Anne Geggis
A South Florida lawmaker elected earlier this year logged his personal best fundraising last month for this election cycle.
Democratic Rep. Daryl Campbell faces a repeat of his Primary contest from earlier this year. He was elected in an open Special Primary Election in January to represent a central Broward County district, recently renumbered House District 99.
Campbell raised $14,195 in June as he faces Democratic challenger Elijah Manley in the Aug. 23 Primary.
Campbell bested Manley by 15 percentage points in that January Primary, and it looks like so far, he’s lapping him in the money race for their rematch.
While Campbell’s campaign funds are at $14,058, Manley’s holdings are just shy of $4,000, counting his personal account and his committee, Friends of Elijah Manley.
Campaign records show that Campbell is working hard to attract donors. All but four of his 68 donors gave $500 or less. He also won the support of some notable names.
Christopher Cox of Silver Spring, Maryland, Chief of Staff for Democratic U.S. Rep. Yvette Clark of New York, gave him $500. Yvette DuBose, a consultant running for Fort Lauderdale City Commission, gave him $75. Sen. Rosalind Osgood, who represents Senate District 32, contributed $500.
Manley raised $2,315 in June, including $50 from Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Ben Sorensen, who is running for Congress.
Manley spent $1,781 in June, on the qualifying fee and Campbell qualified by petition. Out of the $1,864 that Campbell spent in June, $1,500 went to pay Diego Lacazano for campaign management and the rest went toward travel, shipping costs, bank fees and candidate training.
Campbell and Manley are in another contest so soon because of events triggered when U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings died in office last April. Three state lawmakers, Democratic Sen. Perry Thurston and Democratic Reps. Bobby DuBose and Omari Hardy resigned their seats to run for Congress. So their replacements had to be re-elected.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has the power to schedule elections and his delay in scheduling the elections for both the federal and the state seats was largely seen as an attempt to disenfranchise South Florida voters, which lean heavily Democratic. Campbell wasn’t seated until near the end of the 2022 Session.
The situation prompted Democrats to file legislation (SB 1586 and HB 1217) that would curb the Governor’s election-scheduling power, but that bill went nowhere this Session.
Campbell, a social worker who also was a legislative aide to DuBose, took DuBose’s seat. The district shifted north in the redistricting, taking in parts of Fort Lauderdale, Plantation and Wilton Manors. The district leans heavily Democratic, one of the bluest in the state, with 77% of voters supporting President Joe Biden, according to Matt Isbell of MCI Maps.
The campaigns were facing a deadline to report financial activity through June 30 on July 10.
