Florida Democrats are demanding a special election for a Senate seat after a Republican was accused of tampering with last year’s game that could have thrown the race to the GOP.
The Democrats are calling on state Senator Ileana Garcia (R) to step down and for officials to organize a special election after former Republican Senator Frank Artiles was arrested on Thursday for allegedly planting a shadow candidate for Democratic incumbent José Javier Rodriguez in Senate District 37.
Her victory has clearly been tarnished and will forever cast a cloud on her service in the Senate, not to mention the entire Florida Senate. In the interests of fairness and the sanctity of our democratic electoral process, we are calling on Senator Garcia to resign immediately and for a fair special election to be held as soon as possible, ”said Manny Diaz, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, in a statement. press conference Friday.
“This election in Senate District 37 was rigged and it was decided by 32 votes. So it is clear that the manipulation had an impact on the outcome of the election, ”added Gary Farmer, Senate minority leader. “The best way to stop this from happening is to rerun the SD 37 elections and make sure 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 rolled out charges against Artiles, who resigned from the Florida state senate in 2017 after using a racist slur in a conversation with black colleagues.
Artiles is said to have paid Alex Rodriguez $ 44,000 to run in the election, which also involved the incumbent Senator and Garcia. Investigators allege that Artiles put Alex Rodriguez into the race in the hope that his identical last name would confuse voters with José Javier Rodriguez and that he would siphon the votes from the Democratic candidate.
The controversy comes as both sides are still grappling with the fallout from the 2020 presidential election, which was earlier President Trump
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