Jesse Scheckner
Ex-Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger is again suing Miami-Dade County, this time to overturn the results of the county Mayor’s race.
He is again arguing that Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava violated state election statutes by filing multiple oath of candidacy forms so that her name appeared on the Aug. 20 ballot atop her six challengers.
Unlike a lawsuit Danzinger filed on the eve of the Primary last month, which Judge Antonio Arzola tossed the following morning for mootness, the new complaint includes Levine Cava as a defendant.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Miami-Dade County, the Miami-Dade Elections Department, Supervisor of Elections Christina White, Miami-Dade Canvassing Board Chair Victoria Ferrer and Canvassing Board member Miesha Darrough.
Danzinger’s complaint focuses on two oaths of candidacy that Levine Cava’s campaign filed on 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 that Levine Cava, a Democrat, would have appeared on the ballot fourth alphabetically below Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid, Danzinger and Carlos Garín, all Republicans.
The Miami-Dade Mayor position is technically nonpartisan, as are elections for the role.
Later that day, Levine Cava’s campaign filed a second oath of candidacy without the box checked, ensuring that her last name would be counted on the ballot as “Cava” alone and appear atop the list of her challengers.
Danzinger is now making the same argument he made in his Aug. 19 lawsuit, which sought an emergency injunction to remove Levine Cava from the ballot. Arzola denied Danzinger’s request, declaring “the emergency nature of (the) motion moot given (its) untimely filing” and the fact that the ballots were sent out long before.
The new lawsuit notes that Arzola’s prior denial dealt with pre-election matters, and “different Florida statutes govern post-election challenges.”
“Mr. Danzinger requests an immediate hearing … since the Nov. 5, 2024, General Election is approaching and ballots will be printed and mailed to voters in the coming weeks,” says the suit, which Georgia-based lawyer and former Republican congressional candidate Christian Zimm filed Sept. 6.
The name issue, which Miami-Dade Libertarian Party Chair and former mayoral candidate Miguel Quintero flagged in an Aug. 6 complaint with the county’s ethics panel, isn’t baseless.
Florida law requires candidates seeking public office to use their legal name or a “bona fide nickname” for which they are well-known, “immediately followed by the candidate’s legal surname.”
Levine Cava’s driver’s license, included in Danzinger’s suit last month and in its follow-up last week, lists her last name as “Levine Cava” and her first and middle names as “Daniella Sarah.”
Studies show that the first person a ballot lists in a given race often wins. Notably, Levine Cava appeared on the 2020 Primary ballot below candidates Monique Barley Mayo and Esteban “Steve” Bovo, but above Ludmilla Domond, Alex Penelas and Xavier Suarez, meaning her last name then was also considered by the Miami-Dade Elections Department to be “Cava.”
After Danzinger filed his first lawsuit over the issue last month, Levine Cava’s campaign adviser, Christian Ulvert, called it “frivolous” and a “last-minute stunt.”
Danzinger denied his motivations were political.
“It’s about ensuring fairness and integrity in our elections,” he said at the time.
He went on to take a 2% share of the vote in the Miami-Dade Mayor’s race, placing fifth behind Levine Cava, Cid, Otaola and Garín.
Danzinger, who lost his bid for re-election as Surfside Mayor this year by fewer than 100 votes, also alleged last month that he was the subject of a “secret investigation” into voter fraud by State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s Office.
Three high-ranking members of the agency confirmed with Florida Politics last week that they are indeed looking into “many complaints” about non-Surfside residents voting in the town’s March election. But Danzinger, who accused Rundle’s team of targeting him and “over 100 newly registered Jewish voters,” isn’t a focus of the probe.
Danzinger endorsed Levine Cava for re-election in September. He rescinded the endorsement in April, about a month after losing his own re-election bid and less than a week into his campaign for county Mayor.
