Lenny Curry PAC wows with $289K December; Shahid Khan goes $100K deep

If December’s fundraising haul is any indication, the Lenny Curry affiliated PAC Build Something That Lasts is living up to its name.

The numbers are staggering for Northeast Florida: $289,000 in November, with $100,000 of that from Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, who has to be feeling good about the $90 million stadium renovation plan Curry’s team shepherded through Jacksonville’s City Council without objection.

About $45 million of that, recall, will be borrowed by the city of Jacksonville, paid off with bed tax profits over the next couple of decades.

Also filled with the spirit of holiday generosity:

• The family of Tom Petway put $75,000 in.
• Cross Creek Farms of Cullowhee, North Carolina, gave $25,000.
• Husein Cumber, one of the holdovers on the JEA Board, gave $5,000.
• Mark Frisch of the Armada: $10,000. Also in the $10,000 club and in a position to benefit from the EverBank upgrades, SMG, which manages events at city facilities.

Of the $48,437.53 spent in December by Build Something That Lasts, the big number that pops out: $30,000 to Sarasota Citizens for Our Schools, which shares a treasurer with this PAC (and so many other GOP PACs), Eric Robinson.

Robinson, who announced a run for Sarasota County School Board last June, has already been scrutinized for donating “money from his electioneering communications organization to his School Board campaign and political committees he operates,” reported the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in October.

Other spends of note:

• $1,000 to the Travis Hutson campaign, which should ensure meaningful support on the pension tax deal.
• $8,150 to Data Targeting, money that some have speculated has gone, at least in part, to polling on the Human Rights Ordinance expansion (Data Targeting, when asked if such a poll existed, said their policy was not to comment on work done for clients).
• $5,000 to BBC, LLC of Neptune Beach for consulting, and another $1,078 for “scarves for Holiday event.”

Undoubtedly, with a cold snap hitting Jacksonville this week, these scarves should fly in all their festive glory.