Jesse Scheckner
Islamorada Republican Rep. Jim Mooney spent $96,000 between Aug. 1 and Sept. 9 to hold onto his House District 120 seat representing the Florida Keys and the southernmost part of Miami-Dade County.
More than 84% of the money covered advertising.
Mooney also raised $51,000 between his campaign account and political committee, Friends of Jim Mooney with disproportionate help from health care and utility companies.
His largest expenditure was a more than $68,000 payment to Los Angeles-based campaign advertising company Mentzer Media Services. Another $10,000 went to Orlando-based Consensus Media. He also paid $2,800 to Keys Weekly, the largest newspaper circulation in Monroe County.
The rest went to campaign upkeep costs, staff reimbursements, signage and financial consulting.
The Republican Party of Florida and its House-specific fundraising and spending apparatus has given Mooney $63,500 worth of in-kind help since Aug. 1. His campaign earmarked the assistance as going toward campaign staff and telephone call costs.
Health care organizations giving Mooney $1,000 apiece included the Florida Medical Association, Dade County Medical Association, Molina Healthcare Inc., Health Network One Inc., and Fort Lauderdale-based American Therapy Administrators.
Mooney also took $1,000 donations from Duke Energy Corp., Underground Utility Contractor, and the Florida Public Utilities Co.
Other donations included $2,500 from NBCUniversal Media, $2,000 from Charter Schools USA, and $1,000 from American Airlines.
Since winning state office in November 2020, Mooney has raised more than $364,000. He had less than $50,000 remaining by Sept. 9.
His opponent, Democratic lawyer Adam Gentle, has raised roughly $124,000 since filing to run for office in January. Of that, he had $17,000 left between his campaign account and political committee, Adam for Democracy.
Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 9, Gentle spent more than $35,000. More than 80% of it went to advertising.
He paid Coral Gables-based Blue Velocity Consulting $28,400 for campaign mailers. He spent $3,000 on digital ads from Washington-headquartered Compete Digital and another $600 on text messaging services from The Sexton Group in Chicago.
The remainder of his spending covered merchant fees and accounting services.
Gentle also added more than $21,000 to his campaign coffers, all of it through personal checks. Most were for less than $100.
HD 120 spans all of Monroe County, which encompasses all of Monroe County and most of Everglades National Park, and the southernmost portion of Miami-Dade County, including parts of Homestead, Homestead Air Reserve Base, and Biscayne National Park.
Last month, Mooney defeated Republican Primary challenger Rhonda Rebman Lopez by just 90 votes, a 0.8% margin of victory.
Gentle, meanwhile, defeated former congressional Chief of Staff Dan Horton-Diaz in the Democratic Primary with 55.6% of the vote.
The General Election is on Nov. 8.
