The Rending of a Recall: Blank Canvassers

Unless you have been completely off the grid and thoroughly out of touch with the Gables for the past week or so—say you’ve been hiding out in a cave in Afghanistan or sipping wine in your vacation home in North Carolina—then you must have already heard about the recent campaign to recall Mayor Lago. You probably have already seen it in action, thanks to the ominously crimson-infused website, emails, text messages, and mailers that suddenly materialized from one second to the next. You may have even interacted with it, so to speak, what with the army of canvassers that hit the streets the very same day the Miami Herald published its press release article announcing the recall effort’s official kickoff:

You know what they say, diction is destiny! (They don’t really say that. I just made it up and thought it sounded pretty clever.)

Note the use of the friendly and disarming noun “advocates” in that headline as opposed to the more natural but less innocuous “activists.” That’s an odd stylistic choice for a journalist, especially one who writes for a paper that clearly prefers the word “activists” in similar contexts:

Just Google “recall + activists” and “recall + advocates” and you’ll realize that unless your city’s mayor is either a faulty airbag or a bottle of tainted Tylenol, referring to those seeking to recall him as “advocates” is as stylistically unorthodox as it is conveniently benign.

But we’ll get to the Herald’s role in this in one of several subsequent posts, as well as the nuts and bolts of the effort itself, its officers, its benefactors, its relationship to KFC, and the tortured logic underpinning this entire ordeal.

Today, I wish to focus solely and squarely on the front end of the recall campaign, its vanguard, as it were: the roving band of canvassers tasked with distributing petitions and collecting resident signatures.

Blank Canvassers

Assuming you’ve ventured outside during the past week, there’s a good chance you’ve seen at least one canvasser walking your neighborhood. They’re easy to spot thanks to the nifty Lago Must Go! T-shirt most are forced to wear:

I actually saw the young lady on the bottom right just a few days after the supposed launch of the recall effort, although I’ve heard from residents that some of the canvassers were out as early as the 13th. Interestingly enough, no one seems to know any of them. I certainly don’t, and that’s coming from someone who has met virtually every activist that has ever stepped foot inside city limits.

Hence why I decided to stop and chat with one of the canvassers this week. I won’t reveal his name, but he was a rather affable and genteel young man who, to cut to the chase, ended up admitting that he actually did not live in Coral Gables and had not heard of the mayor until a few days prior.

To make matters worse, I’ve heard numerous reports of similar conversations from fellow residents, one of whom, I am told, has a recording of two canvassers admitting that they were being paid $15 per hour to collect signatures and that they took the job despite not knowing anything about the mayor because they “needed the work.”

What’s more, I’ve been told by two independent and trusted sources that the individual responsible for hiring these canvassers is Nadir Perez of the community-organizing group known as Ven Vamos:

This, my friends, is part and parcel of what we in the business call Astroturfing.

It is not my intention to denigrate the canvassers. Most, if not all, seem like they’re just trying to make ends meet. God bless them, as far as I’m concerned. But not one seems to be from around here or have any idea what is going on in our community. Not one seems to actually care, either. And well-intentioned or not, if (and that might be the most ridiculous “if” I’ve written this year) these people are indeed being paid to collect signatures, then this whole endeavor risks running into a pesky little wrinkle known as Florida Statute 100.361:

(10) Offenses relating to petitions.--No person shall impersonate another, purposely write his or her name or residence falsely in the signing of any petition for recall or forge any name thereto, or sign any paper with knowledge that he or she is not a qualified elector of the municipality. No person shall employ or pay another to accept employment or payment for circulating or witnessing a recall petition. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section commits a misdemeanor of the second degree and shall, upon conviction, be punished as provided by law.

And to think this is the least problematic aspect of the recall effort. More to come…