Jesse Scheckner
It’s been a whirlwind two years for Republican state Rep. Fabián Basabe since he won the seat representing House District 106 by a razor-thin margin, though much of the attention he’s gotten hasn’t been the positive kind.
He now faces a challenge from Democrat Joe Saunders, a mild-mannered former state lawmaker who hopes the incumbent’s legal troubles, ample bad press and meager legislative achievements motivate voters to flip the seat back to blue.
It’s one of the most-watched Florida House races this cycle.
To Basabe’s advantage are his deftness at retail politics, deep familiarity with the local electorate and its leaders, and the growing power of the Miami-Dade GOP.
But Saunders, a South Florida native and legislative trailblazer, has lived in the district for years. He has run a smart campaign that, without having to say so, is offering voters a steady alternative to their current representation and a progressive platform he believes is more reflective of their general inclinations.
HD 106 covers several coastal northeast Miami-Dade County municipalities, including Aventura, Bal Harbour Village, Bay Harbor Islands, Golden Beach, Indian Creek, Miami Beach, North Bay Village, Sunny Isles Beach and Surfside.
Historically a stronghold for House Democrats, 32.4% of voters in the district are registered with the party today, compared to 27.6% who are registered Republicans. Outsizing them both are the district’s third- and no-party voters, who make up the remaining 40%.
The incumbent
Basabe, a wealthy 46-year-old socialite and former reality TV personality, won in 2022 by less than a percentage point. Since then, L2 data shows HD 106 has turned slightly redder, this year adding 1,852 Republican voters compared to 1,049 Democrats.
Controversy has followed Basabe since his narrow victory, at least some of it inarguably of his own making. He’s engaged in several spats with other politicians and been the subject of two House investigations into battery and sexual harassment accusations. Both were dismissed for lacking evidence.
His accusers have since sued him and the House. The case is ongoing.
Then in late October, the Miami Herald reported that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was investigating a man’s claim that Basabe had drugged and raped him in 2003.
Basabe has fervently denied all wrongdoing, calling the accusations and coverage of them “malicious and defamatory” in an Oct. 23 video.
“Should any of these allegations ever prove true against me at any point in the future, I would resign on the spot and be held accountable,” he said. “This is how much faith I have in myself, my character and my integrity.”
Basabe brought back millions of dollars in appropriations to his district, and few can accuse him of not engaging with locals and the city officials who serve them. Still, the bad press and disturbing accusations have nevertheless cast a pall over Basabe’s re-election effort, adding to the disdain some have for him over his support of legislation to further limit LGBTQ inclusion in public schools, allow the permitless carry of firearms and fund Gov. Ron DeSantis’ headline-catching migrant-relocation program.
Compounding this is that in two years, despite being a part of GOP supermajority, he has successfully sponsored just one bill, though that might be more attributable to the fact that many of his proposals resemble things a Democrat would file. One would have doubled the state’s current six-week limit on abortions to 12 weeks. Another would have deleted a ban on same-sex marriage from the Florida Constitution.
Basabe did not vote on the six-week ban. But he did vote against scores of amendments Democrats filed to soften its effects and later blamed the minority party for the bill’s passage.
The challenger
Both are issues that Saunders, 41, has worked on for well over a decade as Political Director for Equality Florida — a major antagonist of Basabe’s this cycle — and as a founding member of the Florida Reproductive Freedom Coalition.
He also works as an adjunct professor at Florida International University and is a partner to the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.
Saunders made history in 2012 as one of the first openly gay lawmakers elected to the Legislature. He served one term representing the Orlando area, successfully sponsoring just one resolution before losing his re-election bid by 2 points.
He’s been a registered Miami-Dade voter since 2019, according to state records.
If elected, he vows to carry and support legislation that addresses housing unaffordability, protect LGBTQ rights and abortion access (if Amendment 4 fails), and to get a handle on Florida’s insurance crisis by requiring insurers that take state bailout dollars to lower consumer premiums.
He wants to provide condo owners with low-interest loans for repairs and special assessments required by legislation lawmakers passed in the aftermath of the Surfside collapse, and afford condo associations and HOAs more flexibility to adapt to the new safety laws.
His platform also prioritizes arts and culture funding that DeSantis vetoed at the end of the last Session, resiliency planning and funding, and a four-point plan to revive the health of Biscayne Bay.
