Don't let his nerdy looks fool you. Marc Caputo coming at you with a notebook, tape recorder, or camera means you get on a plane out of Miami. If he's writing about you, chances are you're toast. He owned the political beat in Florida last year with timely scoops and exclusives on the state's biggest political players, specifically U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and his embattled pal, ex-U.S. congressman David Rivera. Conservatives and liberals bash his work with equal venom — solid affirmation that Caputo doesn't kowtow to either team. The reporter, who was raised in Key West, worked with El Nuevo Herald editor Manny Garcia to expose the nefarious campaign of Democratic congressional candidate Justin Lamar Sternad, the former hotel employee accused of being a ringer recruited by Rivera to run against the man who eventually unseated him, Joe Garcia. As a result of Caputo and Garcia's exclusive, the FBI opened a criminal probe that resulted in the recent arrest of Sternad and the temporary disappearance of his campaign manager, Ana Sol Alliegro, a close friend of Rivera's. A laid-back, existential Conch Republican, Caputo landed in journalism by necessity. He graduated from the University of Miami with a general studies degree, with a speciality in early-20th-century author James Joyce. Though penning a thesis on the mysticism in Chapter 10 of Finnegans Wake is certainly an ambitious writing endeavor, it doesn't pay the bills. So he took up news reporting, bouncing around his hometown to Naples, Arizona, and West Palm Beach before joining the Miami Herald in 2003. If you're holding elected office and planning any shenanigans in 2014, watch out for this watchdog.