By Dessalines Ferdinand
Recently, a disgruntled and failed political campaign manager texted the founder and editor of Le Floridien a slanderous and disparaging message. It read, “Shame on you for your article. This is paid propaganda.” At Le Floridien, we are dedicated to pursuing truth in journalism and have never accepted nor will we ever accept payment for any political articles. Our focus here is to provide truth to our readers so we can all make reasoned, rational decisions in political races.
To clarify the situation, in our last edition (Volume No. 22 Issue No. 517, November 16 -30, 2022) we published an article entitled, “Patrick Maignan, ‘The Architect’ of Marleine Bastien Victory’. In the article, we acknowledged the phenomenal work done by Mr. Maignan during Batien’s campaign in her effort to defeat then North Miami sitting Mayor Philippe Bien-Aimé’s bid to replace term-limited Commissioner Jean Monestime for the District 2 seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission.
Not only did Philippe Bien-Aimé have ‘name recognition’ in the South Florida political arena, but his campaign was heavily funded. He also received endorsements from many well-known officials in the region.
As a result, it was reasonable to assume that Bastien simply couldn’t defeat him. Yet, she did, and against long odds. Analyzing her victory, many political observers and even some close supporters of Bien-Aimé acknowledged that Patrick Maignan was the key person who designed a masterful campaign strategy for her. Therefore, it was appropriate to give credit to Mr. Maignan, yet we also recognized that it was a team effort.
We gave credit to Bastien’s campaign manager, Jean Michel Brulan as well contributions from Maxo Sinal, whose firm, Sinal Consulting Group, LLC, was hired to provide statistical analysis work.
Here’s the segment in the article that seemed to irritate Maxo Sinal:
[While Commissioner-elect Marleine Bastien has recognized that her victory is a team effort, and many people made her winning possible, however the phenomenal work done by Patrick Maignan during the campaign period is immeasurable. As Bastien’s campaign manager, Jean Michel Brulan deserves credit. The contributions of Maxo Sinal whose firm, Sinal Consulting Group, LLC, was hired by the candidate to do some statistical work, which proved critical to her success. However, by the same token, when we know that Maxo Sinal lost many races for which his firm was hired in the past years, including Erlande Steril for Florida House Rep District 108 in 2016, Wancito Francius for Florida House Rep District 107 in 2021, and also Michael McDearmaid for North Miami Council District 2 in 2021, many doubted that this duo would be enough to push Bastien to the run-off.]
Perhaps Le Floridien Founder and Editor, Dessalines Ferdinand and/or the rest of the staff here have missed something, but it clearly states, “The contributions of Maxo Sinal … proved critical to her success.” Stating a historical fact afterward that Mr. Sinal also lost many races his firm was hired to provide services for was simply pointing out truth. These are documentable facts, not propaganda. Our goal was to emphasize the work of Maignan for Bastien’s incredible upset victory.
It appears that the article irritated Maxo Sinal’s ego. Apparently, without taking time to clearly understand Le Floridien’s perspective, which happens to be shared by many people in the region, Sinal’s malicious attack on Le Floridien and Dessalines Ferdinand in particular highlights a fragile ego that is jealous of Maignan’s contributions and communication skills. As the article highlighted, Maignan was able to energize the Bastien electoral campaign with a strong grassroots effort.
Thousands of readers turn to Le Floridien twice a month for reliable news, political commentary, and truth. Dessalines Ferdinand is a man of character who has built a foundation of integrity, independent journalism, and sound judgment over the past two decades and more. We could have simply ignored Sinal’s message, but rarely do these types of attitudes fade; they have a tendency to grow and gossip can spread like a raging wildfire. In order to remain a publication dedicated to integrity, truth, and honor, it is important that the public be aware of what some may want hidden in the dark. So, this is our aim here: to bring to light what some may soon wish remained in the shadows.
The article was published after Election Day. What ‘propaganda’ would we promoting with our article after the election? The accusation lacks credibility on every level. Yet, it leads us to showcase a more pressing detail: As a ‘Political Campaign Manager”, Maxo Sinal has been a near total and utter failure.
