Jesse Scheckner
A lawsuit filed less than 36 hours before Primary polls close alleges that Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava lied on election forms to ensure her name appeared at the top of the ballot.
Curiously, the complaint does not include her as a defendant.
Ex-Surfside Mayor and current Miami-Dade Mayor candidate Shlomo Danzinger sued Miami-Dade County and several of its officers. The suit seeks to remove Levine Cava from the ballot and discount all votes cast for her.
As evidence, the complaint points to two oaths of candidacy Levine Cava’s campaign filed May 23. Early in the day, the campaign filed an oath with a box checked so that her last two names, “Levine Cava,” would be counted as her last name. Checking the box made it so Levine Cava, a Democrat, would have appeared on the ballot fourth alphabetically among seven mayoral candidates, below Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid, Danzinger and Carlos Garín, all Republicans.
Levine Cava’s campaign then filed a second oath of candidacy later that day without the box checked, ensuring her last name would be counted on the ballot as “Cava” alone and appear atop a list of her challengers.
Danzinger’s suit, filed with the 11th Judicial Circuit by Christian Zimm of the Chalmers Adams Backer & Kaufman law firm, notes that the Mayor listed her last name as “Levine Cava” on a Feb. 28, 2023, document when she filed to run for re-election. He’s claiming the discrepancy and double filing in May show the incumbent acted illegally.
Further, the suit suggests that Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White, Miami-Dade Canvassing Board Chair Victoria Ferrer and Canvassing Board member Miesha Darrough acted as accomplices by approving the surname switch.
In a statement, Danzinger — who endorsed Levine Cava last year, but rescinded the nod after filing against her in April — insists the lawsuit “is not about personal politics; it’s about ensuring fairness and integrity in our elections.”
“Upholding the laws and principles that govern our elections is essential to preserving public trust in our democratic process,” he said.
“The people of Miami-Dade deserve a transparent and lawful electoral process, free from ambiguity or manipulation. My goal is to protect the integrity of our democracy and ensure that all candidates compete on a level playing field.”
Miami-Dade Libertarian Party Chair Miguel Quintero, who is also running for Miami-Dade Mayor, first flagged the issue in an Aug. 6 complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. Quintero listed Levine Cava, White and political consultant Christian Ulvert, Levine Cava’s campaign adviser, as key parties involved.
Danzinger’s suit cites the ethics complaint and lists Quintero as a journalist.
Florida law provides that candidates seeking public office must be designated by their legal given name or a “bona fide nickname customarily related to the candidate and by which the candidate is commonly known, immediately followed by the candidate’s legal surname.”
Levine Cava’s driver’s license, included as evidence in Danzinger’s lawsuit, lists her last name as “Levine Cava” and her first and middle names as “Daniella Sarah,” the same as was the case in her Feb. 28, 2023, filing.
The suit also cites studies that determined the first person who appears on a ballot in a race often wins.
It does not, but should, detail how favorably viewed incumbents with party affiliations commensurate with the local voter base do against opponents who lost their first bid for re-election, as was the case with Danzinger, Ulvert said.
“The candidate who lost his re-election earlier this year is now pulling out last-minute stunts because he knows he will have another resounding defeat tomorrow night,” Ulvert said. “This is nothing more than political theatrics from an individual who silenced residents in Surfside, and there is no doubt this frivolous lawsuit will be promptly dismissed as the Mayor appears on the ballot in the same form as she did in 2020.”
Danzinger lost his bid for re-election as Surfside Mayor in March by just over 100 votes to Charles Burkett, the man whom he unseated two years prior. The loss followed months of unrest at Town Hall, where Danzinger drew headlines and criticism for insensitive comments about other elected officials, the arrest of a teen activist on since-dropped battery charges, death threats against Danzinger by a self-proclaimed Nazi and questions about the ex-Mayor’s ties to a Dubai developer that purchased the site of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condo.
Levine Cava indeed appeared on the 2020 Primary ballot below candidates Monique Barley and Esteban “Steve” Bovo, but above Ludmilla Domond, Alex Penelas and Xavier Suarez.
Levine Cava and Miami-Dade’s elections personnel aren’t the only ones about whom Danzinger has complained over the past week.
On Thursday, he sent a letter to reporters accusing Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle of “secretly investigating” him and “over 100 newly registered Jewish voters.” He said the alleged probe is, in part, retaliation for his effort to remove Rundle from office for what he called her “apparent reluctance to prosecute criminals and law enforcement’s expressed frustration with her office.”
In April, a statewide organization of criminal defense lawyers demanded an ethics review of Rundle’s Office amid new claims of misconduct by her prosecutors.
Asked by Florida Politics about whether it was scrutinizing Danzinger, Rundle’s Office declined to either confirm or deny the existence of any ongoing investigation.
Others running in the nonpartisan race for Miami-Dade Mayor include Republican social media influencer Alex Otaola and no-party valet parking business executive Eddy Rojas.
