Former Republican senator in Florida, Frank Artiles, was charged Thursday with campaign finance violations related to last year’s Miami-Dade state senate race, authorities said. Artiles, 47, who resigned in 2017 after making racially inflammatory remarks toward colleagues, was charged with three criminal counts involving a sham candidate intended to siphon votes away from a Democratic incumbent. Authorities said the former senator from the Miami area turned himself in a day after his Palmetto Bay house was raided and searched by Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office investigators. According to an arrest warrant, Artiles gave nearly $45,000 to the shadow candidate in last year’s election. That candidate, 55-year-old Alex Rodriguez, has the same last name as the then-Democratic incumbent, Jose Javier Rodriguez. The fake candidate, an auto-parts dealer who lives in Boca Raton, ran as an independent in the election which was narrowly secured by Republican Ileana Garcia by 32 votes, out of …