An effort to recall Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava appears to have violated Florida law by missing a state-mandated reporting deadline and omitting key disclaimer language in a TV ad laden with AI slop.
Levine Cava’s political adviser, in turn, has since filed a cease and desist letter to the station airing the ad. State fines are likely for the delinquent financial report.
In mid-January, Miami-Dade Clerk Juan Fernandez-Barquin approved a recall petition against Levine Cava started by conservative media personality Alex Otaola, one of five challengers Levine Cava trounced in 2024.
Funding for the recall push was to come primarily from Recall Cava, a political committee Otaola set up in October.
In its fourth-quarter campaign finance filing, Recall Cava reported no fundraising or spending. The report for the first quarter of 2026, spanning January, February and March, was due Friday.
As of noon Tuesday, that report has yet to be filed.
But it isn’t because Recall Cava hasn’t raised or spent any money, based on an ad Miami-based TV station WSVN has been airing — a 14-second spot composed, it seems, entirely using artificial intelligence, including a voiceover that mispronounces the Mayor’s name.
The ad was to run April 13 to May 11, Federal Communications Commission records show. Florida Statutes require most political ads to prominently disclose who paid for them and, when applicable, whether the candidate approved the message, including the candidate’s name, party affiliation or write-in status, and office sought.
Ads not paid for by a candidate must identify their sponsor and address, label themselves as paid political advertisements, and either state candidate approval or explicitly note that no candidate approved the ad, with limited exceptions for certain small or digital formats.
The Recall Cava ad simply states, “Paid by PAC RECALL CAVA,” which is not the name of the political committee, and includes none of the other information required by state law.
Christian Ulvert, who has advised Levine Cava in multiple campaigns, sent WSVN a cease-and-desist letter detailing Recall Cava’s financial reporting delinquency and the ad’s violation. The station is on “formal notice,” he wrote, demanding that the ad be taken off the air.
“This is not a technical or minor deficiency,” he wrote.
“The disclaimer requirement is a cornerstone of Florida’s campaign finance transparency framework, designed to ensure that voters know who is funding political campaigns directed at them. An advertisement that omits this disclosure deprives the public of material information and constitutes a violation of” state law, he added.
In a separate statement, Ulvert called Otaola’s failure to file financial statements for his political committee in a timely fashion “a deliberate choice to hide from voters who is funding this effort and how that money is being spent.”
“There are no carve-outs for a YouTube influencer who was rejected by 89% of voters and decided to turn their grudge into a political stunt,” Ulvert said, referring to Otaola’s 11.8% share of the vote in the 2024 election. “Mr. Otaola wants to hold the Mayor to account while refusing to hold himself to the most basic legal obligation. Miami-Dade voters are smart enough to see through it.”
The recall effort alleges that Levine Cava has not maintained basic county services, citing issues like worsening potholes, flooding, problems at Miami International Airport and poor conditions at animal shelters.
Organizers frame the campaign as a response to declining quality of life and government performance.
Levine Cava has called it a “political sideshow.”
Ulvert’s complaints about Recall Cava come less than three months after Levine Cava drew criticism for having an ad funded by her political committee, which Ulvert runs, air on county media platforms before her State of the State speech in late January.
Otaola, noting the one-minute spot came in the wake of his effort’s authorization by the Clerk, accused Levine Cava of using taxpayer funds “to cling to power.”
As the Miami Herald noted, the video, as posted on YouTube by Levine Cava’s political committee, includes the required disclaimer information. But the video that aired before the Mayor’s speech was cut off before that language was shown.
Miami-Dade last held a successful mayoral recall in 2011, when voters removed then-Mayor Carlos Alvarez amid controversy over public financing tied to the Marlins ballpark.
Alvarez is a Republican, as are Fernandez-Barquin and Garcia — both former state Representatives — and Otaola, who placed third in the 2024 mayoral race with 12% of the vote.
Levine Cava is a Democrat, Miami-Dade’s first woman Mayor and the first Jewish person to hold the job.
Florida Politics contacted Otaola for comment, but received no response by press time.
