Drew Wilson
Clearwater Republican Rep. Chris Latvala brought in $43,675 for his House District 67 re-election campaign last month – his best report of the 2018 election cycle.
The April money came in across 93 contributions, including 30 checks for $1,000, the maximum allowable contribution for a state legislative race. Another 15 donors chipped in $500 apiece, with the remaining money coming in through small-dollar donations of $250 or less.
Among the max donors were lobby firms Southern Strategy Group and The Advocacy Group at Cardenas Partners, trade group Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, and auto dealer group JM Family Enterprises
Latvala also picked up support from numerous political committees tied to his colleagues in the House, including incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva’s “Conservative Principles for Florida,” Bryan Avila’s “Fighting for Florida’s Families,” Paul Renner’s “Florida Foundation for Liberty,” and Chris Sprowls’ “Floridians for Economic Freedom.”
Also notable was a contribution from Woodrow Latvala of Clearwater. Woodrow is the given name of former Clearwater Republican Sen. Jack Latvala.
Spending last month came in at $12,656 and included an $8,000 payment to Direct Mail Systems for printing and postage as well as a $2,633 payment to Island Way Grill in Clearwater Beach for Latvala’s April 25 campaign kickoff.
Heading into May, the second-term lawmaker had raised a total of $96,625 and had a little over $59,000 in the bank.
The major fundraising month came when it seemed Latvala would face a serious challenge from sexual assault awareness and prevention advocate Becca Tieder, who in April told Florida Politics that she was being recruited to run in the district by House Democratic leadership and that she was “definitely giving it some serious consideration.”
She inched a little closer to declaring for the Pinellas County seat by setting up a Facebook page, but ahead of her planned May 1 launch she announced that the House “is not where I feel I am meant to serve my community at this time.”
While she has plenty of time left to enter the race should she change her mind, the decision not to run may have been helped by an unexpectedly positive dialogue between her and Latvala.
In a May 3 Facebook post, Latvala said Tieder reached out to him to set up a lunch meeting after news broke she was thinking about running for HD 67.
“Instead of political adversaries trying to weigh each other out, we became fast friends who realized we shared the same views on quite a few issues,” Latvala wrote. “Our first lunch meeting lasted over 3 hours.”
The pair talked about numerous policy issues, and while there were some disagreements about Latvala’s votes, particularly on guns, he left the meeting committing to sponsoring a bill bringing “Erin’s Law” to Florida whether or not she challenged him.
“Today Becca called me and told me she would not be running against me. But she also assured me she would be watching my voting record and wouldn’t hesitate to point out when she believes I am wrong. I wouldn’t expect anything else from Becca Tieder. The Becca Tieder I have gotten to know and call my friend is a tough, tenacious, advocate for those causes she holds dear,” Latvala said.
Latvala has held the Republican-leaning HD 67 since 2014, after defeating Democrat Steve Sarnoff by six points. In 2016, he defeated Democrat David Vogel by 17 points while the district went for Republican Donald Trump by around 4 points.
