Peter Schorsch
When Jack Latvala isn’t pulling in a six-figure monthly haul for his political committee, it would appears he’s hard at work pulling in a six-figure monthly haul for his re-election campaign.
Latvala’s campaign has pulled in $172,752 in the first 19 days it was in operation, and only spent $6,090, leaving his campaign account with $166,662 cash on-hand. Like all Florida lawmakers, Latvala cannot raise money while the Legislature is in session.
The Clearwater Republican was set to term out of his seat in 2018, but confusion over how the Florida Senate maps will shake out – and the high probability that he will be pushed into a different district – led the Florida Division of Elections to allow the 14-year Senate veteran to file to run for office one more time.
The October haul came via 175 contributions, 130 of them for the maximum amount of $1,000. Disney and its subsidiaries got in with at least three of those checks, and 18 firefighter groups donated a total of $15,600 during the month. Short-term lender Amscot came in at $2,000, with a who’s who of consulting and lobbying shops making up much of the rest of the haul.
For now, Latvala is running unopposed in the race, though there’s a chance whatever map gets the court’s blessing would pit him against District 22 Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes, whose district covers part of Hillsborough County, but is mainly in Pinellas County.
