to an art show, he called her a “whore” and the N-word. “When he’s leaving, he starts screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘peasant,’ ‘whore,’ ‘bitch’ at me,” the publicist, Tayo Otiti, said at the time. Basabe denied using the slur. “This was an exaggerated incident in a gossip column,” he tells New Times. Bona Fides The 44-year-old Basabe’s political back- ground is sparser than his opponent’s, he concedes. He spent much of his adult life sleeping in, imbibing, and enjoying “all the pleasures of life,” he tells New Times. But he says he has turned over a new leaf and is doing his “very best from sunrise to sunset” to engage with his community. In his own words, he’s a family man and devotes his time to his wife, Martina Borgomanero Bas- abe, heiress to the La Perla lingerie fortune, and their teenage son. Basabe vied for a Miami Beach City Commission seat last year but was disqualified when it came to light that he hadn’t been a resident long enough to be eligible to run. Nowadays, he can be found courting the electorate and meeting with local council members throughout District 106. In recent months, he has helped out with Favela Mi- ami’s homelessness relief programs, attended dozens of community events, and posed for photos alongside U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. On Memorial Day, Basabe attended Honor Our Heroes, a veteran-appreciation event in Daytona Beach. (His father, a busi- nessman born in Ecuador, was deployed to Vietnam after moving to the United States, Basabe says.) “I can honestly say, and I think most people that have gotten to know me would agree, especially those that understand what it is to run a campaign, that no candidate has worked harder than myself in this race,” Basabe says. Staying focused on policies and fostering a more civil political discourse seems to be his strategy, even as his personal history is dis- sected in the press and on social media. His campaign platform lists protecting beaches, keeping taxes low, and ending housing inse- curity as priorities. As the election approaches, the moderate voters he’s courting might be weighing their opinions on his past controversies against their take on his diplomatic political stances. “Are there are people that want to have their own fantasies about who I should be?” Basabe says. “I invite them to enjoy that. Is that really helping anybody?” Adds the candidate: “It’s really gross, the characters that you meet jumping into a polit- ical arena, the stuff that gets thrown at you, the exposure, the overexposure from people who have no other interest but to take you down. And in my younger years, I used to pay, you know, five figures to top publicists to try to keep my name out of the press.” [email protected] Eligible for Medicare & Medicaid? HELP YOURSELF! Get $7,500 worth of FREE extra benefits that Original Medicare & Medicaid don’t cover. Keep ALL your Original Medicare & Medicaid benefits $0 monthly premium Call now to enroll: 1-866-396-1586 (TTY: 711) 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week Or visit: vipdualfl.com/new AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care is an HMO-SNP plan with a Medicare contract and a contract with the Florida Medicaid program. Enrollment in AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care depends on contract renewal. AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care is only available in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. H6378_001_PRA_2189166_M_Accepted_09202022 10516 ROP 9_625x5_4167_FL_RELEASE.indd 1 10516(10/22)ROP-FL 10/5/22 10:27 AM 5 NEW PLAN IN FLORIDA 5 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC |MIAMI NEW TIMES miaminewtimes.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | NEW TIMES MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 NOVEMBER 3-9, 2022
