Familiar stories continue in Northeast Florida campaign finance reports

The latest campaign finance numbers in Northeast Florida races for state offices reinforced familiar narratives. Here’s the state of the races as of the July 13 filings.

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In Senate District 4, incumbent Republican Aaron Bean continues to dominate the competition.

He has $77,000 in his political committee (with a $20,000 two week period ahead of the filing) and an additional $102,363 in hard money (with $4,500 raised and $5,000 spent).

Primary challenger Carlos Slay has $88 on hand. The winner of Bean/Slay will take on Democrat Billee Bussard, who raised $3,405 and now has $7,167 on hand, and Libertarian Joanna Tavares, who has $38 on hand.

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The most competitive race for State House in the region is HD 15, where Democrat Tracye Polson still holds a narrowing cash lead against the Republican field.

Polson actually took a step back in cash-on-hand in the reporting period. She raised $9,819 (spending over $12,000) and has, between her political committee and hard money, roughly $127,000.

Polson, just endorsed by the Sierra Club, appears poised to get help from the Florida Democratic Party down the stretch, and has more access to personal capital also.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, lobbyist Wyman Duggan has $122,947 on hand, after raising almost $4,000 on the reporting period. Trailing far behind are Mark Zeigler ($32,482 on hand) and Joseph Hogan ($12,537).

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While races in HD 11, HD 12, and HD 16 are competitive, in that multiple candidates are filed, the money tells a different story regarding challenges to Republican Reps. Cord Byrd, Clay Yarborough, and Jason Fischer.

As it stands, all three will have the resources to overcome opponents.

Byrd, who faces a primary challenge from Joseph Zimmerman, holds serve: $44,171 to $8.

The winner of the primary challenge will face Democrat Nathcelly Rohrbaugh, who had $2,613 on hand at the end of the reporting period.

In HD 12, Yarborough’s $108,301 on hand gives him an edge over Democrat Tim Yost ($5,380).

And in HD 16, Fischer has over $175,000 on hand between hard money and committee cash; Democrat Ken Organes has just over $22,000.