Last Tuesday, Miami Beach voters overwhelming voted in favor a symbolic vote for medical marijuana and a real vote to approve a queer- and trans-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance. It's not exactly conservative-land. So it seems strange that a mysterious e-mail went out recently attacking commission candidate Michael Grieco for *gasp* living in sin with the mother of his child.
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Grieco will face incumbent commissioner Jorge Exposito in a runoff election on November 19. His campaign material does include images of him with his family. They're featured in a campaign and his Twitter avatar, but according to Naked Politics a mysterious email went out to voters informing them that ruh row Grieco and his girlfriend aren't married:
"Michael Grieco brags about being a father all the time and promotes himself with flyers casting the image of him as a man of strong family values," the email said. "But did you know he had his child out of wedlock and his 'wife' is not really his wife, but merely a girlfriend he lives with?"
Opponent Exposito sent out his own email informing voters he was not behind the attack.
"It's 2013. This is Miami Beach," Grieco told the Miami Herald. "My home structure is, first of all, nobody's business. Second of all, it's no different than a large contingent of the population. I love my family and I'm proud of my family. And to bring my son and to bring my better half into this is cowardly and it's foolish, and highly offensive."
It's almost funny how often these type of attacks that might fly in Heartland, Oklahoma, are launched in Miami Beach politics. Mayor-turned-commission-candidate Matti Bower still gets occasionally handed for the number of photos she's in with male go-go dancers, but it hasn't really affected her political career.
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