Mitch Perry
Former Clearwater GOP Rep. Ed Hooper had a robust fundraising month in October for his 2018 bid for the Pinellas County-based state Senate District 16 seat.
Hooper’s $82,575 haul far outpaced the $2,195 brought in by Democrat Bernie Fensterwald, so far Hooper’s only opponent in the race.
Fensterwald, a retired businessman from Virginia, has raised a total of $8,595, with another $6,000 in loans to his campaign.
That’s anemic compared to the more than $227,000 that Hooper has raised since entering the contest last year to succeed Jack Latvala, who is term-limited from the Senate District 16 seat next year.
Through the end of October, Fensterwald had an on-hand total of $7,193 while Hooper had $209,808 in his war chest.
The former Clearwater firefighter and four-term member of the Florida House, brought in another $38,000 through his political committee, too.
Friends of Ed Hooper has raised $72,000 since it was formed in March, and has all of that money on hand, giving Hooper a combined total of $281,808 between the two accounts.
Fensterwald’s lackluster performance is consistent with how his fundraising efforts went last year, when he ran in the House District 65 race against Republican Chris Sprowls.
Despite the fact that he is a multimillionaire, he chose to spend very little of his own money on the campaign against Sprowls, and he lost 65 -35 on Election Day. Sprowls also significantly outspent him in that contest
