Tommy Gregory pulls in triple David Fairey’s September haul
State Rep. Tommy Gregory.

Gregory Horizontal
Incumbent pulled in thousands from Lakewood Ranch developers.

State Rep. Tommy Gregory outraised his Democratic challenger by a more than 3-1 margin in September.

The Sarasota Republican pulled in $12,500 for the month, while Democrat David Fairey drew in $4,000.

In total, that means the incumbent has $39,700 in the bank as he seeks a second term representing Florida House District 73.

Gregory’s funding includes a $1,000 check from Duke Energy. He also pulled in $1,000 from the National Federation of Independent Business’ Florida PAC.

Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch also chipped in $1,000, as did the Lakewood Ranch Golf Company and SMR Farms.

Developer Pat Neal, whose Neal Communities is also based in Lakewood Ranch, also chipped in $1,000.

A number of other Southwest Florida companies also threw in maximum donations, including Christie’s Plumbing Company on Holmes Beach, DV Rents in Sarasota, Forsberg Construction in Punta Gorda, Merit Capital in Sarasota and Woodruff & Sons in Bradenton.

As for Fairey, the tech entrepreneur filed in August, and he loaned his campaign $2,500 over the last month and a half to get some cash in hand.

The $4,000 he raised in September includes $1,000 from Encino business executive Alan Nicola. Similar checks came from Sarasota businessperson Katie Marques and financial planner Alisa Behne.

Gregory last year faced a hard-fought primary with Melissa Howard that ultimately turned to a blowout after a credential scandal consumed Howard’s campaign. The Republican went on to beat Democrat Liv Coleman in the deep-red district with 62 percent of the vote.

The freshman representative this Legislative session helped shepherd parts of José Oliva’s priority health reforms through The Process.

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories