Ryan Nicol
Bay Harbor Islands Council member and former Mayor Jordan W. Leonard collected close to $21,000 in July, putting him further ahead of the House District 100 field in terms of money raised.
Leonard added nearly $11,000 through his campaign account. That includes $5,000 Leonard donated to his own campaign. He brought in another $10,000 via his political committee, Americans for Florida.
Miami-Dade Democratic Party Treasurer Evan Shields placed second among Democratic candidates during the month, raising more than $9,600. He was followed by LGBTQ activist Todd Delmay at just under $3,600 and Clay Miller at just over $900. Miller is the legislative director for Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr.
The lone Republican candidate in the field, Wena Sutjapojnukul, raised just over $2,000 during July, putting her third among the five-candidate field.
But the seat, currently held by term-limited Rep. Joe Geller, sits in a left-leaning district. That makes the winner of next year’s Democratic Primary Election the favorite to take the seat. Geller has already endorsed Leonard as his preferred successor.
Leonard has been the strongest fundraiser of the field so far. His July reports featured $1,000 contributions from political consultant Sean Phillippi and two government consulting firms, TLE Analytics and Optimizing Public Sector Solutions LLC. TLE Analytics is Phillipi’s longtime firm, while Phillipi launched Optimizing Public Sector Solutions in January as well.
Developer Matthew Lazenby contributed the full $10,000 received by Leonard’s political committee.
Leonard now holds more than $108,000 in available cash between his two campaign accounts. Delmay, who places second in cash on hand, retains less than half of that amount, at just over $53,000. Miller holds just under $48,000. Shields, the newest entrant into the race, is sitting on just over $28,000.
On the Republican side, Sutjapojnukul has less than $2,800 on hand as of July 31.
Aside from Leonard, most other candidates in the field brought in the bulk of their cash from smaller-dollar donations. That allowed Leonard to grow his money advantage.
The new fundraising reports were filed just one week after Geller announced he would endorse Leonard in the HD 100 race. Around three dozen current and former officials have backed Leonard’s bid. That includes Democratic Reps. James Bush III, Kevin Chambliss, Mike Grieco and Felicia Robinson.
Geller first won the HD 100 seat in 2014. He faced no opposition in subsequent elections. That includes the 2020 cycle, where he secured his fourth straight term unopposed.
HD 100 is split between Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Candidates and political committees faced a Tuesday deadline to report all financial activity through July 31.
