Donors rally to Daniel Davis in Jacksonville mayoral race

In the wake of a fragmented First Election in the Jacksonville mayoral race that saw the GOP vote split four ways, donors are rallying to the Republican who made the General Election.

Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce CEO Daniel Davis reports raising $548,250 to his Building a Better Economy political committee in the last week of March, the latest sign that he will have the resources he needs to be competitive through the May 16 election.

The Summit Contracting Group led all recent contributors, donating $100,000 on March 27. Pamela Lecates donated $50,000 on March 31, as did the development company The Parc Group. Vadis, which shares an address with the Parc Group, donated $25,000 on the same day.

Gate Petroleum, the Haskell Company, Elite Parking Services, Miller Electric, Ryan Smith, Open Creek LLC, and the Responsible Leadership Committee all chipped in $25,000 each also. The latter is an account seeded by other political committees.

Other names of note donated at lower levels, including Citizens for Building Florida’s Future. The committee is associated with Rep. Wyman Duggan, a land use lawyer with Rogers Towers who often lobbies City Hall. It gave $5,000.

Davis’ committee closed March with nearly $690,000 on hand. Additionally, he had roughly $3,000 in hard money as of March 24, the last date for which the Duval County Supervisor of Elections has records. With Gov. Ron DeSantis and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson both backing Davis, expect him to continue strong fundraising through the stretch run.

Davis will begin next week with two town hall events hosted by prominent endorsing organizations that backed him early on. His opponent, Democrat Donna Deegan, will not attend those events.

The Fraternal Order of Police will hold its event on Wednesday, a day after the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors and the Northeast Florida Builders Association will hold their showcases. These friendly appearances will allow Davis to hone lines and techniques ahead of an April 20 debate with Deegan. Deegan has “community events” that preclude her attendance at the FOP event.

Deegan raised a little more than $180,000 between the First Election and the end of March to her Donna for Duval political committee, with $100,000 of that coming from lawyer Steve Pajcic and Sallyn Pajcic. Former CSX executive Michael Ward chipped in $48,000.

Her political committee closed March with nearly $282,000 on hand. As of March 24, she had a little more than $92,000 in her campaign account.

Deegan’s campaign is touting a positive survey this week from Frederick Polls, which shows her leading Davis 54% to 46% in an R+6 sample. Deegan is buoyed by roughly 20% support from Republicans who backed GOP candidates in March in the sample.

The question for the last 35 days of this campaign is if Deegan can continue to keep one in five Republicans backing her amid what is certain to be an onslaught of personal attacks from Davis and political allies, fueled by a fundraising advantage Deegan can’t hope to match.