Ana Maria Rodriguez posts best fundraising month this election cycle with $137K to defend SD 39

Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez last month had her best round of fundraising since winning her seat representing Senate District 39 last year. Drawing from a variety of industries, the Miami-born Republican added $137,000 to her growing war chest in November.

Between her campaign and political committee, Ethics and Honesty in Government, Rodriguez holds more than $576,000. She’s still unopposed.

More than a fifth of her gains last month came from health care and pharmaceutical companies.

Irish biopharma corporation Alkermes gave Rodriguez $5,000, her biggest single gift from the sector.

The lobbying arm of the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association donated $3,000. Tallahassee-based health care logistics company Centralis Health — formerly HIE Networks — gave $2,500, as did Hobe Sound autism aid organization Creating Possibilities, insurer UnitedHealth Group and CDR Maguire, a Miami-based company that provides an array of services, including engineering work, health assistance, infectious disease aid and COVID-19 testing.

Tuscaloosa-based Northport Health Services of Florida and Senior Care Pharmacy Inc., which share an address on Rodriguez’s ledger, each donated $1,250.

Rodriguez received $1,000 apiece from the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association, prescription company Caremark RX, Long Beach-headquartered Molina Healthcare, Illinois-based medical device and nutritional product manufacturer Abbott Laboratories, the Florida Hospital Association, Gainesville health insurer AvMed and Surgi PAC-North, which as its name suggests funnels donations from surgical organizations to political candidates in the state.

Telecommunication, technology and media companies also gave big last month. Telecom giant Charter Communications, which operates as Spectrum, donated $5,000. So did automated toll payment company American Traffic Solutions.

The Washington, D.C.-based Entertainment Software Association, which represents members of the video game industry, gave $2,500.

T-Mobile, Florida Outdoor Advertising, San Antonio-based advertiser Clear Channel Outdoor and Lumen Technologies, which recently absorbed CenturyLink, donated $1,000 each.

Rodriguez enjoyed further support from the agriculture industry, particularly sugar growers. Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar Corp. topped the list with a $10,000 check — the largest single donation Rodriguez, who lives in Homestead, received last month.

Closter Farms in Loxahatchee donated $1,000 directly and gave the same amount through Vandergrift-Williams Farms, with which it shares an address. So did Stofin Co., an affiliate of West Palm Beach-headquartered sugar giant Fanjul Corp.

American Export Corp., which provides wholesale distribution of agriculture machinery and equipment, chipped in the same amount, as its subsidiary, Agro-Industrial Management Inc.

Rodriguez received $5,000 donations from commerce association Voice of Florida Business, Oakland-based PACE loan company Renew Financial Group, Tallahassee-based accounting and bookkeeping firm The Wren Group and Floridians for a Stronger Democracy, a PC run by former U.S. Rep. Thomas Feeny III.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida, which is in a legal battle over the future of casino gambling in the state, gave $3,500.

The Orlando-based lobbying extension of the National Association of REALTORS gave $3,000.

So did Disney through three subsidiaries.

Other noteworthy contributions included $2,500 apiece from Miami-based Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, Tallahassee-based gas political committee PEtroPAC, United Faculty of Miami-Dade County and UPSPAC, a political committee made up of voluntary contributions from UPS employees.

The GEO Group, a private prison operator in Boca Raton, gave $1,000.

Compared to her haul last month, Rodriguez’s spending was sparse at just less than $12,000. Almost all of it went to two consulting firms: Tallahassee-based Taylor Strategies and Miranda Advocacy, which is located in her district.

Rodriguez won election in November by a 13-percentage-point margin to take one of Florida’s largest Senate districts. SD 39 covers the state’s southernmost portion, including all of Monroe County and the Miami-Dade municipalities of Homestead, Florida City and some of Cutler Bay.

If the most recent redistricting plans from the Florida Senate Committee on Reapportionment go into effect, SD 39 would largely go unchanged, and Rodriguez would remain in the district, based on the address she included in her Florida Division of Elections filings.

Candidates and political committees faced a Friday deadline to report all financial activity through Nov. 30.