Drew Wilson
Both Rep. Kathleen Passidomo and businessman Gary Price may have posted five-figure fundraising hauls in October, but it was Rep. Matt Hudson who raised enough to extend his lead in the three-way Republican Senate District 23 race.
A good deal of Hudson’s $20,950 tally came from medical groups, including $1,000 checks from the Novartis Pharmaceutical Group, the American Pharmacy Cooperative and a pair of Winter Haven-based optometrist groups.
The Naples Republican spent just under $10,000 in October, with $3,100 of that money paying for accounting services at Robert Watkins & Co. in Tampa. The campaign also spent $2,800 on voter data from Web Elect and $2,000 on Internet advertising through Strategic Digital Services.
Heading into November, Hudson had about $273,000 cash on hand – more than the combined total of his two competitors.
Passidomo brought in $13,350 last month and spent about $6,800. Top donors for last month include insurance companies Chubb National and the Travelers Indemnity Company.
The campaign shelled out $3,000 for software from Web Elect and $2,500 for a consulting from Tallahassee-based Campaign Facts, leaving her campaign with slightly more than $94,000 on hand at month’s end.
Price came in a little behind Passidomo with $12,915 in October contributions against about $6,500 in expenditures. Highlighting the donor list was Michael Wolfson III, a partner at Pinnacle Housing Group whose father represented Miami-Dade County in the Florida House during the ’60s and ’70s.
The campaign paid out about $3,000 of that money for food and drinks at a campaign event headlined by Clearwater Republican Sen. Jack Latvala, with another $1,500 heading out to Hunt Political Consulting. Price closed out October with about $102,000 on hand.
