ORLANDO, Fla. (September 30, 2020) – The Daisy Morales campaign has learned that Morales’s Republican opponent in the Florida House District 48 race, Jesus Martinez, whose campaign website claims he is a “respectable real estate broker” and states that “he has used his credentials to serve hundreds of families with housing, mortgage lending and credit issues,” has himself been struggling to stay out of debt, facing bankruptcy, nearly three million in foreclosures, and at least six failed businesses. Mr. Martinez’s financial history is a long list of disasters.

“Mr. Martinez escaped vetting by Republicans in the Florida House District 48 race because he didn’t have a primary Republican opponent available to check his past,” said Morales. “He got little attention from the news media because all eyes were on the Democratic primary candidates.

“It appears Mr. Martinez was hoping his troubled financial past would remain under the public radar by having his candidacy for the general election validated with the Orlando Sentinel’s endorsement. 

“Our campaign believes the news media were so impressed with Mr. Martinez’s charisma, and the fact that he’s a fellow media personality appears to have given him a pass from being vetted.

“However, our campaign saw serious red flags in the information Mr. Martinez listed on his campaign website, which required review:

• He held a law degree, worked seven years with law firms on civil cases, real estate, family, meditations, bankruptcy, and immigration, but had no law license from the Florida bar
• He worked in the real estate and mortgage lending business for nearly 21 years, he held an active real estate broker license, but never mentioned being a former mortgage broker
• He claimed his work was pivotal during the 2008 mortgage crisis and helped families looking to avoid foreclosure
• It appears he added his wife’s background to help his campaign’s image

“Lawmakers are expected to balance the state’s budget in Tallahassee and bring funding back to their district,” Morales expressed. “Fiscal responsibility and accountability are at the heart of the Republican agenda. A state lawmaker must have sound financial judgment, and we’ve discovered that Mr. Martinez clearly doesn’t.” 

Martinez’s Failed Businesses
According to the Florida Division of Corporations, Mr. Martinez was listed as the registered agent, manager, or an authorized person for six failed businesses since 2004.
– 1st Capital Lending Group Corp.  Filed September 17, 2004 – March 14, 2008 (voluntary dissolution)  Business address: 8010 Sunport Drive, Suite 120, Orlando, FL 32809  Mortgage agency license: February 21, 2005 – August 31, 2008  Mortgage broker license: April 1, 2002 – August 31, 2009 (license expiration effective date October 6, 2010)  Note: According to the Florida Office of Financial Regulations, Mr. Martinez is no longer a mortgage broker.
– Home Solutions Real Estate Inc.  Filed September 17, 2004 – September 26, 2008 (administrative dissolution)  Business address: 8010 Sunport Drive, Suite 120, Orlando, FL 32809

– J & L Investment Group, LLC  Filed July 14, 2006 – September 26, 2008  (administrative dissolution)   Located at Martinez’s home address: 9977 Oak Quarry Drive, Orlando, FL 32832
– Capital Title and Trust Corp.  Filed November 15, 2006 – March 14, 2008 (voluntary dissolution)  Business address: 8010 Sunport Drive, Suite 120, Orlando, FL 32809  
– Mejorate Group LLC  Filed October 11, 2007 – September 26, 2008 (administrative dissolution)  Business address: 5448 Hoffner Ave. Suite 104, Orlando, FL 32812
– Credit & Consumer Advocates LLC (listed as an authorized person)  Filed March 27, 2017 – September 28, 2018 (administrative dissolution)  Business address: 1038 S. Semoran Blvd. 2-1031 Winter Park, FL 32792              
Mr. Martinez’s currently active company, Maximus PR & Communications LLC, was filed on August 31 of this year, located at 4555 Hoffner Avenue, Orlando, FL 32812.

