Ghost candidates, dark money and a 'winning formula': Florida corruption case linked to Republican insiders.

A South Florida political corruption case has tentacles reaching Republican operatives across Florida, including Data Targeting Inc., a Gainesville firm that's been a cog in the GOP machine for more than two decades.

The scandal also extends to people tied to Associated Industries Inc., a powerful business lobbying firm in Tallahassee, records show.

And on Friday, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman confirmed the agency is talking with the State Attorney's Office in Seminole County about a possible review of the allegations in the Central Florida leg of a "ghost" candidate scheme.

Frank Artiles, the former Republican state senator who's expected to stand trial Aug. 30 on several felony charges stemming from accusations he paid an old friend to enter a South Florida state Senate race, earned $90,000 as a consultant by Data Targeting.

That firm was also intimately involved in other campaigns, including that of District 9 state Sen. Jason Brodeur, who represents part of Volusia County. A no-party-affiliation ghost candidate also ran on a liberal platform in Republican Brodeur's race, siphoning votes from his Democratic opponent.

The making of a ghost candidate: PAC chair helping ghost candidate in Brodeur race got $4,000, had 'no responsibilities'

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​Data Targeting also is linked to the curious 2018 reelection of Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, where GOP operatives propped up an independent ghost candidate who'd previously run before as a Democrat — a race that foreshadowed what happened in 2020.

Investigative documents made public last week by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, suggest Data Targeting Inc. president and CEO Pat Bainter played a role in the three state Senate races that included ghost candidates. Bainter has not been charged with a crime.

Investigators have also gathered evidence tying Tallahassee pollster Ryan Tyson and political consultant Alex Alvarado to two political committees that funneled large sums of dark money into the ghost candidate campaigns in state Senate districts 9, 37 and 39. Tyson is a former vice president of political operations at Associated Industries of Florida who continues to work as a contractor for them. Neither Tyson nor Alvarado has been charged with a crime. 

Bainter did not return a message last week from a USA TODAY Network-Florida reporter seeking comment. Tyson also could not be reached for comment. Alvarado declined comment.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office would not comment on whether it is limiting its probe to Artiles, while the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa — which has been talking to former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg about possible criminal activity involving Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and others — hasn't made clear whether they are also investigating the ghost-candidate scheme.

Data Targeting has helped countless Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, Gaetz and U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, assume and maintain power. The GOP has controlled the governor's mansion, the state House of Representatives and state Senate every year this century, despite the fact that registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans statewide.

​Data Targeting offers candidates a one-stop shop for all things campaign-related, and in 2020 was particularly involved in state Senate races that threatened to tilt the scale of power toward Democrats. In 2019 and 2020, when it appeared Democrats had a chance to win a majority of the Senate's 40 seats, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee — run by Senate President Wilton Simpson — spent more than $7 million on consulting, polling and advertising at Data Targeting.

The Senatorial committee put nearly $326,000 into the highly competitive District 9 race Brodeur narrowly won in 2020. That campaign featured similarities to two South Florida Senate races Republicans also won — including the race that spawned criminal charges against Artiles.

All three of those races involved no-party ghost candidates who didn't campaign but found themselves on the receiving end of nearly identical dark-money ads designed to steer likely Democratic-leaning voters to the ghost candidates. The ads promised to fight for health care and climate change, among other things.

The scheme worked like a charm.

In Senate District 37, a Miami seat, Republican Ileana Garcia upset incumbent Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez by 32 votes. Alex Rodriguez — the ghost candidate Artiles is charged with paying off — didn't campaign and ducked media requests. He received nearly 6,400 votes. Along with Artiles, Alex Rodriguez is facing felony charges, accused of taking more than $44,000 from Artiles to run as a sham candidate.

In District 39, another South Florida seat,  Ana Maria Rodriguez won with nearly 56% of the vote over Democrat Javier Fernandez. Celso Alfonso, an 81-year-old who didn't campaign, pulled in more than 3,600 votes.

And in District 9, Brodeur defeated Democrat Patricia Sigman. The district includes all of Seminole and a portion of southwest Volusia counties. Brodeur received 50.3% of the vote. The ghost candidate who never campaigned, Jestine Iannotti, received nearly 5,800 votes.  

The ghost candidates in all three races received dark money from a mysterious source who funneled the cash through two Florida political action committees.

"(The Florida Department of Law Enforcement) is currently in discussion with the 18th Judicial Circuit, Office of State Attorney Phil Archer, concerning a request for a formal review of the allegations," Dana Kelly, an agency spokeswoman, said on Friday.

​In April 2017, Artiles — a state senator in his first year after having served six years as a state representative — went on an alcohol-fueled rant in which he used racist, sexist terminology in front of two other lawmakers. After news broke, he took responsibility.

"I am accountable and, effective immediately, I am resigning from the Florida State Senate," he wrote, later saying he intends to take time for "personal reflection and growth."

About the same time, reporters discovered he had paid a Hooters "calendar girl" and a Playboy model for consulting, using funds out of his own political committee. The women had no previous political experience.

Fast forward to 2020.

Artiles signed a contract with Data Targeting to work for $15,000 per month plus expenses for six months consulting on contested state senate races in Miami-Dade County, records released by the 11th Circuit State Attorney's Office show.

Toward the beginning of Artiles' service, he submitted an expense item that the Data Targeting CFO, Lance Gardner, questioned in an email to Bainter.

"Is this good?" Gardner wrote. "There's a line item for $4,000 for 'research'?"

Bainter responded: "It is..."

Artiles, who called his business Atlas Consultants LLC, had contacted Alex Rodriguez — an old acquaintance, not the ballplayer — via Facebook Messenger. After arranging a meeting at Artiles' Palmetto Bay residence, Artiles promised Rodriguez $50,000 to put his name on the ballot as an independent state Senate candidate, Miami-Dade prosecutors charge.

​Republican incumbent Keith Perry faced a serious challenge from Democrat Dr. Kayser Enneking, a University of Florida anesthesiologist.

In that one, Republican operatives helped a third candidate, Charles Goston, a Democrat who ran as an independent.

Ultimately, Goston received more than 4,300 votes, more than double the 2,000-vote margin between Perry and Enneking.

Enneking said the fliers used against Sigman in both her primary race and in the general election were similar to ones used against her, painting ghost candidates in both races as the Democratic establishment’s choice.

“It was to appeal to people further on the left who thought Bernie Sanders had gotten screwed,” Enneking said in an interview last week.