Case Study Launching the Miami Corruption Tracker
The launch of Miami Corruption Tracker
I helped to launch Miami Corruption Tracker/ Corruptómetro de Miami in the summer of 2024 as a resource for residents of Miami-Dade County to learn more about some of the political dynasties running local government here and the donations fueling their power.
Our strategy was both to build out a series of profile pages for specific political families and also to write a series of blog posts to do the investigative reporting we wished local reporters were still doing: the kind that focuses on public records and campaign finance reports.
The site also included calls to actions with petitions and letter campaigns (powered by Action Network), so we could build empowerment as well as grow our email list.
Promotion: a pivot away from digital ads towards SMS / MMS Marketing:
While we still invested in digital advertising to market this site, we also used peer to peer texting tools to text out links to the blog posts on Miami Corruption Tracker / Corruptómetro de Miami.
Here are some of the examples:
I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents urging them to sign the Miami Corruption Tracker website petition to reinstate Miami-Dade’s old public corruption bureau.
NOW, we need your help. Public corruption is at a breaking point in Miami-Dade County.
Add your name to our petition to reinstate Miami-Dade's Public Corruption Bureau. Former Mayor Carlos Gimenez shut down this bureau in 2013 - but newsflash, public corruption didn't end in 2013 ...it exploded.
Public pressure works. Help us get to 1,000 signatures to REINSTATE the public corruption bureau.
ADD YOUR NAME: https://miacorruption.news/miamiabd0d2
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Text message introducing Miami's biggest political dynasties
Aug. 30, 2024
I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents to promote a blog post on Miamicorruptiontracker.com about Miami’s biggest political dynasties.
The Suarez, Hardemon, Regalado, and Gimenez families ran for offices in 2024, and for the first time ever, father-daughter duo Tomas and Raquel Regalado will be on the same ballot THIS NOVEMBER.
Since 1988, only two years have passed without one of these families appearing on a Miami-Dade ballot.
Read the full story here: https://miacorruption.news/MiamiPoliticalD4f70d
Text STOP to quit
Text message about the top donors of one of Miami-Dade's most powerful commissioners
I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents to promote a blog post on Miamicorruptiontracker.com about the top donors to Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado.
County Commissioner Raquel Regalado's re-election campaign has raised $1.6M. And 79% of that comes from donors giving OVER $1,000 each.
AND her top donors are The Related Group and 13th Floor Investments ($46k) -developers with zoning business in front of the county.
🔥 But it GETS WORSE: Rene and Raymond Gonzalez ($26K), who landed $70M in transportation contracts with the county, are also funding her campaign-despite their vehicles catching fire!
Why is Regalado defending these deals?
https://miacorruption.news/top-donors-357150
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Text message about the fines Miami's biggest political families have paid for breaking Florida's election laws
I wrote this text message to Miami-Dade residents to promote a blog post on Miamicorruptiontracker.com about the all the fines Miami’s biggest political dynasties have paid for breaking Florida’s election laws.
Leading the charge: the Diaz de la Portilla family, fined $32,391 across 25 violations.
The Regalado family has paid $15,150 and the Hardemon family has been hit with $4,743 in penalties.
How long will these dynasties keep putting themselves above the law?
Get the full story here: https://miacorruption.news/fines-959c29
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