Foreclosures, Bankruptcy Filings and Lawsuits
On or about March 11, 2008, Old San Juan Group, LLC leased 7229 E. Colonial Dr. in Orlando, Florida (32807), but court records revealed that Irma Enterprises, Inc. sued Mr. Martinez, seeking approximately $318,500 in damages due to a lease breach. Florida Division of Corporations records indicate that Mr. Martinez’s wife Lynnette was listed as the company’s registered agent; and court records show that the lawsuit listed them both, as well as the company, as defendants. The company was filed on February 25, 2008 and voluntarily dissolved April 29, 2009. The foreclosed property was 9904 Lanai View Circle, Windermere, FL 34786.
Court records show that Suntrust Bank and Suntrust Mortgage hit Mr. Martinez with four different lawsuits involving foreclosure:
– In one lawsuit, Suntrust sought nearly $1.8 million in damages for Lot 15 in Lake Nona, Orlando, FL 32827 (filed in September 2008,   Case No. 08-CA-022267)
– Suntrust Bank was seeking roughly $494,000 in damages for his home, located at 9977 Oak Quarry Drive, Orlando, FL 32832 (filed on or   about October 31, 2008, Case No. 08-CA-28925)
– The third was the final judgment on the 9977 Oak Quarry property, which ruled Mr. Martinez owed over $634,000 (filed in August 2009,   Case No. 09-CA-27857)
– In a fourth, Suntrust Mortgage Inc., sought over $360,000 (filed in November 2009 for the above mentioned Windermere property, Case   No. 09-CA-35962) 

According to court documents, the U.S. Bank National Association sued Martinez for a condominium at Sunport Commerce Center. The final judgment was issued on or about July 10, 2010, and the property was put on auction on or about October 7, 2010. 
Court records also show a foreclosure claim of a lien against Mr. Martinez and his wife by Ziani at Lavina Homeowners Association, Inc. on or about May 25, 2011 for failing to pay their HOA fee.

Court records revealed that Mr. Martinez (listed as Jesus Ramon Martinez Almonte) filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Puerto Rico in March of 2013 (Case No. 13-01828-EAG7). Court documents also show that a separate bankruptcy case was filed in the federal bankruptcy court in Orlando (Case No. 6:14-bk-11133-CCJ). Mr. Martinez’s wife Lynnette (listed as Lynnette Soccorro Batista Sanchez) filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Puerto Rico in September that same year (Case No. 13-07998-BKT13). The address he used on his bankruptcy filing was Calle Bianca 161, Urb Terra Senorial, Ponce, PR 00731. The address she used for her bankruptcy filing was 9013 Flat Rock Lane, Orlando, FL 32852.

Fly-by-Night Companies?
Mejorate Group LLC lasted roughly a year (October 2007 – September 2008) and the most recent business venture listed for Martinez before his newest one, Credit & Consumer Advocates LLC, lasted a little over a year (March 2017 – September 2018). Why are these businesses so short-lived?

Is Martinez Credible?
“A business and real estate history like this calls Mr. Martinez’s credibility into question,” said Morales. “It’s clear the voters, Republicans and the media don’t know enough about the dark side of Mr. Martinez’s past that we now see so clearly. Either party, Republican or Democrat, would call for him not to run or assure that they had a viable candidate.
“Our campaign will leave it to District 48 voters to examine Mr. Martinez’s troubled past to determine during the general election if he’s fit to represent them in the Florida legislature.”
Media Contact: DaisyForFlorida@gmail.com | Campaign Website: DaisyForFlorida.com  

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ORLANDO, Fla. (September 28, 2020) – State Representative nominee and Orange Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor Daisy Morales is now calling for the firing of an Orlando Sentinel reporter and the editorial staff who approved his September 22, 2020 article that was riddled with falsehoods appearing to sway the Florida House District 48 election, as well as the members of the editorial board responsible for writing the article endorsing her opponent on September 25, 2020 for their flagrant use of false information.

“Thank God all media reporting for our community isn’t controlled by the Orlando Sentinel,” said Morales. “A free press should tell the truth. The public, its elected officials, and the news industry must demand it. I’m demanding it now from the Orlando Sentinel.

