Drew Wilson
Former Democratic Rep. Jim Waldman dumped six figures into his Senate District 34 bid, but his self-funding was outpaced by another major haul for incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Farmer.
Waldman’s $150,000 campaign loan was disclosed on his new campaign finance report covering July 7 through July 20. Alongside the loan came another 16 checks, including 11 for $1,000, the maximum allowable contribution for state legislative campaigns.
In all, the Pompano Beach attorney has brought in $11,716 in outside money and kicked in another $157,500 in candidate loans since his surprise entry into the race on the last day of the candidate qualifying period. He had $167,332 in the bank on July 20.
Farmer’s campaign has only reported its contributions through July 6 — the new report isn’t due until Friday. His political committee, which must post a finance report weekly through Election Day, showed a massive haul for the July 7 through July 13 reporting period.
Floridians for Ethics, Accountability and Responsibility brought in $340,000 for the week. Sensible Gun Laws Now, a political committee chaired by Alejandro Alvarez, chipped in $100,000 of that total. Farmer, an attorney at Morgan & Morgan, brought in another $225,000 via checks from 11 law firms from all corners of the state.
The committee spent more than $22,000 on direct mail consulting and kicked another $1,000 over to Farmer’s campaign account, leaving it with $786,000 banked on July 13. As of July 6, the campaign account had $121,730 at the ready.
Farmer was elected to the Florida Senate in 2016 after taking 43 percent of the vote in a three-way primary against former Rep. Gwyn Clarke-Reed and Waldman, who finished third with a smidge over 28 percent of the vote.
SD 34 is a Democratic stronghold that covers coastal Broward County. No Republican qualified for the race, but due to a write-in candidate posting the ballot fee the otherwise open Aug. 28 primary election will be closed to voters who are not registered Democrats.
The primary election is Aug. 28.