How much of any of that Saunders would be able to accomplish at such a partisan disadvantage, and based on his past legislative inefficacy, is uncertain. But according to him, what the GOP-controlled Legislature has been doing to address problems the state faces, particularly regarding housing and insurance, “is not working.”
“What we need is real, bipartisan solutions and really bold thinking,” he told CBS Miami in mid-October. Asked whether it is better to have a Republican representing HD 106 who could harness the majority party’s support than an underpowered Democrat, Saunders said that scenario might be apt if Basabe hadn’t attracted so much attention.
“My opponent did manage to leverage his time as a member of the majority in his first year,” he said. “Then after a number of scandals, (he) was completely sidelined by the majority.”
Fundraising and endorsements
Saunders led in fundraising with less than a week to go before Election Day. Between when he filed to run in May and Oct. 30, he amassed $511,000 and spent $373,500.
He received thousands of contributions, most of them personal checks for less than $500. Organizational donors to his campaign included public teachers union United Teachers of Dade, the South Florida AFL-CIO and 1199 SEIU Florida. The Florida Democratic Party also gave him $112,000 worth of in-kind aid, earmarked for staff, taxes and health care needs.
Groups endorsing him include the Florida Education Association, Florida Planned Parenthood PAC, Moms Demand Action, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, SAVE Action PAC and the Florida Leadership Council, among others.
Close to 40 current and former elected officials are backing his bid, including U.S. Reps. Maxwell Frost and Jared Moskowitz, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Miami Beach City Commissioners Tanya Bhatt, Laura Dominguez and Alex Fernandez.
Basabe, meanwhile, raised more than $406,000 this cycle. That includes a $250,000 self-loan he may be able to fully recoup; as of Oct. 30, he had $257,692 left to spend.
He received 209 contributions this cycle, most of them from Florida donors. They included the Florida Police Benevolent Association, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, Miami developer Crescent Heights, AFSCME, the National Federation of Independent Business, Metro-Dade Firefighters Local 1403 and the GEO Group, a private prison operator.
He also enjoyed ample support from the Republican Party of Florida, which gave him $73,500 worth of in-kind aid for texting, research, polling and campaign staff costs.
Many of the party’s members endorsed him, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, House Speaker Paul Renner, House Speaker-designate Daniel Perez, Hialeah state Rep. Alex Rizo, who chairs the Miami-Dade GOP, and Palm Bay state Rep. Randy Fine.
Lobbyist Ron Book, father to Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, donated to Basabe’s campaign, as did Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett and several GOP House members.
He also netted a few celebrity nods from actor Cuba Gooding Jr. and Brett Ratner — both longtime friends of Basabe’s — and boxer George Foreman III.
The NRA and a handful of first responder unions are backing Basabe too.
“As part of the majority party,” Basabe said, “I would have a seat at the table and be much better positioned than my opponent to pass new laws and bring in needed revenue to improve our district.”
Odds and ends
Saunders enjoyed an unobstructed path to the General Election, meaning he’s been able to use all his resources to focus on defeating Basabe.
The same wasn’t true of the incumbent. Basabe faced a lone Primary challenger, lawyer and financial consultant Melinda Almonte, who took 38% of the vote Aug. 20 despite raising just $1,175 in outside funding to add to $38,000 she loaned to her campaign.
That isn’t to say Saunders hasn’t faced difficulties. A third candidate in the race, Mo Saunders Scott, is Saunders’ estranged aunt who is running something of a spite campaign against him over long-standing family issues that predate his birth.
Scott, a 63-year-old resident of St. Johns County south of Jacksonville, raised $1,800 since June to support her campaign, all of it her money. She’s done little to no campaigning in HD 106 and has exhibited little knowledge about the district or its surrounding county, which she conflated with Palm Beach County in an X post Oct. 24.
She revealed in court on Aug. 1 that she’d had phone conversations about her HD 106 candidacy with both Almonte and Basabe, the latter of whom she also interacted with on social media to offer dirt on her nephew.
If she won her ultra-long-shot House bid, she said she would “advocate for true support for our LGBTQ youth, along with advocating for survivors of sexual assault and women’s rights.”
The General Election is on Nov. 5.
