Drew Wilson
Cash continues to flow into political committees chaired by incoming Senate President Wilton Simpson and House Speaker-designate Chris Sprowls, new finance reports show.
Reports spanning Sept. 26 through Oct. 2 show Sprowls’ committee, Floridians for Economic Freedom, reeled in nearly $158,000 across a dozen checks.
A third of the money came from political committee Floridians for Economic Advancement, while tobacco company RAI Services and alcohol distributor Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits chipped in $25,000 apiece.
At the $10,000 level were Collier Enterprises Management, Peninsula Improvement Corporation, Pepin Distributing Company and Sarasota retiree Dennis McGillicuddy. Nationwide Title Clearing, Humana, Wawa, and Amazon rounded out the list, each pitching in $5,000.
Floridians for Economic Freedom also showed more than $600,000 in spending for the week, with nearly all of the funds pouring into the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee, the main committee backing GOP state House campaigns.
Sprowls, a Palm Harbor Republican, will take over as House Speaker after the election. He has raised nearly $5.5 million through his political committee since it launched five years ago. It entered October with nearly $3 million in the bank.
Simpson, who will take over as Senate President in November, raised about $81,000 through his main political committee, Jobs for Florida.
The report lists eight contributions for the week, with Comcast Corporation and RAI Services Company each sending $25,000, while political committee Opticians for Better Vision chipped in $10,000.
Simpson, a Trilby Republican, also a handful of checks from insurance interests — United Group Underwriters, Public Adjusters for the Insuring Public and the Florida Policyholders Cooperative each sent $5,000.
The same report showed about $315,000 in spending, though much of the outflow were transfers to other political committees run by Simpson. Florida Green PAC and Future Florida each got a $100,000 deposit, while Tallahassee-based Cap Fin received about $112,000 for fundraising help.
Jobs for Florida has now raised more than $16 million since it was founded in 2013. It entered October with just over $1 million on hand.
