Staff Reports
Rep. Nick DiCeglie’s political committee, The Economic Freedom Committee, has surpassed $1 million raised, according to the most recent campaign finance reporting data covering Oct. 1-7.
The committee has now brought in $1.068 million, with $81,500 raised in the first week of October.
His campaign for Senate District 18 has brought in another nearly $348,000, bringing his total raised this cycle between the two accounts to more than $1.4 million, about four times as much as his Democratic challenger, Eunic Ortiz.
DiCeglie is enjoying strong institutional support. His committee brought in $25,000 each from Rep. Jay Trumbull’s Panhandle Prosperity and Friends of Colleen Burton, as well as $15,000 from the Florida Medical Association.
He also took in a $3,500 donation from the FPF Fire PC and $2,500 contributions from PhRMA, the Florida Operators Association and the Florida Manufactured Housing Association. T-Mobile kicked in $2,000, while gas station company RaceTrac donated $1,500 and Molson Coors and Likes Brothers kicked in $1,000 each.
His PC spent just $5,500 during the week, with $3,000 paid to Isaac Communications and $2,500 to Picotte and Porter.
DiCeglie has more than $518,000 on-hand in his PC with just three weeks before the election.
He has nearly $116,000 available in his official campaign account as well after raising $9,450 from Sept. 24 through Oct. 7.
That doesn’t include more than $20,000 during the period from in-kind contributions from the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee for campaign staff and polling costs.
DiCeglie’s campaign shelled out more than $13,000 during the period, with the largest expense, $9,055, going to Consensus Media in Orlando for media production. He also spent $2,465 on sign supplies from Tallahassee-based Election Management Solutions and $1,000 on fundraising consulting from Jacksonville-based Picotte and Porter.
Meanwhile, Ortiz didn’t post any fundraising activity to her political committee, Together United for Florida, and added just under $7,000 to her campaign account. She put fundraising on hold during Hurricane Ian.
Combined, she has less than $165,000 available.
Ortiz’s PC picked up $15,000 in in-kind contributions from CATECOMM for advertising.
Her campaign took in 53 mostly small dollar donations, including nearly $8,000 in in-kind contributions from the Florida Democratic Party to pay for campaign staff.
The Ortiz campaign paid out just over $8,500 from Sept. 24 through Oct. 7, including more than $3,000 to Noble Crust in Tampa for food and beverages; more than $2,700 to Washington-based Grassroots Analytics for fundraising; and $1,230 for NGPVAN data.
Her committee didn’t post any expenditures during the most recent reporting period covering the first week of October.
The candidates are running to replace Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes who is leaving office due to term limits. Brandes has endorsed DiCeglie as his preferred successor.
The seat has a slight red lean. In 2020, under configuration as Senate District 24, 47% of voters in the district supported Democratic President Joe Biden, while 52% went to former Republican President Donald Trump.
The new boundaries renumbered as SD 18 includes more than 139,000 registered Republicans with fewer than 126,000 Democrats. The new district includes nearly 113,000 nonpartisan voters, according to the most recent L2 voter data.
