Judson Sapp campaign sorting out assets behind $250K loan
Judson Sapp clarified a point of campaign finance confusion.

20180530-110120-Congress Race Story Sapp Photo 053118
Money did not come from outside, Sapp's campaign officials said.

On the last day of the first quarter for campaign finance filings, Florida’s 3rd Congressional District Republican candidate Judson Sapp wrote his campaign a $250,000 check, making his committee flush with money and the cash leader in a crowded field of candidates.

Where did Sapp’s money come from?

Such a question haunts all congressional campaigns in the wake of the ongoing scandal involving Republican U.S. Rep. Ross Spano of Florida’s 15th Congressional District. Spano is subject of a long-running federal investigation about whether he illegally funneled $180,000 from two people, converting personal loans into what almost became an untraceable money stream for his successful 2018 campaign, at least untraceable through routine public disclosures. Spano’s move could have violated federal campaign donation limits.

Sapp’s campaign officials insist that the $250,000 he presented to his campaign was his own and did not originate from any outside loans from individuals or banks. The money, they said, came from his inheritance from his late mother’s estate and the sale of a house.

But that opens questions about why the money has never shown up in any of Sapp’s federal candidate financial disclosures, which he filed as recently as May 15, and previously last December, and in May of 2018.

Sapp, of Orange Park, is in a free-for-all election that has 10 Republicans and three Democrats heading into the Aug. 18 primaries for a heavily Republican leaning CD 3 seat to represent north-central Florida. The seat is being vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, who made good on his promise to term limit himself out of office.

On March 31, Sapp’s campaign deposited a $250,000 personal check from Sapp, effectively a loan from the candidate to his campaign.

Sapp’s campaign treasurer Nancy Watkins said the loan came from Sapp’s personal assets and did not originate from anyone else’s loans or donations to him.

However, Watkins would not speak to Sapp’s personal assets, as that is well outside her purview as the campaign’s treasurer. When questions regarding the origin of the $250,000 emerged this week, she said she advised Sapp to check with the House Committee on Ethics to clarify whether he should be listing more information about his assets in his candidate financial disclosures.

Sapp’s campaign adviser, Brian Graham, said Sapp assured him that he had previously been advised that he did not have to report the assets. Graham said that the campaign on Tuesday was awaiting a response from the Ethics Committee to confirm or clarify that.

In fact, Sapp’s candidate financial disclosures on file with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives list no assets whatsoever.

Or liabilities.

The three reports he filed each list only his salaries with Syfor Inc. and MCM and UA Services, and his positions with Syfor Inc. and with W.J. Sapp & Sons Inc.

That contrasts markedly with many candidates’ personal financial disclosures. For fellow CD 3 Republican candidate James St. George, for example, a list of personal assets runs more than three pages.

A poll commissioned in June by Kat Cammack’s congressional campaign found the Republican primary looks like a two-way race between her and Sapp.

The poll gave Cammack, of Gainesville 10% support among Republican primary voters; Sapp, 12%; and former Gainesville City Commissioner Todd Chase, 5%. No one else was outside the margin of error.

Campaign finance reports for the second quarter of 2020 are due to be released soon by the Federal Election Commission. In the most recent available reports, through the end of March, Sapp reported having raised $430,000, including money from his $250,000 loan; while St. George of Fleming Island had raised about $400,000; Cammack, $207,000; Chase, $163,000; Gavin Rollins of Keystone Heights, $106,000; and Ryan Chamberlin of Belleview, $101,000. They’re all Republicans

The top Democrat in the CD 3 money chase through the end of March, Philip Dodds of Alachua, reported raising $21,000.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].


4 comments

  • Sonja Fitch

    July 15, 2020 at 8:49 am

    Every damn goptrump cult member are liars and damn cheats! Vote em out!

  • Brock Bainter

    July 15, 2020 at 9:47 am

    Oh Brian, once again he finds a way to make the news by not doing his homework.

    When will people learn…?

  • Garret Armstead

    July 15, 2020 at 9:51 am

    This article has reported false information.

    Kat Cammack’s poll showed that Sapp was at 12% and she was at 10%

    It also showed that out of the 36% of voters who know her only 14% like her

    This article has presented a series of biased questions but no facts to back anything up.

    I am by no means a Sapp supporter, but this is clearly a hit job. I am seriously questioning the journalist integrity of this Powers fellow.

    Shame when unbiased news isn’t unbiased. Maybe fake news is real.

  • Daddy Sapp

    July 15, 2020 at 8:29 pm

    Looks like Sapp’s daddy is trying to buy him a seat in congress.

    Another $250,000 loan in Q2 2020.

    Judson Sapp is now in for half million and not able to say where any of it came from. (whispers – twas daddy)

Comments are closed.


#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, William March, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Jesse Scheckner, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

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