Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Fabián Basabe drubs underfunded Primary challenger in HD 106

By Jesse Scheckner on August 20, 2024

Miami Beach Rep. Fabián Basabe is headed to the General Election after getting past an underfunded Republican Primary opponent Tuesday with support from many GOP notables and no shortage of controversy following him.

He'll now have to get past two more opponents — former Rep. Joe Saunders, a Democrat, and Saunders' aunt, no-party candidate Maureen Saunders Scott — before securing a second two-year term representing House District 106.

With 31 of 47 precincts reporting at 7:50 p.m., Basabe had 61% of the vote compared to 39% for lawyer Melinda Almonte, whom many considered a long shot due to having a fraction of Basabe's funding, nowhere near his panache for attention-grabbing and a lack of institutional support.

But Basabe's lack of legislative accomplishments and legal troubles made him more vulnerable than he might otherwise have been.

Basabe, a 46-year-old wealthy socialite, won office in 2022 by just 242 votes, a 0.46-percentage-point margin, to flip the long-blue HD 106 seat red. He ran as a moderate, but his support of a measure to remove a permit requirement for concealed firearms and expand Florida's so-called "Parental Rights in Education" law, which critics called "Don't Say Gay," drew the ire of gun control advocates and the district's large LGBTQ community.

Last year, he successfully sponsored a bill to grant labor pools more ways to provide workers with water while giving the pools additional leniency for compliance violations.

He carried seven bills last Session. None passed.

Basabe maintained that while his legislative record wasn't outwardly robust, he still delivered for his district by securing state funding appropriations and working behind the scenes on bills affecting the community.

While he voted to expand "Don't Say Gay" so its strictures encompass all public school grade levels, he said he worked with the measure's sponsors to tweak its language so it prohibits classroom "instruction" on LGBTQ-inclusive topics, not "discussion" of them. The permitless carry bill, Basabe noted, promised millions for school hardening grants and other education and gun safety initiatives.

He also cited carve-outs in a sweeping measure easing the demolition and replacement of old, coastal buildings among his wins.

As he did during his 2022 campaign, Basabe began campaigning this cycle with a $250,000 self-loan. But he stepped up efforts in recent months to draw outside dollars, amassing another $94,000 in donations, including contributions from Reps. Kim Berfield, Jennifer Canady, Alina García and Taylor Yarkosky, among others.

Through late July, he spent $57,000 on a variety of outreach efforts, legal and communications consulting fees, and general campaign upkeep costs.

Almonte, a lawyer and financial consultant who briefly ran for Congress two years ago, raised a comparatively paltry $24,300 through Aug. 2. All but $1,100 came from her bank account.

*After decades of working as a lawyer, Melinda Almonte said she wanted to make laws of her own. Image via Melinda Almonte.*

According to her campaign website and interviews she gave local media, Almonte grew up in Florida and worked in New York City until the birth of her twin sons. Difficulties in childbirth due to medical malpractice resulted in both boys suffering injuries that caused physical and learning disabilities, and to better care and provide educational opportunities to them, she said, the family relocated to Miami-Dade two decades ago.

Almonte, 61, said she worked "off and on part-time over the years, including pro bono work." The Florida Bar admitted her in 2021.

"Now that my sons are adults, I want to do something meaningful to serve others," she said in a statement.

Miami-Dade records showed Almonte owned a three-bedroom home in Golden Beach since 2014, contradicting one report describing her as a "transplant" who lives in Boca Raton and owns a "multi-million dollar mansion."

Many of Almonte's and Basabe's campaign priorities overlapped. Both valued school choice and wanted to improve K-12 education offerings and initiatives to better protect residents. They also agreed HD 106 should build more flood-resilient infrastructure.

Almonte said Florida can address its insurance crisis by increasing competition in the marketplace. Basabe vowed to help homeowners by supporting initiatives such as the property-hardening My Safe Florida Home program.

"We have many challenges that have been neglected for far too long," he said in a statement.

Basabe was a controversial figure before he entered Florida politics in a short-lived bid for the Miami Beach City Commission in 2021. He has consistently maintained that unseemly press about him is either inaccurate, incomplete or untrue.

He was a headline machine after taking office, though rarely for the right reasons. He was the subject of two House complaints in which former employees accused him of sexual harassment and battery. Both complaints were dismissed due to a lack of evidence.

The two young men alleged the investigations were insufficient and ignored key witnesses and evidence. They have since sued Basabe and the House over the matter.

Basabe was also involved in numerous public spats with Democratic South Florida officials.

*Fabián Basabe again ran a mostly self-funded campaign heading into the Primary. Image via Fabián Basabe.*

Some expected the negative attention would inspire Basabe's Republican colleagues to distance themselves from him as the election season ramped up. But in recent months, many congealed around him. His May campaign launch included a large roster of GOP leaders, including House Speaker-designate Daniel Perez.

He also received endorsements from House Speaker Paul Renner, Palm Bay Rep. Randy Fine, Hialeah Rep. Alex Rizo, who is Chair of the Miami-Dade GOP, the NRA, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, and a handful of first responder unions.

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. and director Brett Ratner, both subjects of the #MeToo movement, also showed Basabe support.

"As part of the majority party," Basabe said, "I would have a seat at the table and be much better positioned than my opponent to pass new laws and bring in needed revenue to improve our district."

The opponent Basabe referred to isn't Almonte but Saunders, who made history in 2012 as one of Florida's first openly gay lawmakers when he won a seat representing the Orlando area. Saunders served one term.

Today, he works as the Political Director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida.

Saunders' aunt, Scott, will appear beside him on the ballot. She is currently listed on the Division of Elections website as "Moe Saunders," a name one letter different from her nephew's. That is likely to change before the General Election.

Saunders took Scott, a St. Johns County resident, to court this month to remove her from the ballot. The Judge didn't do so, but he agreed she should change her name to something less similar. Scott and Saunders' legal team ultimately agreed on "Mo Saunders Scott."

During the one-day court proceeding, Scott revealed she'd had phone conversations with both Almonte and Basabe, the latter of whom she also interacted with on social media to offer dirt on Saunders.

It is not illegal for a person to run for public office in a district where they do not live, but they must move there by the time they take office. It is illegal, however, to pay someone to run for public office or to receive payment to run.

Basabe and Scott have both denied having any such arrangement.

HD 106 covers several coastal northeast Miami-Dade municipalities, including Aventura, Bal Harbour Village, Bay Harbor Islands, Golden Beach, Indian Creek, Miami Beach, North Bay Village, Sunny Isles Beach, and Surfside.

The General Election is Nov. 5.