Liebelson in dispute with Thomson over campaign funding
Related: Ballot includes decision on new police headquarters
By Mary Hladky
With the March 10 city election fast approaching, Boca Raton’s mayoral race erupted into a brawl between Mike Liebelson and Andy Thomson.
Tensions flared on Feb. 25 when an attorney representing first-time candidate Liebelson accused Thomson’s campaign political consultant of making defamatory and misleading statements about Liebelson in political flyers sent to residents.
In his letter, attorney Ricardo Reyes demanded that Rick Asnani, well known throughout Palm Beach County for his work representing candidates, retract the statements and issue a written apology to Liebelson.
Attached to his letter were copies of flyers that, among other things, accuse Liebelson of benefiting from a dark money political action committee’s raising funds for Liebelson’s campaign whose “secret” donors would not be disclosed until after election day.
They accuse Liebelson of not disclosing his donors, a charge Liebelson disputes.
It was not clear before The Coastal Star’s March 3 deadline if Asnani had responded. He did not immediately reply to two messages requesting comment.
Thomson noted that the letter was sent not to him, but to two PACs raising money for his campaign.
Yet he did not dispute the accuracy of the messages in the flyers.
“There is nothing in any of their messages that is false at all,” he said. “It is accurate. … Everything the political committee said is documented fact, from what I can tell.”
Any response to the allegations should come from Asnani, he said.
Along with Liebelson and Thomson, City Council member Fran Nachlas is vying to replace term-limited Scott Singer as mayor.
The allegations are notable in part because of the astonishing amount of money Thomson and Nachlas have raised in their race to become mayor.
As of March 2, Thomson had raised $422,566 and Nachlas $489,905. But that does not include the amounts raised through some PACs since Dec. 31. That information won’t be released until April.
Liebelson has raised $203,390, including $190,000 in personal loans and $5,000 in a personal donation.
He also has a PAC, Friends of Mike Liebelson. Its end-of-year report said it had raised no funds. Updated information won’t be available until April.
But Liebelson said it has raised a total of $25,000 from his 90-year-old father-in-law and a former business partner.
Liebelson has made an issue of the amount of money Thomson has raised from developers, particularly through PACs.
While not a member of Save Boca, Liebelson agrees with its stance against the proposed redevelopment of the downtown campus by One Boca. He has vowed not to accept developer money for his campaign.
Nachlas has received developer donations, but Liebelson has not highlighted that because he says she is upfront about supporting development.
He singles out Thomson for saying he opposes the downtown campus redevelopment while also accepting developer contributions.
Thomson does not dispute that developers have donated to his campaign, “but not in the overwhelming scale that Mr. Liebelson suggests. That is just false,” he said.
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