A.G. Gancarski
Sen. Travis Hutson, a St. Johns County Republican, pulled off some buzzer-beating committee fundraising on the eve of Session last month.
Hutson, locked in what he says is a “cordial” race against Sen. Kathleen Passidomo for the Senate presidency, raised over $155,000 between his two political committees on Mar. 4.
Hutson’s Sunshine State Conservatives committee raised nearly $135,000, giving it roughly $380,000 on hand.
The rest of the money was brought in via his First Coast Business Foundation, which now has well over $450,000 on hand. (Its big haul was $440,000 in February).
The Hutson/Passidomo contest has lacked much in the way of public pyrotechnics.
“I think it is a very tight race between the two of us. I think at the end of the day, her and I will work this out,” Hutson said last month.
“At the end of the day we are going to figure this out over a nice cordial dinner. I couldn’t ask for anybody better as a friend and adversary at this time,” Hutson added.
Passidomo’s Working Together for Florida political committee raised no money ahead of the beginning of the Legislative Session.
She did demonstrate her fundraising chops in February, however, bringing in over $335,000.
Hutson is the chair of the Senate’s Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee. This is one of the best legislative platforms from which to raise money. For example, as Florida Trend’s Jason Garcia notes, the transportation and economic development portion of the Florida Senate’s budget includes $1.45 million to pay for infrastructure helping the “AVE Aviation & Commerce Center,” a mixed-use business park planned at Opa-Locka Airport in Miami-Dade. This is noteworthy because the day before Session began, the developer of that business park, CPF Investment Group, gave $20,000 to a political committee controlled by Sen. Travis Hutson — the senator in charge of the Senate’s transportation and economic development budget.
