Ana Maria Rodriguez gains $30K for re-election bid with help from health care, unions, charter schools

Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez collected $30,000 in her last full month of fundraising before the 2022 Legislative Session. Nearly half of her gains came from health care and pharmaceutical companies, trade groups and unions, and charter schools.

Between her campaign and political committee, Ethics and Honesty in Government, Rodriguez held about $582,000 to defend her seat representing Senate District 39 — a healthy sum, considering no one has yet filed to challenge her in November.

For the second consecutive month, medical businesses and medicine manufacturers were Rodriguez’s biggest beneficiaries. Miami-based health care services company Independent Living Systems, which in August completed a $120 million stock buyback, donated $3,000, Rodriguez’s largest single contribution.

Pharma giant Pfizer donated $2,000. Long Beach-headquartered Molina Healthcare and the U.S. arm of Japanese drug maker Takeda Pharmaceuticals each gave $1,000.

Several worker organizations showed up for Rodriguez in December. The Service Employees International Union donated $1,500. The International Longshoremen Association contributed $1,000. So did the Maritime Leadership Committee, whose chair, Harold Daggett, is the ILA’s president.

Rodriguez also got $500 from the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and Florida Architects PAC, which is chaired by former Sen. Charlie Clary.

Charter schools backer School Development HC Finance donated $2,000. Its manager, Ignacio Zuleta, a founder of charter school management company Academia, chipped in $500.

From the legal, lobbying and government relations sector, Rodriguez received $1,000 from Voice of Florida Business, a political committee tied to the Associated Industries of Florida; $1,000 from Fort Lauderdale-based TSE Consulting; and $500 from West Palm Beach law firm Lewiston Longman & Walker.

Energy companies gave too. Rodriguez got $1,000 apiece from a political committee backing Power Systems Manufacturing, the Responsible Government Committee of Gulf Power Company Employees and Florida Acre, a political committee run by Glades Electric Cooperative CEO Jeff Brewington.

Employee political committees backing global security and aerospace companies Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin donated $1,000 and $500, respectively.

She also got $2,500 from Miramar-based Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits.

Other contributions included $1,000 each from Pepsi, Pembroke Pines-based Weekley Asphalt Paving Inc., Tallahassee-based political committee Conservatives for Good Government and Marshall Field, a retail executive and investor who formerly ran the Chicago Sun-Times.

Of the more than $24,000 Rodriguez spent last month, 70% of it went to consulting. She paid Tampa-based Rapid Loop Consulting $9,000. The company’s president, James Blair, is a former deputy chief of staff for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Rodriguez also paid nearly $8,000 to Tallahassee-based Taylor Strategies.

The remainder of her expenditures included $1,500 to Doubletake Marketing for “web updates,” $1,650 for campaign advertising and $923 for food, drinks and entertainment at a Dec. 9 fundraising event.

SD 39 covers Florida’s southernmost portion, including all of Monroe County and the Miami-Dade County municipalities of Homestead, Florida City and some of Cutler Bay. If redistricting plans from the Florida Senate Committee on Reapportionment go into effect, her district would largely go unchanged and she would remain representing the same region, based on the address she included with her Florida Division of Elections filings.

Of many bills she sponsored this Session, she most hopes to see the success of three bills aimed at minimizing the chance of another disaster like the June condo collapse in Surfside and another bill that would allow expectant parents employed by the state to tap into voluntary sick leave pools to take paid parental leave.

Candidates faced a Monday deadline to report all campaign finance activities through Dec. 31.