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Adding to the controversy that has clouded Sweetwater for recent years, many in the City of Sweetwater are wondering if the Interim-Mayor Jose M. Diaz is still running for Mayor of Sweetwater, even after being disqualified from the ballot almost 3 weeks ago by Miami-Dade civil court Judge Barbara Areces.
Instead of ceding defeat, it’s apparent to many that the former mayoral candidate has no intention of moving on, with political signs of all sizes promoting Diaz as a mayoral candidate still prominently displayed throughout the City of Sweetwater and campaign workers seen campaigning on Sunday May 3rd.
During a recent visit to a Sweetwater Police Athletic League youth soccer event, Mr. Diaz told parents the soccer program would be postponed “for a couple of months” until more funding could be secured for the program. During the visit, a team parent was heard telling the ousted candidate, “I’ll still vote for you, even if it won’t count in the election”. Instead of recommending a vote for another candidate, upon hearing this, Jose Diaz replied, “thank you”.
We have been unable to reach the Diaz campaign for a comment regarding this controversy.
UPDATE 5/6/15
Sweetwater Mayor Jose M. Diaz proudly admitted that he would rather people throw their votes away by voting for him in next week’s mayoral election.
During the May 4th commission meeting, Mayor Jose M. Diaz confirmed he was telling people to continue voting for him, effectively creating a chaotic election where voters will throw their votes away. This happened when Vice-Mayor Orlando Lopez asked the city attorney Ralph Ventura about possible Florida state statute violations by Mayor Diaz going into the Senior Center and telling people to vote for him since he was still a candidate. City attorney Ralph Ventura danced around the issue and almost defended Diaz, saying “it would go into the question as to whether there was corrupt intent to do so”. It was then that Mayor Diaz showed no remorse in publicly stating he would continue in telling people to vote for him.
Here’s the transcript of what Mr. Diaz very arrogantly said in the meeting:
“What I am doing and will continue doing until the 12th, and you can write it down, is still ask the residents that they can vote for me even though..i am not on a valid uh count they are not gonna tabulate my votes but i continue to encourage them to vote until the 12th, whether you like it or not (the votes will not count) they are.. gonna tabulate my votes.
After Lopez declared Diaz was deceiving voters, a heated argument was broken up by Commissioner Jose Bergouignan by claiming “that’s political”.
Do you agree people should throw their votes away on a candidate whose votes will be invalidated? Let us know in the comments below!
