Rep. Basabe Confronts Mayor Levine Cava at a Miami Beach Voting Site, and Both Sides Release Video
The Saturday encounter outside Miami Beach City Hall, an early voting site, has become a District 106 campaign fight in its own right: the mayor's adviser says she felt threatened, and the state representative says it was free speech. The account rests on the Miami Herald's reporting and the two sides' videos.
State Rep. Fabian Basabe confronted Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Saturday as she had coffee at a cafe next to Miami Beach City Hall, an early voting site, and followed her to her car in a city garage, the Miami Herald reported. The account, carried Sunday morning by Red Sidewalks, rests on the Herald's report and on videos released by both sides, and it has not been independently verified beyond those sources - a caveat this desk carries with the story.
Christian Ulvert, the mayor's top political adviser, filmed and released an 81-second video of the encounter, according to the Herald. In it, Basabe presses the mayor with questions and accusations about Israel and the Jewish community, asks whether she is backing Democratic Socialist candidates and calls Ulvert her 'bag man,' the Herald reported. The video shows only the mayor's back, and she does not appear to answer.
Ulvert called Basabe's conduct disgraceful and a stunt meant to rattle a public servant, and said the mayor felt threatened, according to the Herald. He said Levine Cava skipped an event she had planned at City Hall with Lucia Baez-Geller, the Democrat challenging Basabe in Tuesday's election for Florida House District 106, after the confrontation. Basabe told the Herald in a text that it was free speech, criticized Ulvert for speaking for the mayor, said Levine Cava and his opponent should answer questions, and posted his own video of the encounter.
The Herald reported no police involvement; Ulvert said a sheriff's deputy waited in a car nearby but did not go with the mayor because it was a political event. The confrontation came a day after a video posted on X showed a Miami Beach police officer warning Basabe that he would be ticketed for being too loud on a microphone at the same voting site - a clip Basabe has called edited. Early voting in Miami-Dade ends Sunday at 7 p.m., and on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, voters go to their assigned precincts.
