Anne Geggis
Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmore opened her campaign coffers and spent nearly $20,000 for phone calls and direct mail in the last two-week reporting period as she fends off a Primary challenger.
The $23,341 Skidmore spent between July 16 and July 22 represents the most she’s ever reported spending this cycle in the race to continue representing House District 92.
The CEO of the Palm Beach Medical Society is facing a challenge from Democrat Hasan Zahangir, a native of Bangladesh and management consultant who is vying for his first election.
The voters will decide Aug. 23 who will meet Republican Dorcas Hernandez in November’s General Election.
In the money race, Skidmore is dominant. She was elected in 2020, following a Statehouse stint between 2006 and 2010. Between her personal account and her political committee, Floridians for Early Education, she reported $44,284 on hand at Friday’s deadline for reporting money raised and spent for her campaign through July 22. That compares to the $12,729 Zahangir reported having on hand as of July 22.
Skidmore has raised $12,800 in the last six weeks, however with $1,000 donations from Alec Schultz, a Boca Raton lawyer; The Dennis Moran Agency, a Coconut Creek insurance agency; Focus, a Tallahassee health care company; Timmins Consulting in Tallahassee; and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, based in Tallahassee.
She also received support from Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon, who chipped in $100.
Five farming companies also gave Skidmore $1,000 each.
Besides the phone calls and the direct mail, Skidmore spent $2,753 on yard signs with Good Guys Signs in Tampa and $2,806 with Victory Political Mail for an expense described as “website, collateral and ads.” The Skidmore campaign also sent $3,000 for consulting with Johnson Strategies in Wilton Manors.
Zahangir filed to represent the district that covers southwestern Palm Beach County in September. He’s added $31,000 to his campaign since then, including a $400 loan he made to his campaign and $10,000 he gave it in May.
Since that big contribution from his own pocket, though, his donations have slacked off. The campaign collected $2,365 between June 1 and July 15.
As for expenditures, Zahangir spent on a campaign website and $700 worth of texting, but it looks like most of his spending in the last two weeks on the campaign is going toward printing. He spent $2,000 with Maddy’s Print Shop in Fort Lauderdale for yard signs; $260 with Canva Printing in Boynton Beach for campaign flyers and $250 for Discount-Printing.com in Fort Lauderdale.
His expenditures also show some of his campaign money going to nonprofits such as Kings Point Democratic Club in Delray Beach and $1,000 to Sheikh Rahman, a state Senator in Georgia.
Republican Hernandez has $1,594 to wage her campaign. She reports raising $3,749 in the six weeks between June 1 and July 15 with $2,000 of it coming from the same address where she lives. The report of money raised and spent through July 22 was not submitted by the deadline.
The district, renumbered in redistricting, stretches from Palm Beach County’s southwest to West Boynton Beach to the north.
The campaigns faced a deadline Friday for reporting all campaign finance activity through July 22.
