@PatriciaMazzei

Miami is a hotbed for phantom candidates, complete with four federal criminal convictions in two separate cases to prove it.

So perhaps it's no surprise that a local Republican congressman thinks Donald Trump's bid for the GOP presidential nomination could be a similar ploy.

Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo, whose district saw two phony candidates run in a pair of elections before he took office, has taken to Spanish-language media to suggest that Trump's campaign could be a Democratic scheme to hurt the Republican Party.

Conversé con @ahoraoscarhaza por @z92miami sobre absurdos comentarios de @realDonaldTrump y ofrecí me teoría de que es un candidato fantasma — Carlos Curbelo (@carloslcurbelo) July 9, 2015

"I spoke to @ahoraoscarhaza on @z92miami about absurd comments by @realDonaldTrump and I offered my theory that he's a phantom candidate," Curbelo tweeted last week after an interview with the popular radio host Oscar Haza.

In another interview with Colombia's W Radio, Curbelo, who supports Jeb Bush for president, piled on.

"There are too many important national, local international topics to waste time talking about a person who, I repeat, in my judgment is irrelevant -- and who quite possibly is a phantom candidate recruited by the left to create this entire political circus," he said.