A.G. Gancarski
October was the second straight quiet month — by its standards — for Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry‘s political committee, “Build Something That Lasts”
The committee brought in $35,000, its second straight month below $40,000.
All told, the committee has raised $1.436 million — and has spent $1.05 million — since coming into existence.
Comfortably over $430,000 on hand, the committee has resources for whatever it desires — locally and otherwise.
One expenditure that jumped out: $3,000 to the Attorney General campaign of Frank White, a state Rep. running for the office against a Jacksonville Republican that once was politically allied with Curry — Rep. Jay Fant.
Curry took umbrage, per reliable sources, to comments Fant made at a meeting of local Republicans, in which he said that Curry should have done more to stop Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance expansion — which protected rights for local LGBT citizens.
White’s campaign is being handled by Curry’s political advisors, Tim Baker and Brian Hughes.
Fant, the previous chair of the Duval County state delegation, was slated last Session to carry a bill that would have brought $50 million to Jacksonville to help with costs related to removing current Hart Bridge offramps and routing traffic onto surface streets.
Fant noted that he was going to carry the bill last year based on the public safety argument the mayor’s office advanced at the time.
This year, Fant says the bill would be the prototypical “heavy lift,” saying it was “up to the city to make its case,” and that case “needs to be really good.”
Fant, who was at odds with House Speaker Richard Corcoran, doesn’t appear likely to carry Curry’s priority bill this time out.
