Jesse Scheckner
Republican Meg Weinberger raised another $54,000 between June 1 and July 12 to fund her campaign for House District 94.
Most of it came from one source: a political committee (PC) called Serious Conservatives run by William Stafford Jones, a State Committeeman and former Chair of the Alachua Republican Party who also runs Weinberger’s PC and dozens of others the Division of Elections lists as currently active.
Serious Conservatives gave Weinberger $50,000 on July 9. Six days before, the PC received $50,000 from the Florida Jobs Alliance, another Jones-run account. Florida Jobs Alliance, in turn, got the same sum this month from Latino Alliance, a PC run by political operative Alex Alvarado, who ran two committees that in 2020 spent a combined $550,000 on election ads championing so-called “ghost candidates” in three Senate races.
Weinberger, an animal rescue nonprofit executive and Chair of the Palm Beach County chapter of Moms for Liberty, is one of four GOP candidates vying for the soon-to-be-open HD 94 seat. She’s the only one among them to have been endorsed by Donald Trump and many of his stalwarts — including retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, ex-news anchor Kari Lake and U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, Brian Mast, Gus Bilirakis and Jason Smith, among others.
The wave of Trump World support helped earn her the nickname “MAGA Meg,” a moniker she and the former President have embraced.
Since she entered the race more than a year ago, Weinberger has amassed more than $453,000 to succeed term-limited Republican Rep. Rick Roth, dwarfing the war chests of others in the contest.
By mid-July, she had just over $79,000 remaining after spending $254,000 between June 1 and July 12.
More than half ($162,000) went to Jupiter-based Public Concepts for advertising, research, design, field services and consulting services. She also paid close to $5,000 to her campaign manager, Benjamin Sun; $2,600 to Jones’ Tallahassee-based company, Electioneering Consulting Inc.; and $1,250 for an ad with the Christian Family Coalition.
The rest covered bank charges, legal service and compliance consulting.
Other Republicans running include businessman Anthony Aguirre, college professor Christian Acosta and Gabrielle Fox, a psychologist and entrepreneur.
Aguirre raised $22,000 and spent $2,000 during the June 1-July 12 period and had $313,500 left of the $352,500 he’s raised — including an $80,000 self-loan — that he’s added to his campaign and PC since entering the race in March 2023.
Acosta raised less than $2,300 and spent about three times that, leaving himself with $24,000 of the $47,500 he’s raised since last June.
Fox collected and spent about $2,000. She held $300 of the $9,000 she’s amassed since February last year.
Another Republican candidate named Jon Carter who previously served as Roth’s legislative aide did not qualify for the race.
The winner of the four-way GOP Primary will face former Palm Beach Gardens Mayor Rachelle Litt, the lone Democrat running.
Litt raised and spent about $14,000 between June 1 and July 12. Since filing in July 2023, she’s raised $154,000 between her campaign account and PC, Friends of Rachelle Litt, inclusive of a $10,000 self-loan.
Of that, she had $91,600 left by last week.
Litt, who carries an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, several state lawmakers who represent Palm Beach County and abortion rights group Ruth’s List Florida, accepted nearly 60 personal checks. One came from Democrat Debra Tendrich, a nonprofit executive running in House District 89.
She also received $1,000 apiece from the Florida Leadership Council PC and political donations platform Democracy Engine, and $500 from an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC.
Litt also paid $4,500 to Washington, D.C.-based resonance Campaigns for a photo shoot and $4,000 to Coral Springs-based consulting firm Blue Velocity. The rest covered legal services, supplies, donation processing fees, event tickets, social media management, compliance services and email marketing.
HD 94 runs from West Palm Beach to Belle Glade’s agricultural areas.
In the last election, HD 94 voters supported Gov. Ron DeSantis by 15 percentage points over Democratic candidate Charlie Crist, according to elections data analyst Matt Isbell of MCI Maps.
But the area’s affinity for DeSantis doesn’t necessarily translate into a shoo-in for Trump-associated candidates. District data from 2020 showed President Joe Biden beat Trump by 1 percentage point.
Two years before that, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum earned a 5-point lead over DeSantis there.
The Primary Election is on Aug. 20, followed by the General Election on Nov. 5.
4 comments
Gayle
July 23, 2024 at 6:51 am
This is the same PC that illegally coordinated ads and mail with Berny Jacques in 2022. If Weinberger has any sense of integrity, she’ll report and refuse to accept that $.
It’s illegal to accept third party $ beyond the campaign contribution limits, if there’s coordination or communication with her campaign. Which means a likely road to wire or mail fraud charges…..
Trust me, Jones is stupid and sloppy enough to leave a hard trail of evidence that the dark money spending was a coordinated effort. And that coordinated effort always involves the federal banking or postal system.
Don’t be stupid, Meg. Don’t let the boys convince you that you have to commit federal crimes in order to get elected. It’s not worth it.
Oliver
July 23, 2024 at 1:55 pm
Sounds like this is just typical politician behavior if you ask me. But are you suggesting this “Serious Conservatives” PC has been giving illegal campaign contributions to Jacques and Weinberger? Isn’t that a crime?
Gayle
July 23, 2024 at 3:28 pm
Oliver- I think you’ve answered your own question. Yes, it’s a crime to give or accept money in violation of campaign finance laws. It can violate both state and federal laws in many cases.
This PC has funneled almost $100k in illegal contributions to Jacques alone, in close coordination with Jacques and his consultants. I’m sure they’ve done the same with others.
As far as Meg goes, I have no evidence of whether the same activities have occurred with Weinberger’s knowledge or agreement.
Mimi Vanderberg-Mustardseed
July 23, 2024 at 7:45 am
Do you folks do any fact checking at all? On what planet is Gabby Fox a psychologist? That would involve going to school and getting a masters degree. As far as anyone knows, this little trollop doesn’t even have a certificate to do eyebrow curling. Her former profession before becoming a raging anti-Semite was as a stripper at Monroe’s.
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