Miami-Dade GOP payments lack details

In the final weeks before Election Day last fall, the Miami-Dade Republican Party paid $150,000 to a political consultant with close ties to the party's then-chairman, U.S. Rep. David Rivera.

But party officials cannot explain exactly what they got for the money.

The party made the payments in October and November to the firm of consultant Esther Nuhfer without any written contract, and the party does not have any detailed invoices of the expenses -- the party's largest expenses in at least six years, records show.

``I haven't seen detailed records like that,'' said Jose Alcaraz Jr., the party's treasurer.

Instead, the party has only a handful of brief invoices from Nuhfer's Coral Gables company, Communication Solutions, that the party's new chairman, state Rep. Erik Fresen of Miami, described as ``simplistic.''

``There's no contract, unlike what I'm going to do,'' said Fresen, who took over the party reins in December.

According to the party's campaign reports, at least $100,000 of the money paid to Nuhfer's firm was earmarked for ``media'' consulting.

The party's executive director, J.C. Hernandez, said that money was supposed to pay for air time on two Spanish-language radio stations in the weeks leading up to the election.

But the Miami-Dade GOP's air time on WAQI-710 AM, known as Radio Mambí, and its sister station, WQBA-1140 AM, cost just $34,500, records show. The Miami Herald surveyed five other Spanish language stations and found no other advertising purchased by the party.

Asked if he expected Communication Solutions to spend more than $34,500 on radio time, Hernandez said: ``Absolutely, yeah.''

Despite the discrepancy, Hernandez and Fresen said there is no reason to believe the money was spent inappropriately.

``We swept every race, so it's difficult to say the money wasn't spent properly,'' Fresen said.

Political parties must keep records of their expenses, but the law does not specify how detailed those records must be, said Eric Buermann, a former attorney for the Miami-Dade GOP and the Republican Party of Florida.

Nevertheless, the party should keep detailed records for auditors or potential inquiries by the Florida Elections Commission, he said.

``It's not, in my mind, normal business practice,'' Buermann said of the party's record-keeping.

Nuhfer is a lobbyist and political fundraiser who is close with Rivera. While working for the Miami-Dade GOP, her firm also was working on Rivera's congressional campaign, records show. Rivera was elected to Congress in November after serving eight years in the state Legislature.

Rivera is now the target of a criminal probe of his personal and campaign expenses, and investigators also are examining his relationship with Nuhfer, The Miami Herald has learned. Party officials said they have not been contacted by investigators.

Nuhfer did not respond to requests for an interview by phone and e-mail, and she did not answer written questions e-mailed to her last week.

In written responses to questions, Rivera's campaign said a written contract was not required with Nuhfer's firm or any other vendor, and that the party ``followed long-standing standard practice by ensuring that all expenditures to Communication Solutions were properly documented with invoices.''

Rivera's campaign said Rivera recused himself from day-to-day oversight and decision-making of the party -- also known as the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee -- once he won the GOP primary in August. He also withdrew his authority to sign checks from the party's bank accounts, the campaign said.

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