“The Sentinel has lost touch with the community it serves when it comes to zero tolerance for false reporting, peddling distortion and misinformation. The Sentinel just gives more fuel to Trump’s claim of “fake news.” 

Orlando Sentinel’s False Reporting

In the Sentinel’s September 22nd article, reporter Stephen Hudak falsely reported that Morales was absent from Soil & Water Board meetings from March 2019 to February 2020–an entire year. Morales immediately clapped back in a press statement supplying the facts—which could’ve been easily attained by requesting the Orange Soil & Water Board meeting minutes—and demanding the Orlando Sentinel issue an apology to the public and correct the false information.

On September 25, the Sentinel’s editorial board published an article endorsing Morales’s opponent, but took every liberty to slam her in the process—with still more false information.

The article reads in relevant part:

“People like Morales, who in a blog post criticizing a recent Orlando Sentinel story about her time on the board challenged readers to check her attendance at orangesoilandwater.org. The only links to minutes available from previous meetings are from the January and February meetings. There’s no information about who staffs the place and no phone numbers anywhere. Maybe that’s where Morales ran into problems.

“An effective supervisor would have at least gotten the website right after six years in office.”

The Actual Facts

“It’s a petty swipe, and more importantly, another outright lie,” Morales expressed in response to the website comment. “All they had to do was check the minutes, and if the minutes aren’t on the website, then it’s their job—their job—to follow up by contacting Orange Soil & Water Board Chairman and Secretary Michael Barber for the minutes. Had they done that, they would know that in the January 2019 meeting, Supervisor Dziekan and I presented a new and fully compliant website (which I paid for out of my own pocket) to the Board. The Board instead tabled the vote to approve the website because they wanted us to make some changes, but in the March 2020 meeting, Chairman Barber ultimately decided to have another website—a currently non-compliant one—made for free. 

Better yet, a simple Google search would’ve done the trick. An article related to the website Supervisor Dziekan and I created is on the first page of the search results. 

“And as someone who aims to provide value to the people, I wasn’t only instrumental in putting the site together, but I ensured that as many people, groups, and organizations knew about the website as possible, sharing it over 40 times on social media. I sent it to the Florida Department of Equal Opportunity to ensure it was in compliance with Florida law, as well as water management districts, the City of Orlando, Orange County Government and the Orange County Supervisor of Elections to ensure they had updated information about the new website to share with their residents and voters.

“The Orlando Sentinel failed to follow basic journalistic steps consistent with accurate and fair reporting. These articles are just lazy writing, and the writers responsible for them need to be fired immediately. With these falsehoods, the public now has to question the legitimacy of any of the Sentinel’s endorsements.

Orlando Sentinel’s Questionable Practices

“The Sentinel seems to be using as many resources as it can to maliciously attack me, said Morales. “The Florida Bar Association lists 24 different badges of constitutional malice by a media outlet, and it appears the Sentinel meets four of them with these articles:

–        They’ve failed to conduct a thorough investigation before publishing serious and damaging allegations against me, which leads to:

–        Omitting pertinent information to create a false impression

–        They’re emphasizing unimportant events to support a defamatory statement (by using my absences while not acknowledging the absences of anyone else on the Board in order to discredit me, especially since the Soil & Water Board has no established policy on absences)

–        They’ve refused to publish a retraction upon learning the errors in their story, even after I supplied them with the facts

“During the January 2020 meeting, which the Orlando Sentinel covered, they were aware of the Orange Soil & Water Conservation District Board’s dysfunction, but said nothing of the abolishment of Soil & Water Boards statewide in their coverage at the time. However, all of sudden in the editorial board’s endorsement article for my opponent, they point to me as a reason why Soil & Water boards are relics of the past and will likely be abolished statewide. 

