Dan Franzese adds $330K to mostly self-funded CD 22 bid with help from deep-pocket donors

Businessman Dan Franzese added another $330,000 to his mostly self-stuffed campaign coffers last quarter to place first among five Republican candidates seeking the party nod in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District.

That included $231,000 from his bank account, which brought his self-loan total to $1.6 million since he filed in April 2023 to again run to unseat U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel.

By the end of the first quarter of 2024, he had $235,500 left to spend.

Frankel, meanwhile, raised $264,000 last quarter and, after a healthy round of spending, had close to $1.4 million remaining to fend off one fellow Democrat who has yet to report any campaign finance activity.

She’s also facing her first Primary challenge since winning office more than a decade ago.

Let’s take a look at the Q1 finance activity of CD 22’s seven contestants by party.

Republicans

The Republican field in CD 22 includes Franzese; Deborah Adeimy, who lost the 2022 GOP Primary to Franzese in 2022 by just 130 votes; U.S. Air Force veteran D.B. Fugate; author and podcaster Andrew Gutmann; and Paola Branda, who ran for the Lake Worth Beach Council in 2021.

None of the three candidates who reported campaign finance activities in Q1 — Franzese, Adeimy and Gutmann — took a cent from corporate donors or political groups.

Seventy-eight people gave checks in Q1 to Franzese, who accepted no corporate contributions. Atop the list was vitamin tycoon Keith Frankel, the Palm Beach County-based CEO of Windmill Health Products. He gave $6,600 — the maximum sum allowable under federal law, representing $3,300 apiece for the Primary and General elections.

Investors Charles Schwab and Leslie Daniels of Palm Beach and James Dobbs of Arkansas each gave $3,300. So did Ace and Johnna Pomasan, the owners of Ace Electronics in Lake Worth Beach.

Franzese, who lost to Frankel in 2022 by 10 percentage points, spent $118,000. His spending covered office supplies, donation processing fees, advertising, treasury services, database services, emails, survey research, consulting costs, staff salaries, food, subscriptions, and other general upkeep costs.

He also paid meeting fees at the America First Club in West Palm Beach, Club 47 USA in Boynton Beach and the Boca Raton Republican Club, which in November refuted his assertion that the organization endorsed him. The errant claim was due to an “innocent misunderstanding,” group members said.

Gutmann, a self-described “anti-woke education activist” who drew national headlines in 2021 for decrying race-based “indoctrination” at his daughter’s private school, raised $186,000 between Jan. 1 and March 31.

Sixty-three people chipped in. Several gave the maximum amount or $6,600, including Impala Asset Management founder Robert Bishop, Interactive Brokers founder and Chair Thomas Petterfy, communications entrepreneur John Scrapa and his realtor wife, Jana, and Elliot Investment Management President and co-CEO Paul Singer.

Wexford Capital co-founder Charles Davidson and his wife, Theresa, each gave $6,600 as well. So did the firm’s President, Joseph Jacobs, and his wife, Michelle.

Before launching a career in podcasting and authorship, Gutmann worked in investment banking and as a career coach at Columbia Business School, among other things.

He spent $34,000 and $460,000 remaining at the end of Q1. Since filing a year ago, Gutmann has loaned his campaign $110,000 and spent about $7,000 more on travel that he earmarked for reimbursement.

His spending last quarter covered event production, strategy and fundraising consulting, accounting and compliance services, merchant fees and $2,900 worth of contributions to the Republican Party of Palm Beach County.

Adeimy, who left a high-ranking job at JPMorgan in November to run for Congress this year, reported raising about $55,000 last quarter, though some of that total didn’t come in cash.

Thirty-six people gave to her in sums of between $10 and $3,500. Five people, including Adeimy herself, donated services or gave materials to her campaign valued at $11,000, which her campaign included as contributions.

She spent $29,000, but that figure was skewed too by the inclusion of in-kind aid.

She paid for supplies, web services, postage, voter list rentals, advertising, email services, utilities, credit card processing fees and membership dues with the Palm Beach Republican Club and the Common Sense Society.

She also paid for event sponsorships with the Historic Society of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach Atlantic University, Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach and Associated General Contractors of Florida.

Adeimy marked as spending more than $9,500 worth of in-kind contributions for campaign signage, event tickets, advertising and graphics, plus a $1,500 personal expense.

Fugate, who entered the race in November, has yet to file a campaign finance report. Branda filed to run on Monday and isn’t due to submit a report until June 15.

Democrats

Frankel, a former state Representative and West Palm Beach Mayor who has served in Congress since 2013, collected well over 100 personal contributions through progressive donations platform ActBlue and the American Israel Public Affairs PAC (AIPAC).

Frankel is an outspoken ally of Israel. She left her party’s Progressive Caucus in November following a disagreement with group members over a large aid package that in part funded the Iron Dome that helped to intercept hundreds of Iranian munitions this past weekend.

Unlike her GOP challengers, Frankel tapped numerous corporate and organizational funding sources.

The American Federation of Teachers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers each gave $5,000, and the American Association for Justice PAC gave $4,000, to all increase their total contributions to Frankel this cycle to $10,000.

Defense giant RTX Corp. did the same with a $1,500 contribution through a PAC, as did the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees through a $2,500 check.

Other contributions included $5,000 from the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, $3,000 from the campaign of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu of California and $1,000 from Verizon.

Frankel spent close to $117,000 on food and catering, travel, phone and merchant fees, staff pay, payroll taxes, software, caucus retreat expenses, an AIPAC-related event facility rental, subscriptions, consulting, postage, texting services, donation-processing fees and membership dues with the National Democratic Club.

Delray Beach Democratic lawyer Dean Halper — who promises, if elected, to redesign his campaign website to poll registered CD 22 voters so he can vote in Congress based on their majority opinion — filed to run in December but hasn’t yet submitted a campaign finance report.

His candidacy marks the first time since Frankel won her seat in Washington that someone has filed to challenge her in the Primary.

Candidates faced a Monday deadline to report all campaign finance activity through March 31.