Janelle Irwin Taylor
As Republicans look at Pinellas County-based House District 60 for a potential pickup, which would add to the GOP’s supermajority, incumbent Democrat Lindsay Cross is showing her staying power.
Cross has again outraised her Republican challenger, current St. Petersburg City Council member Ed Montanari, bringing in more than $30,000 in the most recent fundraising period covering activity from Aug. 24 to Sept. 6. Montanari, in that same span, raised about half as much.
Cross raised more than $22,000 through her official campaign account, and enjoyed nearly $3,000 in in-kind support from the Florida Democratic Party for staff salaries and taxes, a value that the party has been providing for the past three fundraising cycles, dating back to Aug. 3.
She spent just under $49,000 during the period, including about $43,000 with Chicago-based SP Media Group for a media buy and digital advertising.
Her campaign maintains about $244,000 on hand as of Sept. 6.
Cross’ affiliated political committee, Moving Pinellas Forward, raised $8,250 during the period, and spent more than $50,000, almost all paid to the Florida House Democratic Campaign Committee.
Contributions to Cross’ PC included $1,000 from Friends of Ben Diamond, the political committee for former Rep. Ben Diamond, whom Cross succeeded.
That account retains a little less than $117,000.
Between both accounts, Cross had about $360,000 left on hand as of Sept. 6.
Montanari, meanwhile, raised just $15,600 to his campaign account in the latest period. His affiliated PC, Friends of Ed Montanari, didn’t post any fundraising activity.
Montanari spent just over $3,000 from his campaign account, including paying $2,500 to Sapphire Arthmann, Montanari’s field director. He also sent $500 to Porter Strategies, based in Kissimmee, for finance consulting.
The campaign maintains nearly $101,000 on hand. His committee has a little over $54,000 still available. Between both accounts, Montanari has about $155,000 left as of Sept. 6 — more than $200,000 short of Cross’ cash figure.
The race pits an environmental scientist in Cross against a moderate Republican who, for the past eight years, has served as the only Republican on the St. Pete City Council. They’re running in what has been a reliably blue district, but demographics show a path for the GOP.
Democrats enjoy a voter registration advantage of a little more than 3,000 voters, with 40,285 registered Democrats compared to 37,248 Republicans, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections’ most recent district voter registration data from July. That’s an advantage for Cross of a little less than 3 percentage points.
But those numbers include only active voters. When counting inactive voters, the advantage for Democrats — and by proxy, Cross — increases to about 6 percentage points, or about 6,000 voters.
Inactive voters are eligible to vote.
While Republicans have their eye on Cross’ seat — encouraged by voter registration trends that, when only accounting for active voters, have been moving in their direction — an internal poll from Cross’ campaign shows her with the advantage, and a pretty big one.
Her 12-point lead in that poll overperforms the top of the ticket, where just 43% of respondents favored a generic Democrat, compared to the 50% who said they support Cross.
But Montanari is a formidable foe who appears to be an ideal Republican to run in a left-leaning battleground.
He has been elected to two terms on the City Council where, even as a registered Republican, the city charter calls on him to run as a nonpartisan. In his re-election race in 2019, Montanari faced a registered Democrat whose campaign banked on tying Montanari to then-President Donald Trump. It failed miserably.
The attempt not only didn’t work, it backfired. Those who worked with Montanari knew he was nothing like the Trump brand of Republican and all but one of his colleagues on the Council — all Democrats — endorsed his re-election campaign.
And Montanari has kept his campaign platform free of any rhetoric that could turn off moderate voters, focusing instead on “housing, crime, inflation and out-of-control insurance rates,” according to his campaign rollout in October.
His campaign website also touts Montanari’s commitment to “people over politics” and lists several priority areas, including affordable housing, an issue that appeals to voters regardless of political ideology.