“During the primary, the Orlando Sentinel requested to interview me and I had a scheduling conflict. I did do an interview with El Sentinel, but the Orlando Sentinel responded by slamming me in their endorsement of Samuel Vilchez Santiago, saying that I didn’t deserve serious consideration by voters and publishing a false assumption that I was dodging questions about my meeting attendance. I called the Sentinel out on their false reporting then, too. 

“Once I won the primary, the Sentinel once again requested an interview with my opponent and me and I once again had a scheduling conflict. They offered two dates: September 18, 2020 and September 25, 2020. I informed Barbara Jay, a member of the editorial board who was coordinating the interview, that I wasn’t available on the 18th, but the 25th was never discussed as an option again, and I received an email on the 17th thanking me for helping to confirm the interview, which I never did.

“Their response? Two articles with false information. It appears the editorial board’s endorsement piece is an extension of the false reporting from Stephen Hudak’s September 22nd article, because they continued to use the same false information–also known as the fruit of the poisonous tree–and this false information is being circulated by other media outlets who presume it’s factual.

“This malicious targeting appears to be politically motivated and the people responsible need to be fired.” 

High Profile News Staff Fired or Suspended for False Reporting

Firing reporters and editorial staff for false reporting isn’t uncommon. ABC suspended chief investigative reporter Brian Ross and Newsweek fired a reporter for falsely reporting on President Trump, and CBS News fired four executives and senior producers back in 2005 for producing a false report on President Bush for 60 Minutes. 

“The Orlando Sentinel knows this well enough, because they even covered Kathi Belich’s firing from WFTV back in 2016 after falsely reporting that State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s husband, David Ayala, had a gun felony charge,” Morales added. “The Ayala campaign said the same thing about Belich that I’m saying here: Belich appeared to be reporting false information to sway the election, and it appears the Orlando Sentinel is doing the same thing.

“Speaking of political motivation, it’s interesting how things escalated from the recommendation that voters shouldn’t give me serious consideration during the primary, to me now being the worst Democratic candidate and that Democratic voters have an alternative in my Republican opponent. Nothing about me as a person changed between the primary and now.”  

Why These Firings are Necessary

“Journalism has the highest standards because of the incredible power the media has to shape public opinion,” said Morales. “This is a big responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly or abused. And quite frankly, false reporting is an insult to the people’s intelligence.

“If Tribune Publishing has any standards about basic media principles and actually values its readers and subscribers, then they’ll remove the reporters and staff at Orlando Sentinel who are poisoning their brand and misleading readers by reporting false information.

“I will not sit on the sidelines and watch the Orlando Sentinel spread false information and do nothing when I’m armed with the truth and the facts.” 

Media Contact: DaisyForFlorida@gmail.com | Campaign Website: DaisyForFlorida.com

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ORLANDO, Fla. (September 21, 2020) – Today, Daisy Morales’s campaign for Florida House District 48 announced the endorsement of Florida State Senator Randolph Bracy, who represents Senate District 11, which includes part of Orange County.

Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice Vice Chair and Florida State Senator Randolph Bracy said, “Supervisor Daisy Morales is dedicated to public service. As a strong voice for affordable healthcare, environmental and economic justice, Daisy will stand on the side of working families in Tallahassee. Daisy understands the importance of people-powered politics and will fight for what’s right. That’s why I’m proud to endorse Daisy for State Representative in House District 48.”

“I’m humbled by the support of our social justice champion, Senator Bracy. He’s a true watchman over Florida’s criminal and civil justice systems, ensuring all Floridans who play by the rules are treated fairly, especially the black and brown communities in Orange County and District 48. This is trule public service the people of Florida need. I look forward to continuing my working relationship with the Senator on this and other legislation as your next State Representative in House District 48,” said Supervisor Daisy Morales.

Senator Bracy joins a long list of high-ranking officials who have endorsed Morales.

The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

The campaign will continue to announce more major endorsements soon.

Media Contact: DaisyForFlorida@gmail.com | Campaign Website: DaisyForFlorida.com    

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