of our democratic electoral process, we call on Senator Garcia to resign immediately and to hold fair special elections as soon as possible, “Florida Democratic Party President Manny Diaz said Friday.
“These elections in the 37th district of the Senate were manipulated and decided by 32 votes. So it’s clear that the manipulation had an impact on the election result, ”added Gary Farmer, the state’s minority leader in the Senate.“ The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen again is to redo the elections in SD 37 and ensure that we have fair elections and pass laws that protect the integrity of our elections. “
The statements come a day after Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle filed charges against Artiles, who resigned from the Florida state senate in 2017 after using a racial insurgency. in a conversation with black colleagues.
Artiles allegedly paid Alex Rodriguez $ 44,000 to run in the election, which also featured incumbent state senator and Garcia. Investigators allege that Artiles put Alex Rodriguez on the run in hopes that voters would be confused with his identical last name to José Javier Rodriguez and withdraw the votes of the Democratic candidate.
The controversy comes when both parties are still facing the ramifications of the 2020 presidential election, which were earlier President Trump
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