Meet the woman behind a new political website that explores the nexus between campaign cash and political influence in Miami-Dade County.
There’s a new government watchdog on the scene in Miami-Dade County this election season that is getting noticed by local politicians and voters alike.
The Miami Corruption Tracker offers a grab bag of information about local politicians on its website – with a special emphasis on the cash they raise from special interest donors and the votes they cast on issues of public interest.
Since launching in June, the Corruption Tracker has reported that:
- Three Miami-Dade commissioners running for re-election in 2024 raised a combined $4.7 million in campaign cash by August of this year.
- Three political families with the last names Diaz de la Portilla, Regalado and Hardemon racked up $52,000 in fines for state campaign violations.
- Miami-Dade District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado’s 2024 reelection bid has been fueled by a handful of prominent players who have donated tens of thousands of dollars to her campaign and political committee.
These and other posts by Miami Corruption Tracker have attracted the attention of Miami’s political class, including Regalado, who enjoys a six-to-one fundraising advantage over rival Cindy Lerner, thanks in part to developer contributions.
Last month, Regalado’s campaign threatened to sue Laura Wagner, the woman behind Miami Corruption Tracker, if Wagner didn’t remove website posts that questioned her integrity.
“They are insinuating that somehow because you raise money that you are corrupt,” Regalado told the Spotlight. “If you truly believe that, go to the Miami-Dade State Attorney or go to the Miami-Dade Inspector General and make your case. There is no nexus.”
While Regalado stands out for sending Wagner a cease-and-desist letter, other elected officials have complained about Miami Corruption Tracker as well, Wagner said, although she declined to name names.
“They do not like their campaign donations being brought into the sunshine,” Wagner said. She described Regalado’s threat as a “typical tactic to try and silence somebody.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s always effective,” she added. “Everything we have mentioned is all public information and fully cited.”
Indeed, the Regalado posts on Miami Corruption Tracker are still up.
The Tracker’s Origins
Like the elected officials she writes about, Wagner is no stranger to politics. An Ohio native who moved to Miami 15 years ago, Wagner operates two nonprofits – Opportunity For All Floridians and Floridians for Honest Living – that advocate in Tallahassee for consumer protections, property insurance reform and protections against predatory lending.
“I lobby at the state level,” Wagner said. “That’s what I do full-time.”
Wagner found her voice initially by writing blog posts on Opportunity For All Floridians’ website. Last year, she posted a short rant calling on Miami-Dade to reinstate the police department’s public corruption unit that was disbanded in 2013.
At the end of 2023, Wagner and a few tech-savvy friends began laying the groundwork for Miami Corruption Tracker. The goal was to create a website where voters could search campaign contributions and learn about political influence, Wagner said.
She also wanted to channel the spirit of the late Al Crespo, a City of Miami gadfly and blogger who gained local prominence by penning investigative screeds about corruption at Miami City Hall.
“We wanted it to be a place where people could go and read about old storylines that were on Al Crespo’s website, and not just have campaign finance reports,” Wagner said.
Her friends developed the online database that compiles campaign donor information into spreadsheets so readers can see how much campaign money special interest donors contribute to elected officials.
In the case of Regalado, the website tracked campaign contributions to the candidate from developers including Related Group, 13th Floor Investments, and Midtown Development, and transportation companies owned by Raymond and Rene Gonzalez.
“It took eight months to build it,” Wagner said of the online database. “We would work on it on weeknights and weekends. It’s very important for the average person to understand who is donating to these campaigns in order to have access to politicians.”
The Tracker’s launch
Wagner launched Miami Corruption Tracker in late June following an initial vote by Miami city commissioners to give themselves lifetime pensions. (The measure died last month after Mayor Francis Suarez vetoed the legislation.)
“Welcome to the Miami Corruption Tracker, your one-stop shop for all the special interest fundraising, dynastic politics and corruption charges in Miami-Dade County,”
Wagner wrote in her first blog post on the website.
She emailed the post to nearly 2,500 people, mostly individuals who either work in local government or are involved in advocacy work.
In addition to its blog posts, the Miami Corruption Tracker website provides links to previously published stories about public corruption as well as the campaign finance spreadsheets created by Wagner and her team.
The website also solicits tips from readers.
“This has been the most intriguing part of this experiment,” Wagner said. “Some of our blog posts have been based on submitted tips.”
The Tracker Gets Noticed
Vanessa Brito, a Miami political consultant who works with Democratic candidates, says Miami Corruption Tracker is getting clicks and views from everyday citizens.
“One of my Kendall Dems (Kendall Democrats) members who lives in the Redland started sending me stories from the website,” Brito said. “It does seem to be getting traction from regular people, but I don’t see any politico types talking about it.”
She thinks most consultants and staffers who work in local politics avoid conversations about Miami Corruption Tracker because the website is calling out their clients or their bosses. “Whoever is doing it is putting a lot of work into it,” Brito said. “A few of us are paying attention, so it’s slowly getting there.”
Jorge Luis Lopez, a lobbyist and lawyer who holds fundraisers for county elected officials, said some aspects of Miami Corruption Tracker remind him of the shoe leather journalism on local politics done by Miami New Times and the Miami Herald in the 1990s and early 2000s.
But he’s not convinced Miami Corruption Tracker is nonpartisan, noting that a majority of the politicians targeted by the website are Hispanic Republicans.
“Is the objective to undermine candidates on the ballot in this election or is it really to expose influence peddling and the appearance of pay-to-play?” Lopez asked. “That doesn’t discount the truth of the information (posted on the website). But it does call into question the motive behind it.”
Regalado accused Wagner of running political interference on behalf of her opponent, Cindy Lerner. “It’s only attacking certain people,” Regalado said. “It’s being done for political reasons.”
Wagner has contributed money to Lerner’s campaign – campaign finance reports show that Wagner made a $100 contribution in November – but she denies Regalado’s accusations. Miami Corruption Tracker has a bipartisan disclaimer and does not tell readers who to vote for, she noted.
“I don’t get paid by a single campaign,” she said. “I have no financial benefit whatsoever.”
Wagner said she is selective about which politicians she tracks on the website because she doesn’t have time to cover every elected official.
She also noted that pulling campaign finance data and cross-referencing corporate names to match donors is a tedious task. Currently, she’s behind on posting donor information from campaign finance reports filed after the August primary.
As the website grows, Wagner said she will consider adding coverage of other elected officials.
“As long as people here show interest, there is always potential,” she said. “We have a very transactional county. We have multiple county commissioners who each fundraised over $1 million. If that doesn’t raise red flags, I don’t know what does.”
