Anne Geggis
House District 101 candidates have courted nearly a quarter million over the last six weeks, and that money is firing at residents as the finale in a three-way Democratic Primary ticks closer.
The front-runner in the money race to represent southeastern Broward County, lawyer Hillary Cassel, has spent double the combined amount that her fellow Democrats expended between June 1 and July 15. And the same goes for fundraising in that period also.
Counting her personal campaign account and her political committee, Friends of Hillary Cassel, the candidate spent $155,368 and raised $29,445 between June 1 and July 15.
Cassel is competing with Todd Delmay, an LGBTQ activist, and Clay Miller, an aide to Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr, in the Democratic Primary Aug. 23.
Cassel spread her campaign spending among a variety of firms. The bulk of her expenditures appear to be directed at direct mail and printing.
Mission Control Inc. in Glastonbury, Connecticut, received more than $50,000 from Cassel’s campaign for mail media consulting, printing and direct mail. The $48,328 that went to Impact Politics in Woodland Hills, California was listed as “advertising.”
Polaris Public Affairs, Miami Beach, provided $11,415 in yard signs and digital advertising, Mike Pratt in Hollywood provided $9,416 in printing.
Communicating with constituents’ cell phones got its due during this period also, with JHSM Holdings in Teaneck, New Jersey doing $1,165 worth of texting for Cassel’s campaign.
Services provided to the campaign during this period included $37,600 in professional services from Amare Public Affairs in Tampa; $26,563 for polling from ClearView Research in Tallahassee; and $6,870 in campaign management services from Folding Chair Consulting in Oakland Park.
Her campaign coffers continued to draw substantially from fellow lawyers and law firms, who collectively donated $18,000 of the $29,445 she raised between June 1 and July 15.
Sen. Jason Pizzo’s political committee, New Opportunity Florida, gave her the biggest single donation of the last six weeks: $5,000. She also received $1,000 from both Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book of Davie and the Capital Advocacy Group, an Aventura consulting firm.
Second in the total money raised in this race, Delmay also had a gush of spending over the last six weeks. Most of the $55,676 he spent then went to MDW Communications in Plantation for mailers, digital video advertising and texting.
Through June and halfway into July, Delmay raised $6,057, including $1,000 from Harry Huizenga of Miami Beach, who works in real estate; Kevin Tipton, a Miami nurse practitioner; and The Doctors Company, a Napa, California political committee.
Having raised $126,689 in this cycle in addition to the $2,022 he loaned his campaign, Delmay is now down to $21,425.
Miller also picked up his spending — almost $20,000 in the first two weeks of July, after most of his monthly spending only surpassed $1,000 twice during this election cycle.
Most of the money, $18,626, went to Victory Political Mail in North Palm Beach for printing services.
Meanwhile, Miller’s fundraising has been negligible in the past six weeks — $2,295 raised, including $400 he loaned to his campaign.
His campaign report shows he’s still got a lot more to spend — nearly $60,000, after adding a total of $87,160 to his campaign this election cycle.
The Republican these Democrats are competing to meet in November’s General Election, Guy Silla, has $2,219 to spend, after paying the qualifying fee in early June.
The district — which includes parts of Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach, Davie and Hollywood, leans heavily Democratic, however. An analysis of the district from Matt Isbell of MCI Maps shows the district elected President Joe Biden by +14. The district was renumbered in redistricting from House District 99.
