Jesse Scheckner
Former Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger is no longer suing Miami-Dade County and several of its officials to overturn the county Mayor’s race.
He voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit Monday, explaining that with mail-in ballots being sent out this week, it’s now too late for his complaint to have an impact on the election.
“It’s kind of what happened the first time around,” he told Florida Politics, referring to a prior lawsuit he filed on the eve of the August Primary to remove Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava from the ballot for what he alleged was election fraud.
A Judge tossed the suit the following morning for mootness, since Primary ballots were already printed and in voters’ hands. This time around, Danzinger called it quits for the same reason.
“Unfortunately, this whole thing came about too late,” he said. “By the time it got heard, nobody was going to want to reset the system.”
The most recent lawsuit named as defendants Levine Cava, 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.
Its central focus was two oaths of candidacy filed on behalf of Levine Cava, who bested Danzinger and five others to win re-election Aug. 20 in a technically nonpartisan contest.
On the morning of May 23, Levine Cava’s campaign filed an oath with a box checked so that her two last names, “Levine Cava,” would be counted as her last name. Checking the box made it so that she would have appeared on the ballot fourth alphabetically.
Later that day, her 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 her list of challengers.
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 listed on a ballot in a given race often wins. Of note, Levine Cava appeared on the 2020 Primary ballot with “Cava” counting as her last name as well.
“Levine Cava’s fraudulent candidate oath gave her an unfair advantage in this election,” Danzinger’s motion for voluntary dismissal said. Because it was too late for any hearing on the matter to allow for a replacement mayoral election to appear on the General Election ballot, the motion said, “Levine Cava has shamefully gotten away with filing a false sworn candidate oath, violating Florida statutes and regulations, failing to properly qualify as a candidate, and filing qualifying paperwork in the election to obtain a more favorable ballot position by lying about her surname.”
Levine Cava’s campaign adviser, Christian Ulvert — who previously derided Danzinger’s lawsuit as a “last-minute stunt” — said Danzinger has “finally accepted what the voters made clear on Aug. 20.”
“Mayor Daniella Levine Cava had a decisive win and earned bipartisan support from across the county,” he told Florida Politics by text. “She is laser-focused on leading on critical issues and will continue to deliver on the promises made to the voters. Her vision, commitment to integrity and a promise to proven results will be clear through her second term.”
Danzinger said the issue at the heart of his lawsuit wasn’t about whether he won or lost the county Mayor’s race, but that there are laws governing elections, and no candidate is above them.
“You saw the vice presidential debate last night,” he said. “A big part of the conversation was about the election and recognition of its results. The American people are already dubious when it comes to the legitimacy of elections, and then you have something like this happen. It’s not right, and it’s not fair.”
