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This is "Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede."
>>Welcome to "Facing South Florida."
I'm Jim DeFede, and today we are looking at
what may be the most expensive
and contentious state Senate race in Florida this year.
The race to see who will represent district 36,
which runs from Miami Beach, through downtown Miami,
and Coral Gables, and ends out in Sweetwater.
The race features Republican State Senator Ileana Garcia,
who has fought with black legislators
after saying blacks should just move on
from the racism of the past,
claimed that being gay was a temporary thing,
and said she would support an outright ban on all abortions.
She has also voted for all of the culture war measures
advanced by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Her opponent is Democratic state representative
Michael Grieco, a former Miami beach city commissioner
who was forced to resign amid a campaign finance scandal,
and has served the past four years in the Florida House.
Politically, Garcia and Grieco are polar opposites.
But as you will see in this interview,
he has his own problems as well.
>>So, Jim, thanks for having me on first of all,
and, you know, for me, I've been in office
or in politics now for almost a decade,
and that's not something that defines me
but it is definitely in my DNA.
You know, first and foremost, I am a proud father.
I'm a former prosecutor, I'm an attorney,
but I'm also a public servant and have been doing so
for a long time.
Been living in Miami Beach for, you know,
close to 25 years now.
South Florida the same.
Went to University of Miami for law school, go Canes.
You know, I wake up every morning
and whether it's my clients, whether it's my family,
or whether it's my constituents, I really do believe
in giving and serving, and it's been a passion of mine
both when I was a local commissioner
being in the State House,
and now potentially being in the State Senate.
>>All right, and I wanna talk about the issues
that I think are important
for folks in your Senate district.
But before I do that, let's try to clear up a few things
because, you know, there are some issues in your past,
which I think are troubling
and may trouble a number of voters.
Let's talk about your time
on the Miami Beach City Commission
and the fact that you were forced to resign
as a result of a campaign finance violation.
You know, so my question to you is,
do you take responsibility for what happened?
Again, this was a situation where you denied
creating a political action committee that raised $200,000.
25,000 of which came from a foreign individual,
a Norwegian businessman, and you continually denied
that you had had anything to do with that PAC,
creating that PAC, were raising fundings for that PAC,
and yet it turned out that you did
and you were forced to resign as a result.
Do you regret the way you handled that?
>>Jim, I don't know about...
I mean, I have a lot of regrets
and I'm actually glad that you asked the question.
That may surprise you and a number of people
because this was five years ago.
It's something that was very difficult
for obviously for me and my family.
But, you know, the reality is this.
When you're a candidate or when you're an elected official,
the buck stops with you.
It has nothing to do whether it's your staff,
whether it's your donors,
whether it's anybody that's involved,
at the end of the day the candidate is responsible.
And I did take responsibility for it.
I still do.
It was tough, it was tough,
and it's something that, you know, luckily for me,
you know, I was beaten, I was bruised.
I was not broken though.
I came back and, you know,
I went back to the voters six months later
and decided to run for the State House.
And luckily, my constituents and my supporters
stuck with me.
And since then, I think I've not only proven them right,
but I've proven a lot of my detractors wrong
over the last four years in my service in the State House.
>>Well, let me just stop you there
'cause the way you said that before, you know,
as the candidate, you know,
ultimately the buck stops with me.
You know, I'm responsible.
I hear that but I also hear in a sense
in what you're saying like
this was the work of somebody else in some ways,
but that ultimately I'm responsible
since I'm the candidate.
Let's be real clear about it.
Did you set up that PAC?
Did you help set up that PAC to benefit you
in your races on Miami Beach?
Yes or no?
>>So listen, Jim, the answer is yes and no,
and to the effect that the person who set it up
needed my help setting it up.
I never benefited from it.
It actually never spent any money.
I think we were hoping that it would support me.
I had no control over it, but-
>>But essentially you raised all the money for it.
You went out and solicited all the money for it.
That came out through the myriad investigations.
It was you asking people to donate to this PAC.
It strains credulity to think that that PAC
was then not gonna turn around and benefit you
in any race that you may have had in the future,
including at the time, I think you were eyeing the potential
of running for Miami Beach mayor.
I'm just trying to be...
I'm just trying to...
Let's try to clear the air because, you know,
when the Miami Herald who exposed this,
you say they never ended up doing anything
in part because this PAC was exposed
by the good work at the Miami Herald.
