Top Florida GOP operatives paid by dark money group under investigation

[Zorro]

Ryan Smith, a GOP consultant; Ryan Tyson, a Republican pollster, and Alex Alvarado, a strategist, all received a cut from a $550,000 mail buy for three state Senate races for sham candidates meant to confuse voters.

TALLAHASSEE — Three prominent Republican operatives got a cut from a more than half-a-million dollar payment meant for “mail,” which was paid for by a dark money group that is part of an investigation into a vote-siphoning scheme during the 2020 election, records show.

Ryan Smith, a GOP consultant who owns Tallahassee firm ‘96 Consulting; Ryan Tyson, a prominent Republican operative and pollster, and Alex Alvarado, a strategist and stepson of the printer who brokered the mail-piece project, all received a cut from $550,000 directed toward an Orlando printing company.

Luis Orlando Rodriguez, the owner of the company Advanced Impressions and Alvarado’s stepfather, told investigators that he coordinated the printing and mailing of over 500,000 political mail advertisements that were sent to voters in three key 2020 state Senate races — two in Miami-Dade County and one in Central Florida.

The details of the mail buy, which were disclosed for the first time in court records released Tuesday, underscore the influence of Republican big-hitters and how mail was used to attempt to sway the outcome of three key state Senate races in 2020. Republicans won all three races, and the victories solidified the GOP control of the Florida Legislature’s upper chamber.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/08/31/top-florida-gop-operatives-paid-by-dark-money-group-under-investigation/