Animal advocate Meg Weinberger laps HD 94 opponents with $104K haul

Animal rescue nonprofit executive Meg Weinberger more than raised twice as much money last quarter as five other Palm Beach County candidates running for the to-be-open seat representing House District 94.

Between Oct. 1 and New Year’s Eve, she stacked $104,000.

Weinberger, a Republican, accepted around 115 personal checks, many for $1,000. A dozen or so law firms and a few other businesses donated as well, including a beef supplier, college admissions firm and a hair salon called Blowtox.

Her largest contribution was a $30,000 infusion from Libertatem, a conservative political committee chaired by Republican consultant William Jones, who chairs more than 100 PCs in the state.

After fourth-quarter spending totaling $15,500, nearly all of it on consulting, Weinberger entered 2024 with about $206,000 between her campaign account and PC, Friends of Megan Weinberger.

Republican businessman Anthony Aguirre, one of four other GOP candidates vying to succeed term-limited Republican Rep. Rick Roth in November, added $15,000 to his campaign coffers.

He also spent $6,000, leaving $118,000 between his campaign account and PC by Q4’s closure.

His biggest giver was Palm Beach Aggregates, a South Florida-based construction company whose President, Enrique Tomeu, is CEO of Siboney Contracting, a construction material sourcing and hauling business.

Aguirre also took $1,000 apiece from Florida Power & Light parent NextEra Energy, private prison operator The GEO Group and the Coalition of Affordable Housing Providers, a PC chaired by Nick Indamar.

Indamar is a principal at Magellan Housing, which last year partnered with ex-Miami Heat player Udonis Haslem to develop affordable housing units in Miami-Dade County.

Nicholas Mastroianni, a principal at the U.S. Immigration Fund, which assists foreign investors and their families in obtaining permanent residency, chipped in $1,000 as well.

Rachelle Litt, the only Democrat running in HD 94, also leaned heavily on people-sourced donations. A handful of businesses gave too.

She took a pair of $1,000 checks from PCs — one from abortion rights group Ruth’s List Florida, the other from the PC of Boca Raton Sen. Tina Polsky.

She also spent $15,000, nearly all of it covering consulting, web design, marketing and advertising expenditures.

By the end of December, she had $77,500 in the bank between her campaign account and PC, Friends of Rachelle Litt.

Others running in HD 94 include:

 — Psychologist and entrepreneur Gabrielle Fox, who raised $700 last quarter and reported holding just over $1,000 at the end of the year.

— College professor and past congressional candidate Christian Acosta, who raised $600 and held $21,000 on New Year’s Eve.

— Jon Carter, a former legislative aide to Roth who raised nothing last quarter and spent just $30. He had about $28,000 at the end of Q4, due to earlier fundraising and a $15,000 self-loan.

HD 94 runs from the West Palm Beach suburbs to Belle Glade’s agricultural areas. It’s a true toss-up district, according to elections data analyst Matt Isbell of MCI Maps.

In the last election, voters there supported Gov. Ron DeSantis by 15 percentage points over Democratic candidate Charlie Crist. In 2020, President Joe Biden edged Donald Trump by just over a 1-point margin. And two years before that, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum outpaced DeSantis in the district by 5 points.