“I want you to make his life a living hell. Seriously.” 

The quote is from a 2019 email the chief executive of Florida Power & Light, Eric Silagy, about Florida State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez, who had been a thorn in the side of the utility monopoly. Rodriguez was pushing policy reforms that would allow Florida consumers to more easily access solar power outside the confines of FPL’s monopoly.

One year later, Rodriguez was out of a job, the victim of an actual election fraud, where dark money operatives funded a ghost candidate with the same last name. In an election that featured more than 200,000 votes, the difference came down to 32 votes.

In this case file, we talk with Alissa Jean Schafer (@alissajean) about how FPL has affected political outcomes via media and elections to further their own interests at the expense of their customers. It goes deeper and gets dirtier than you can imagine.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

The post CASE FILE: Florida Power & Light’s Corrupt Election Hustle first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.