Republican Attorney Generals Assoc. backing Ashley Moody re-elect with $300K investment

Ashley Moody’s seemingly insurmountable fundraising edge over her November opponent was boosted late last month by the Republican Attorneys General Association.

After a seven-figure spend on Moody’s General Election campaign four years ago, the group has already spent $300,000 on the re-election bid, a significant investment given the structural disparity between the incumbent from Plant City and her opponent, a former State Attorney from Orlando.

Moody faced no Primary opponent this year, allowing her to fundraise without significant spend as Democrat Aramis Ayala overcame fundraising entropy to win a three-way Democratic election.

As Ayala attempts to play catch up, RAGA dug Moody a deeper hole.

The national committee donated $200,000 on Aug, 28 to the Friends of Ashley Moody political committee, the leading donation in a $245,000 fundraising week ending Sept. 2 that left the committee with more than $5.4 million cash on hand.

RAGA bet big on Moody in 2018, donating $1.025 Million between her win of a competitive Primary that year in the race to succeed term-limited Pam Bondi and her General Election victory against Tampa attorney Sean Shaw. The $200,000 in August follows up on a $100,000 donation to Moody’s political committee on Dec. 29, 2021.

Moody also has more than $1.51 million in her campaign account as of Sept. 2, with $38,065 in contributions the week before. The Anheuser Busch company was among the hard money donors, giving the maximum $3,000.

While Moody has nearly $7 million on hand, Ayala didn’t even have $20,000 on hand, as of Sept. 2. In the week leading up to that date, she raised a little more than $3,600, suggesting that Democratic donors aren’t exactly dazzled.

She does not have a political committee.

As we have noted before, Ayala opted not to take matching funds from the state for her campaign, a decision derided by a Primary opponent. Unless outside groups dump money into the state, she won’t have much in the way of paid media or evidence of a viable campaign.