Janelle Irwin Taylor
Former conservative Bay News 9 analyst Berny Jacques again leads the money race in his bid for Florida House District 66 against fellow Republican Alen Tomczak.
According to the most recent finance reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections, Jacques, a former prosecutor and ally of Rep. Anthony Sabatini, raised nearly $15,000 in July. That includes $10,000 raised for his affiliated political committee, Florida Values Coalition, and $4,573 in hard money for his official campaign.
As of the end of July, Jacques had about $77,000 on hand between his two accounts for his bid to succeed incumbent Rep. Nick DiCeglie, who is leaving office to run for the state Senate.
Meanwhile, Tomczak, a technical lead at Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, took in just $3,450 for his official campaign, raising his total to $72,480 since entering the race in March. Of that, he has about $57,000 on hand.
Tomczak has not yet set up a committee but is in the process of opening an account, tentatively called Friends of Alen Tomczak.
Most of Jacques’ July haul came from Largo resident Joseph White, who kicked in $10,000 to his committee. He also took in $1,000 from businessman and prominent GOP donor Brent Sembler for his official campaign. Jacques collected 18 individual contributions for his campaign, 17 of which were $500 or less.
In spending, Jacques posted less than $300 from his political committee, and $1,149 from his campaign, $1,000 going toward consulting services from Electioneering Consulting Inc.
Tomczak brought in three maxed-out $1,000 contributions for his campaign from JoAnn White, a prominent GOP donor who previously supported Jacques in his failed 2018 campaign against DiCeglie, as well as ASG and RSA consulting groups. He brought in six other contributions, each totaling $200 or less.
Tomczak spent $2,776 in July, including $2,000 to Picotte and Porter LLC for fundraising consulting and $512 to Robert Watkins & Co. P.A. for accounting services.
So far, Jacques and Tomczak are the only two filed for the race in the red district covering parts of northwest Pinellas County, including Clearwater Beach south to Indian Shores.
HD 66 has a conservative advantage, with nearly 50,000 registered Republican voters to just over 38,000 Democrats. The district also includes nearly 34,000 independent voters.
