ORLANDO, Fla. — A GOP operative and key player in the 2020 “ghost” candidate scandal is attempting again to deceive left-leaning voters, this time sending text messages suggesting Democrat Jose Javier Rodríguez, who is running for Florida attorney general, won’t “defend reproductive freedom.”

Alex Alvarado’s political action committee is behind the texts slamming Rodriguez in an apparent effort to help Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier stay in office.

Alvarado also ran a pair of political committees in 2020 that sent mailers urging voters to cast ballots for a trio of independent “ghost” candidates, a multi-person effort to siphon votes away from three Democrats running for state Senate. Rodríguez, then a state senator from South Florida seeking reelection, was a target of that effort, too.

The 2020 scheme ended with criminal convictions for some players. Alvarado was told by Miami-Dade prosecutors that he was a target of their investigation but was never charged.

His new text-message ads are worded so that they sound like they might be coming from a left-leaning group. But they were sent by a political committee called Lower Our Costs Now, which is chaired by Alvarado, an early supporter of Uthmeier’s. It’s not clear where the money for the texts came from, as Lower Our Costs Now, which was registered in late September, has not yet reported any contributions or expenditures.

A graphic attached to the text messages refers to a 2015 Florida House Bill (HB 633), which required a 24-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion. Rodríguez, who was then a state House member, missed the floor vote, though he entered a “no” vote on the proposal after the official roll call, records show. The measure easily passed the Republican-dominated Legislature.

“When reproductive freedom was on the line, Jose Javier Rodríguez went missing,” reads the text on the graphic, which further suggests he didn’t vote at all, with the words “not voting” circled in red.

A spokeswoman for Rodríguez’s current campaign said in a statement the messages were intended to trick voters and that Rodríguez supports abortion rights.

“José Javier was just endorsed by Planned Parenthood Florida Action for his commitment to protecting reproductive rights,” Luisana Pérez Fernández wrote in an email. “These misleading messages are an attempt to confuse voters and suppress turnout. His record and commitment to protecting a woman’s right to choose speak for themselves.”

Alvarado defended the texts in an statement emailed to the Orlando Sentinel.

“If telling voters that he didn’t vote is ‘misleading,’ the problem is his record, not the text,” he wrote.

Alvarado’s firm, Alvarado Strategies, was the first donor to Uthmeier’s political committee, Friends of James Uthmeier. Alvarado Strategies contributed $1,000 in February 2025.

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Uthmeier as the state’s attorney general in 2025. The state’s former attorney general, Ashley Moody, was appointed to the U.S. Senate to succeed Marco Rubio, who had been tapped by newly elected President Donald Trump to serve as the U.S. Secretary of State. Voters will see Uthmeier on the ballot for the first time this year.

While Rodríguez supports abortion rights, Uthmeier, is staunchly anti-abortion. He filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood last year accusing the group of falsely advertising that abortion medication is “safer than Tylenol.” The lawsuit relies in part on research conducted by anti-abortion groups.

Along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Uthmeier also sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year, alleging the administration’s approval and deregulation of abortion drugs “have placed women and girls in harm’s way.”

In 2020, Alvarado and a group of political operatives working closely with Florida Power and Light sought to derail Rodríguez’s re-election campaign for the Florida Senate by tricking voters into voting for an independent candidate with the same last name. FP&L leaders have denied involvement in the scandal, but the utility has acknowledged it wanted to oust Rodríguez from his Senate seat because he promoted environmentally conscious policies the utility opposed and fought plans to expand the Turkey Point nuclear plant in South Florida.

The ruse worked, as the other man, Alex Rodriguez, received more than 6,000 votes, allowing Republican Ileana Garcia to defeat Jose Javier Rodríguez by 32 votes.

The political committee controlled by Alvarado sent mailers to Miami-area voters promoting Alex Rodriguez as a progressive alternative to major-party candidates — but he was paid by former GOP state Sen. Frank Artiles to put his name on the ballot. Artiles was later convicted of several charges, including making excessive campaign contributions.

Another of Alvarado’s committees also sent mailers to Central Florida voters urging them to vote for an independent state Senate candidate, Jestine Iannotti, who filed to run for a seat representing Seminole County and part of Volusia. That was also an effort to split the vote of left-leaning residents who might be convinced based on the mailers that Iannotti — who never campaigned and spent several weeks in Sweden right before the election — supported progressive policies.

Republican Jason Brodeur eventually won that race and remains in the state Senate, where he is seeking re-election this year.

Along with Iannotti, political consultant Eric Foglesong and former Seminole County GOP chair Ben Paris were charged for their roles in the scheme. Paris was convicted after a four-day trial in 2022, while Foglesong and Iannotti accepted plea agreements.

Records from Iannotti’s case no longer appear on the Seminole County Clerk of Courts’ website, suggesting she may have had her record expunged. She pleaded no contest in 2024 to two first-degree misdemeanors, but adjudication was withheld in her case, so she was not formally convicted of a crime.

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