Lucia Baez Geller, the former Miami-Dade School Board member running against Republican state Rep. Fabian Basabe in House District 106, said voters should move on from the legal and personal controversies surrounding him. She made the case Sunday on CBS Miami’s “Facing South Florida” with host Jim DeFede.
Baez Geller said residents are being priced out of their homes and that some seniors must choose between medicine and mortgage payments. She said the district needs a representative focused on those issues.
Basabe faces a series of legal problems. In July, a Tallahassee jury found him liable for sexually harassing two male staffers, battery and defamation, and ordered him to pay the men $450,000. During the trial, another man testified that Basabe drugged and raped him more than 20 years ago. Los Angeles prosecutors closed their review of that case last year without charging him. Basabe denies the allegations and is appealing the verdict.
Basabe also refused to resign after the verdict, despite a video he posted earlier promising to step down if the claims were proven. Baez Geller called that a lapse in accountability and said voters cannot trust him. CBS Miami said Basabe declined a taped interview and would appear only live. The show is taped in advance.
