Jason Fischer maintains cash edge early in SD 4 race, but opponents make up ground

In the race to succeed Sen. Aaron Bean in Senate District 4, Rep. Jason Fischer maintained a massive cash lead, but Rep. Clay Yarborough made up ground in June.

Fischer, who represents House District 16 in the Mandarin area, reported $11,750 in new money to his campaign account, pushing his total cash on hand to nearly $113,000.

He also reported $10,000 more raised to his Friends of Jason Fischer political committee, which now has just over $783,000 on hand.

Fischer also reported $2,500 of new money to his Conservative Solutions for Jacksonville political committee. That account has just over $60,000 on hand. All told, Fischer has roughly $966,000 to deploy.

Though Fischer holds the overall cash lead, Yarborough was able to close just a bit of ground in June between committee and campaign account fundraising.

Yarborough raised $20,800 to his campaign account in his first full post-Legislative Session month of fundraising. That was his best month since February. The Florida Bankers Association political committee was among the donors, as was former Jacksonville City Council member Stephen Joost, who served on the Council with Yarborough for eight years. He has nearly $88,000 in hard money.

Yarborough’s political committee, Floridians for Conservative Values, raised just $11,500. Of that, $10,000 came from the Florida Chamber of Commerce PAC. The staunchly socially conservative Arlington Republican has not always been a Chamber choice, but in this field he rated a five-figure check. That account has just over $335,000 on hand.

With Yarborough and Fischer off to strong fundraising starts, the pressure continues to be on the third candidate in the field.

Rep. Cord Byrd, whose HD 11 includes Nassau County and the beachside areas of Duval, continues to lag behind his House colleagues in fundraising, but he had the best month overall of the three candidates

He raised $5,925 in hard money; his campaign account now has just over $33,000 available. Byrd’s political committee, called ‘1845′, had its best month ever, with $27,500 raised to push that account close to $80,000 on hand.

SD 4 is drawn with a strong Republican advantage. Though redistricting may change the map somewhat, there is no reason to believe this district will be more competitive after that process. Those familiar with the thinking of Senate President Wilton Simpson have said he would prefer not to have a competitive Primary for a safe seat. But fundraising and activity is already well underway.