An auto parts salesman and acquaintance of a former Miami lawmaker accused of running a vote-siphoning scheme in a 2020 Florida Senate race pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that he accepted illegal donations and lied on sworn campaign documents, among other things.
Seated alongside his attorney in his downtown law office, Alexis Rodriguez heard the terms of his plea from circuit court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson, who is overseeing the case.
The point of Rodriguez’s candidacy, investigators said, was to “confuse voters and siphon votes from the incumbent.” GOP Sen. Ileana Garcia won the election by 32 votes out of 215,000 ballots cast. Rodriguez, who shares a surname with the incumbent Democrat, received more than 6,000 votes.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty to four felony charges related to campaign-finance violations. Those include conspiracy to make campaign contributions in excess of legal limits and accepting and making those excess campaign contributions.