Peter Schorsch
St. Petersburg Democrat Augie Ribeiro upped the ante in the four-way primary for SD 19 by tossing in another $100,000 of his money at the beginning of August.
The trial lawyer and CEO of Ventura, Ribeiro & Smith has now put more than $400,000 of his money into the campaign for the newly drawn district, which covers parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
Outside of his money, Ribeiro picked up $4,800 in contributions between July 30 and Aug. 5, including $1,000 checks from accounting firm Equale & Cirone and attorney Perry Salvagne.
After more than $30,000 for consulting fees and another $21,000 in advertising, Ribeiro had about $78,000 in the bank putting him ahead of the three current and former Democratic representatives running for the seat: Ed Narain, Betty Reed, and Darryl Rouson.
Narain fared the best after Ribeiro with $23,795 in contributions leaving him with about $47,000 on hand, followed by Rouson with about $43,000 in the bank after raising $13,875 during the week-long reporting period. Reed raised just $1,575 and had $19,397 on hand on Aug. 5.
About a third of the SD 19 electorate is black and Democrats have a better than 2-to-1 advantage in voter registrations. One Republican, John “Mr. Manners” Houman, has filed for the seat, though he has just $140 on hand.
