Adam Gentle leads March HD 120 fundraising push with $15K in personal checks

Democratic lawyer Adam Gentle again eschewed corporate donations in March, when he amassed more than $15,000 toward his bid for Florida’s southernmost House District.

By the end of the month, he held about $53,500 between his campaign account and political committee, Adam for Democracy PC, to spend on winning the Aug. 23 Primary Election and supplanting incumbent Republican Rep. Jim Mooney in House District 120 less than three months later.

Nearly 100 people from across Florida — including the Keys, Homestead, The Villages, Fort Myers, Clewiston, Panama City Beach and St. Petersburg — gave Gentle checks ranging from $5 to $1,000.

He also took donations from resident of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington state and Washington, D.C.

He spent about $2,800 in March. More than half of that went to Coral Gables-based firm Blue Velocity Consulting.

He also paid more than $1,000 for “merchant fees” from Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue and payment processing company Vantiv.

The remainder covered printing and banking costs.

Gentle is a self-described “anti-corruption lawyer” and member of the LGBTQ community who since August has lived about 10 miles north of Key West. He previously lived in Los Angeles.

His lone Primary opponent (for now) is Dan Horton-Diaz, a lawyer by training and former top-ranked staffer for Sen. Annette Taddeo and former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell who is making another run at state office.

Both Gentle and Horton-Diaz campaigned during an April 23 forum in Homestead featuring Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is running for Governor, and former State Attorney Aramis Ayala, who is running for Attorney General.

Last month, Horton-Diaz added more than $12,000 to his campaign account, which through March 31 held about $50,000.

Fifty people donated to Horton-Diaz in March through checks ranging from $6 to $1,000.

He accepted less than a handful of corporate donations, including $1,000 contributions from Dream Bay Resort LLC in Key West, Jem Resorts Homestead LLC and Miami-based law firm Gonzalez and Associates.

Lacayo Law Firm in Miami chipped in $350.

He spent less than $500 last month. The money went toward office supplies, printing, digital media, payment processing, a subscription to the Key West Citizen and continued membership to Hometown! Key West, which bills itself as “the signature resource for candidate and election information for the voting community of Key West and Monroe County.”

Mooney was barred from accepting donations during the Legislative Session, which ended March 14. Based on the ledgers for his campaign account and political committee, Friends of Jim Mooney, he took the remainder of the month off from fundraising.

While he collected nothing last month, Mooney spent more than $3,000, bringing his holdings through March 31 to nearly $84,000.

His largest expense was for “treasurer services” from Tallahassee-based PAC Financial Management. He paid another $1,000 to Republican fundraising firm Capital Resources LLC for “finance consulting” and repaid his staffer, Lee Young, $908 for “lodging and parking.”

Mooney has two Primary opponents.

There’s Robert Allen, whom the Florida Division of Corporations lists as president of Barefoot Painting O.T.L.K. Inc., a house-painting company located in Monroe’s unincorporated Big Pine Key neighborhood.

February was the only month in which Allen raised money: $150, of which $50 came from his own pocket.

He’s reported no spending so far.

Local businesswoman and GOP activist Rhonda Rebman Lopez entered the race on April 1.

She is a member of the Florida Advisory Council on Small and Minority Businesses, Monroe County Republican Executive Committee and Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Miami-Dade County, among other roles.

She lost to Mooney in the 2020 Primary by just 148 votes.

Earlier this month, she broke Florida campaign fundraising rules by improperly wording a disclaimer at the bottom of an invitation to a campaign fundraising event at her Key Largo home.

HD 120 covers Miami-Dade’s southernmost portion and all of Monroe, which encompasses the Florida Keys.

Candidates faced an April 11 deadline to report all campaign finance activities through the end of March.