Anne Geggis
The race to fill the seat representing Palm Beach County’s House District 91 has already put more than half a million dollars into campaign coffers, according to candidate and state reports.
The race to fill the newly drawn HD 91 pits Boca Raton City Councilman Andy Thomson against Highland Beach Town Commissioner Peggy Gossett-Seidman.
Official June reports from both candidates are incomplete, but Thomson, running as a Democrat, says he raised $52,910 in June, counting donations to his personal campaign account and his political committee, Running with Andy Thomson.
That brings his total raised to $285,999 since he announced his House bid in February, Thomson said.
“I am thankful to all the community leaders, residents, organizations, and friends who have come together to give this campaign such a successful start,” Thomson said in a prepared statement. “We are just getting started.”
Officially, though, Thomson’s main Republican rival has reports that show her fundraising outpaced his in the first two weeks of June. Gossett-Seidman raised $26,000 in the first half of June compared to the $22,335 that Thomson’s official reports show.
The Republicans are putting some green into this Democratic-leaning district, Gossett-Seidman’s reports show. The Florida House Republican Campaign Committee in Tallahassee staked her $25,000 in June, and the Republican Party of Florida chipped in $3,600. Dr. David Sachs of Boca Raton gave her $1,000.
Over the entire election cycle, however, Gossett has largely self-funded her campaign. She showed $228,033 on hand as of June 17 and lent her campaign $200,000.
Gossett-Seidman’s report for the first half of June shows she spent more in two weeks than the entire election cycle so far. All but $80 of the $17,711 in expenditures during the first half of June went to Simwins in Tampa, which provided consulting, advertising, and an online subscription to the campaign.
Meanwhile, Thomson’s most significant donation reported so far for June came from a West Palm Beach political committee that chipped $7,500 to his campaign. Thomson also received some high-profile support from Joseph Abruzzo, the Palm Beach Clerk and Comptroller, who pitched in $1,000.
Also giving the maximum $1,000 to Thomson’s personal campaign were Caulfield & Wheeler Inc., Boca Raton architects; Howard Kanner, a Boca Raton lawyer; All Phase Roofing of West Palm Beach; Jackson Land Development of Pompano Beach; CSCI LLC, a Boynton Beach construction company; Heritage Carpet & Tile in Boynton Beach; JR. Davis Construction of Kissimmee; Boca Raton landscape architects Sunkissed Tropicals; H&J Contracting in Wellington; Boca Raton architect Bruce Retzsch; Dixie Landscaping of Miami; and Southern Truss Companies Inc. of Fort Pierce.
In all, $10,700 of Thomson’s donations came from people or companies that wrest the land out of its native state in some way, whether it’s engineering, flooring and tile, landscape architecture or construction of some kind.
Thomson’s campaign spent nearly $2,000 in the first half of June. His $1,781 qualifying fee accounted for most of it — much less than Gossett-Seidman expended at the same time.
A more distant Republican rival in the money race, Christina DuCasse, raised $1,795 in June and spent $2,793. She has a total of $2,120 to spend for her race.
HD 91’s boundaries were reshuffled in the decennial redistricting process, so now the district encompasses Boca Raton, parts of Highland Beach, and part of West Boca. With no incumbent in the race, the seat is up for grabs.
