Jacob Ogles
Sen. Jason Brodeur largely vanished from public events since associates were convicted of a crime tied to the 2020 election. But he’s still raising a substantial amount of funds for re-election to the Florida Senate.
The Sanford Republican raised $36,976 between Sept. 10 and 23. That was more than three times the amount raised by Democratic opponent Joy Goff-Marcil, who reported $10,223 in new donations over the same period. Subtracting expenses from both campaigns, that leaves Brodeur with $111,226 in cash on hand, compared to Goff-Marcil’s $37,306.
That’s only part of the story. Two political committees controlled by Brodeur stepped up fundraising in recent weeks. Citizens for Solutions collected $84,000 in the two-week campaign reporting period, and another $20,000 after that. The committee sits on $372,306 in cash it can expend before the Nov. 8 General Election. Meanwhile, Brodeur’s Freedom and Liberty Fund reported another $5,000 and sits on $33,085 that the incumbent can tap into as well.
Joy for Florida, a committee controlled by Goff-Marcil, reported $26,636 between Sept. 10 and 23, and then another $15,660 in the last week of September. The entity has $106,784 it can dispatch on the Democrat’s behalf as she seeks to unseat the freshman Senator.
Tally up all available dollars and Brodeur at the close of September had $627,843 to burn, while Goff-Marcil had a more modest $170,444.
Headlines, however, may help the Democrat out, and partisan demographics could as well. Brodeur receded from public events like a scheduled debate at Tiger Bay after employees and political allies were convicted over their roles in a “ghost candidate” scandal from 2020.
Seminole County Republican Party Chair Ben Paris was found guilty and sentenced to a year of supervised probation for supporting the candidacy of independent Jestine Ionatti, who apparently entered the 2020 Senate District 10 race only to siphon off potential votes for Democrat Patricia Sigman.
Goff-Marcil called on Brodeur to resign after testimony Brodeur knew of the plot.
So what financial forces are rallying behind camps now?
Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo’s New Opportunity Florida committee chipped in $25,000 to Joy for Florida, and so did retired Orlando attorney Brian Anderson. The Fund for Children and Public Education gave $15,000. Former NBA coach Stan Van Gundy donated $10,000 to Goff-Marcil’s committee.
The Florida Police Benevolent Association, meanwhile, stuck by Brodeur and donated $5,000 to his smaller committee. American Traffic Solutions gave a similar amount to Brodeur’s primary committee, as did engineering firm CDR Maguire.
The biggest support for Brodeur came through $12,000 worth of in-kind polling courtesy the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the political arm for Senate Republicans. Meanwhile, the Florida Democratic Party provided $6,823 worth of staffing in-kind to Goff-Marcil’s campaign.
Under the new Senate lines, Democrat Joe Biden won in SD 10 by more than 4 percentage points over Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election.
