By CHARLES RABIN

Thousands of Miami-Dade County employees got a blast Wednesday, in the form of an e-mail from the Raul Martinez for Congress campaign, telling of the former Hialeah mayor's accomplishments and asking for money.

''Please consider making a contribution today to the campaign. $50, $25, $10. . . . Any amount you can afford will help the campaign,'' said the e-mail from Raulmartinez@raul2008.com.

Not all the 24,000 employees or so who have e-mail got the message, and the county's large technical staff stemmed the flow by creating a firewall.

Martinez campaign director Kyle Stevens said the e-mail blast was ''unintentional,'' and said the addresses came from the Democratic Party.

''We apologize, and we'll definitely correct the situation and let the party know,'' he said. "We don't want people receiving e-mail they find objectionable.''

The campaign for Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the incumbent congressman whom Martinez is challenging, immediately jumped on the issue, sending a letter to County Manager George Burgess claiming state law makes it illegal to solicit political contributions from local or state government employees.

''Such solicitations raise alarming ethical and legal questions and affect the public perception of the impartial and nonpolitical administration of local government,'' wrote attorney George N. Meros Jr.

Burgess hadn't seen the letter late Wednesday afternoon. Victoria Mallette, a spokeswoman for County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, said any such e-mails will continue to be treated like spam, and that if county employees read them all, they wouldn't have time to do their work.

'AN EVIL BUNCH'

Whether the Martinez campaign broke any laws or skirted ethical guidelines wasn't clear Wednesday. What was: County employees and leaders don't seem particularly fond of receiving unsolicited e-mails.

''The bad guys -- spammers -- are an evil bunch,'' said Angel Petisco, deputy director for the county's Enterprise Technical Services Department, who said his office blocks more than 4.5 million messages a month.

Petisco said obtaining an e-mail address for a county employee can be as simple as making a public-records request.

ACCESS

Joann Carrin, who directs the state Office of Open Government, disagreed with the Diaz-Balart campaign, and said the blast might be annoying, but is certainly allowed: 'From a public-records perspective, public employees' e-mail addresses are certainly available to everyone.''

The reaction to the e-mails highlights the intensity of the race between Martinez and Diaz-Balart. Martinez is the most visible -- and well-funded -- challenger Diaz-Balart has had since he was elected to office.

Last week, campaign-finance reports showed Martinez raised more than $615,000 in just two months, slightly outpacing Diaz-Balart. It was the second-largest fundraising start ever by a Congressional challenger.

Diaz-Balart's campaign chest, meantime, has grown to $1.4 million.