When the Herald confronted you, you said,
and this is a very serious quote to me,
"It's absolutely untrue.
You can look right into my soul."
Today you're asking voters to trust you.
You said back then, "Look into my soul.
You can trust me that I had nothing to do with this."
And that was wrong then,
why should anybody believe you now?
>>Well, I don't think that was the actual quote, Jim.
But the reality is this, I've never denied my relationship
with the chairman of that political committee.
I never benefited from it,
and I probably would have had things gone through.
But I was raising money
for multiple political committees at the time.
I had one on my own, which I still have,
which I still raise money for, and listen,
the whole thing was unfortunate
and, you know, there was actually no finding of any guilt,
there was no admission of guilt.
In fact, the Miami Dade ethics commission dismissed
any claim of campaign finance violations down the road,
but at the time I-
>>But they did find that you did lie
with that quote and others to the Miami Herald.
So they did find that you lied.
>>And I appreciate that Jim, but at the same time,
you know, they didn't bring any witnesses in,
and it's a very low standard.
And again, I've taken responsibility
for not only things that I did whether it was oversight,
or more importantly the actions of others.
And like I said, I'm responsible
for everyone involved in my campaign.
Whether it be my supporters, my donors,
my volunteers, my staff.
Always have been, always will be,
and I think that applies across the board
whether it be people putting up ghost candidates,
whether it be folks from political parties,
you need to take responsibility
for everything that you step up and do
if you wanna engage in the public trust.
>>But my point is this was a mess of your own making,
This wasn't, you know, a work of others.
This was a mess that you created
and therefore then had to bear responsibility for it
by resigning from the Miami Beach City Commission.
You pled no contest to a misdemeanor,
and then you were found to have lied
by the Ethics Commission.
And I know that there's a Florida bar complaint
currently pending against you.
I know you can't really discuss it,
but, you know, is it gonna be the possibility
that you get elected to the Senate
and the Florida bar comes down and sanctions you as well?
Should that be a consideration for voters?
>>So listen, when you're in public office
and you're an attorney, you know,
there's a lot of challenges.
You can get a slew of Florida bar complaints,
which I've been in office and I've received many
and none of them have ended up with anything.
And, you know, as time goes on,
we'll see how that works out.
We're obviously very confident on that,
but, you know, I'm laser focused on both my campaign,
my service, and moving forward.
All of this predates me being in the State House,
all of this predates me running back in 2018
and having to address all of this.
This may be the first time I've had to address it since
because the voters have put the trust back in me already.
I've been representing district 113 now for now four years,
and I'm gonna continue to serve
as long as the voters are going to have me,
and, you know, that's kind of where we are at this point.
>>All right, let's talk about some of the issues
that you would face both you faced in the House
and you would face in the Senate.
You know, you're running against
Ileana Garcia, a Republican.
This is a new district for her,
it's a new district being drawn.
Why do you believe you're a better candidate
than Ileana Garcia?
>>So there's a huge distinction between the two of us.
Whether it be on the issues that tend to get headlines,
whether it be about a woman's right
to have a control over her body,
whether it be about whether or not
we should be discussing race, whether or not, you know,
folks in the LGBT community,
whether or not they are permanent or temporary.
All of those kind of hot button issues
we are on opposite sides on,
but it's really about the way we operate.
Forget the fact that she's a Republican and I'm a Democrat.
Forget that for a second and let's talk about
I have my door open for everybody.
In fact, my first year in the State House
I took my door off the hinges to send a message
that I didn't care what your political party was,
I didn't care your race, I didn't care your background,
I wanted you to come in.
My opponent has locked her door, she has played hooky,
she deletes her Twitter account,
she doesn't return phone calls, she blocks phone numbers,
and only really returns the phone calls
of her political party.
And I have shown over the last four years
that I represent everybody.
I don't care what your background is,
I want to hear from you because I have two ears
and one mouth, and I wanna listen.
I don't wanna just hear you, I wanna listen.
So it's really about focusing on kitchen table issues,
it's about working with people
on issues that actually impact their lives,
whether it be to protect their rights,
whether it be to make sure
that they can put food on the table,
and pay their rent, and pay their mortgage.
The things that actually matter to people,
those are the things that I'm focused on.
I'm not focused on punching down on people
and taking people's rights away.
>>When we come back, we continue our interview
with State Senate candidate, Michael Grieco.
Stay with us.