Drew Wilson
State Rep. David Santiago, a Deltona Republican, brought in another healthy haul for his re-election effort in Volusia County’s House District 27, hanging on to his massive money advantage over Democratic challenger Carol Lawrence.
Santiago’s haul included $1,000 checks from Committee for Fair Competition in Telecommunications, Duke Energy Florida, Florida ACRE and My Community Pharmacy of Boynton Beach. The report also included $4,500 worth of “in-kind” support from the Republican Party of Florida for consulting and research expenses.
Spending measured in at a modest $3,800, most of which was marked down as a reimbursement to Santiago for campaign expenses, with $1,000 heading to Virginia-based Grassroots Political Consulting and $500 heading to Robinson, Hanks, Young and Roberts for accounting work.
As of Sept. 14, Santiago had raised more than $198,000 in hard dollars for his campaign, with more than $112,000 of that cash in the bank. That alone gives him a six-figure edge over Lawrence, though he also has an affiliated political committee, Economic Growth PAC, with an additional $135,500 on hand.
For her part, Lawrence tacked on $580 from a handful of individual donors while spending more than $14,000 of her reserves, the vast majority of which were marked down as reimbursements, though she also paid for a storage unit and a $75 “candidate fee” to the Volusia County Supervisor of Elections.
Lawrence has brought in a little over $3,500 for her campaign since entering the race in March, though she juiced her account with $38,000 in candidate loans during her primary battle against Neil Henrichsen, whom she defeated 70-30 percent last month.
As of Sept. 14, Lawrence had about $19,000 left to spend in her campaign account.
HD 27 covers southern Volusia County, including Deltona, DeBary and Orange City and has a Republican edge. In 2016, Santiago was elected for a third term in the state House with 59 percent of the vote while Donald Trump carried the district by a 54-42 percent margin.
Election Day is Nov. 6.