He has the right to not be pleased by reading that paragraph, but sending a text message to the author-publisher to state, “Shame on you for your article. This is paid propaganda” without proof, is unfortunate in modern America society. It’s not unbelievable, because that is precisely what failed leaders and failed politicians do: blame someone, anyone, or everyone else for their failures.
In that November 16th article, we actually made Mr. Sinal appear average, and his consulting firm appear average in assisting candidates with their campaigns. In the article, we only mentioned three races he lost as campaign manager. Digging deeper, a much clearer picture begins to emerge.
Maxo Sinal’s performance as a campaign manager is atrocious. No one Le Floridien spoke to could recall a single political race Sinal won as ‘lead campaign manager.’ Not one. The very few he attempts to take credit for were actually the result of community efforts, mostly lead by other well-known personalities, such as Mc-Kinley Lauriston and Patrick Maignan, who have proven they know how to manage a political campaign.
In 2015, Mc-Kinley Lauriston lead the Mrs. Darline Riggs’s campaign as she ran for City Miramar Commission Seat 4. The goal was to help her make political history as the first Haitian-American elected in Miramar and Broward County. It was a very difficult race in a city where, at that time, less than 7% of the population had Haitian roots, and many of them live in gated communities. Reaching out to potential voters was not an easy task. In these races, the incumbent often has a significant advantage over his or her challenger. She won. Then, four years later, Maxo Sinal was brought on to take charge of Riggs’ re-election campaign; she lost. Sinal’s failure cost the Haitian community its only representative member on the City of Miramar Commission.
In 2018, Sinal led the failed re-election campaign for then Florida State Senator Daphne Campbell. Just last month, once Sinal Consulting Group, LLC completed its work for the Bastien campaign, Maxo Sinal took charge of the campaign of North Miami Beach Vice Mayor Paule Villard, another incumbent seeking reelection via a runoff race. Without Patrick Maignan or Jean Michel Brulan to help, guess what? He lost.
Le Floridien was gracious to Maxo Sinal in that November 16, 2022 article. We pointed out some facts that didn’t paint his political skills in the light he wanted, but they spoke truth. Maxo Sinal accused us of publishing political propaganda, but what he apparently wants is for us to publish political propaganda that ignores reality and truth and paints him in a good light. We wouldn’t do that for anyone, for that would surrender our integrity and honor.
What Maxo Sinal has done was inspire us to show our readers a broader story of his failures as a campaign manager and bring to light that candidates who are truly eager to win in the future should do their due diligence when hiring for this important position. What our closer examination of this situation has brought to light is that most conceited, arrogant people tend to have reason for that hubris; Maxo Sinal has none. He has shown repeatedly for years that his campaign management efforts result far more often in losses than victories and his ego leads him to disparage an entire journalistic paper for one paragraph the majority of readers would have already forgotten by now.
It’s sickening, and that is not a journalistic observation, but a personal one. Go back through history and you can see one tale after another, Aesop’s fables, Grimm fairy tales, Poe’s dark poetry, and even modern renditions that tell the same story over and over of men or women whose hubris led to their downfall. Sinal Consulting Group, LLC may bring strong statistical analysis to a campaign (Le Floridien did not bother to investigate that side of Sinal’s political contributions), but as a campaign manager his record is abysmal.
Almost every newspaper in America endorses political candidates regularly. Choosing one over another has nothing to do with propaganda, though some may argue that’s the case. It should be based on what the editor or editors believe would best represent the interest of their readers. Presenting verifiable facts about campaigns and how those campaigns are managed, regardless of political affiliation or other influences, good or bad, is what integrity looks like.
Maxo Sinal was angry at what he read. How will he feel this time? Le Floridien stands by our journalistic integrity and honor and will defend that honor wherever we must, in a court of law or the court of public opinion because, as Benjamin Franklin once noted about free speech and a free press, free from political pressure or coercion, “When this support is taken away,” he wrote, “the constitution of a free society is dissolved.”
Le Floridien is proud to be a beacon of a free society and will stand on its reputation and diligent research and journalistic integrity for our readers without deference to political aspirations, the pursuit of power, or affiliations. As long as we continue to publish, we will stand for truth. For our readers, for our neighbors, for our families.
Always.
Dessalines Ferdinand
Le Floridien