The same man who led a dark-money group supporting spoiler “ghost” candidates in key state Senate races last year also led another dark-money group that helped the electric-utility industry combat an effort to open up competition in Florida’s retail energy market.
Tax records show that the second dark-money organization distributed more than $10 million in 2019 to groups fighting a proposed constitutional amendment that would have broken up regional electricity monopolies — an idea that was fiercely opposed by the state’s existing utility companies.
The organization — an obscure nonprofit based out of a UPS Store in New York City — was the primary backer of a Florida group created in 2019 to combat the so-called “energy choice” petition drive, which was trying to get its proposed amendment onto the November 2020 ballot.
But it also funded people and entities involved with two other controversial petition drives — both of which were used to undercut the energy-choice campaign. One was for a constitutional amendment to prevent non-citizens from voting in Florida elections, even though it was already illegal to do so. The other was for an amendment to make it much more difficult to pass future constitutional amendments.
The dark-money nonprofit is called the “Center for Popular Progressive Values and Democracy Inc.” and its president is Richard Alexander.
Tax, bank and campaign-finance records indicate that he is the same Richard Alexander who chaired “Grow United Inc.,” the dark-money nonprofit based out of a UPS Store in Denver that worked with Republican strategists in Tallahassee last year to promote little-known independent candidates in three of the state’s most competitive state Senate races.
The Grow United money paid for advertisements that appeared designed to appeal to Democratic-leaning voters. Republicans won all three races — including Senate District 9 in Central Florida, whose winner was GOP Sen. Jason Brodeur of Sanford, and Senate District 37 in Miami, won by GOP Sen. Ileana Garcia.
It remains a mystery who ultimately funded either of Alexander’s dark-money groups, though investigators in Miami-Dade County have subpoenaed records as part of a criminal investigation into the Senate ghost candidate scandal. That investigation has so far led to two arrests, that of former state Senator Frank Artiles and the friend he allegedly bribed to enter the Miami race, Alex Rodriguez of Boca Raton.
Alex Patton, who led the energy choice petition drive, said he believes both dark-money groups were backed by the state’s established utility companies — primarily Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest, but also Duke Energy Inc. and Tampa Electric Co.
“They just practice total warfare,” Patton said. “They don’t leave a single stone unturned because of the resources they can muster.”
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