Records provide more details in sham 2020 Florida candidate probe Records show a Palm Harbor woman was paid to chair a political committee. Â Published Earlier today TALLAHASSEE â A young Republican political operative who is also the subject of a public corruption investigation into former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles made an offer to a recent college graduate last September: He would pay her $1,500 to chair a political committee and in exchange, she would have to do nothing. At the time, 25-year-old Hailey DeFilippis, of Palm Harbor, had just found out she was pregnant and was âfreaking out about money.â So, she took up Alex Alvarado on the offer. And put her name down as chair of The Truth, a dark money-funded political committee that spent $180,000 on political mail advertisements promoting sham candidates in key 2020 state Senate elections â two in Miami-Dade and one in Central Florida.