Drew Wilson
Gulf Breeze Republican Rep. Doug Broxson widened his fundraising lead over Pensacola Beach Republican Rep. Mike Hill in the Senate District 1 race last month with more than $30,000 in contributions.
May marked the third-straight five-figure month for Broxson, who raised $30,700 in May and spent about $10,700. Hill, the only other candidate who filed for the Panhandle seat, raised $13,335 and spent $7,282.
The report shows 69 contributions for the Broxson campaign, including 17 for the largest donation of $1,000.
Notable donors include former House Speaker Allan Bense, who also contributed to the GOP frontrunners vying for Broxson’s and Hill’s soon-to-be-vacated House seats.
Broxson’s expenditures included about $2,500 in payments to Tallahassee-based consulting company Frontline, as well as a $1,400 fee to Brandon-based Web Elect for polling.
The $20,000 net gain in campaign cash last month left the HD 3 representative with about $165,000 in the bank at the start of June.
Hill, who entered the Senate race the same day as Broxson, took in 57 contributions last month, with most of them coming in through donations of $250 or less, though he did receive three $1,000 contributions, including one from Pensacola auto dealer Jessica Lee.
After expenses, which included about $3,000 in payments to Gainesville-based Data Targeting Research, Hill finished May with $21,142 in his campaign account.
Broxson and Hill, neither of whom are facing term limits, announced for the Senate shortly after current SD 1 Republican Sen. Greg Evers announced he would run for Congress.
SD 1 holds the second-most GOP voters of all senate districts, with about 48 percent of the electorate belonging to the Republican Party. Back in 2012, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won the district with 66 percent of the vote.
