Jesse Scheckner
Miami Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez enjoyed her best period of fundraising this cycle between Aug. 16 and Sept. 20, when she raised and spent more than $170,000 to defend her seat representing House District 113.
Lopez collected about $60,000 through her campaign account and close to $173,000 through her political committee, Common Sense Government. By Sept. 21, she had spent all of it and then some.
Her lone Democratic challenger, Jackie Gross-Kellogg, raised a comparatively paltry $15,000, mostly through personal checks. By contrast, Lopez leaned primarily on corporate and political contributions.
Lopez, a former Lee County Commissioner, also got more than $45,000 worth of in-kind aid from the Republican Party of Florida and Florida House Republican Campaign Committee for polling and staffing costs.
Twenty-two people gave to Lopez. South Florida automotive magnate Alan Potamkin donated 25,000. Jeff Zalznick, Managing Partner of New York-based restaurant company Major Food Group, kicked in $10,000.
A throng of political committees boosted Lopez’s coffers, none more so than Florida Opinion Leaders, which has received much of its funding from political committees run by Fleming Island Republican Rep. Sam Garrison. Garrison is in line to be House Speaker in 2026 if Republicans retain a majority in the chamber.
CCC, a political committee run by Capital City Consulting founder Ron LaFace, donated $5,000. Florida Right Direction, Florida Influence, South Florida Solutions PC and Central Florida Solutions each gave $1,000. All have the same Chair (David Johnson) and Treasurer (Noreen Fenner) as Florida Opinion Leaders.
Lopez also got $1,000 from the political committees of Republican Reps. Sam Garrison of Sarasota and Tiffany Esposito of Fort Myers, and from Miami-Dade County Commission Vice Chair Anthony Rodriguez, a Republican and former Representative.
Three telecom interests — Charter Communications, Comcast Corp. and the Florida Cable Telecommunication Association — gave $5,000, $1,000 and $1,000, respectively.
Lopez received $10,000 from 10 subsidiaries of Coconut Grove-based real estate developer Terra Group and $5,000 from Miami real estate company Orue Investment Corp.
The Florida Pipe Trades Council gave $5,000. Dade County Firefighters chipped in $2,000.
For-profit prison company The GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, wrote Lopez a $7,000 check. Hialeah-headquartered limestone aggregation company White Rock Quarries gave $1,000. Two of Lopez’s fellow Republican lawmakers, Sen. Bryan Ávila of Hialeah Gardens and Rep. Tom Fabricio of Miami Lakes, have been trying to pass legislation to cap the force of the company’s blast mining, which residents of northwest Miami-Dade have long complained is damaging their homes.
Lopez spent about $174,500 between Aug. 16 and Sept. 20. More than half ($100,000) was a contribution to Florida First Forever, a political committee with ties to consultant Brett Doster, to whose Front Line Strategies Lopez has paid nearly $62,000 this cycle — including $45,000 last month for advertising.
She also refunded herself close to $4,800 for what she listed as a “legislative policy trip” to Israel last month.
The rest covered a campaign kickoff event in August and accounting, banking and donation-processing fees.
Lopez raised $765,500 between November 2022, when she won by 825 votes to flip HD 113 red, and Sept. 20. By Sept. 21, she had $567,500 remaining.
Gross-Kellogg, a regional coordinator for a Miami-Dade PTSA panel who filed to run in late May, has raised close to $39,000. That includes a $15,000 haul, her best yet, between Aug. 16 and Sept. 20, the last date for which campaign finance information is available on the state elections website.
During the period, she received more than 181 personal checks ranging from $1 to $1,000. Seventy percent of them came from donors outside of Florida. Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorensen, a Democrat, gave $100.
Gross-Kellogg also got $1,000 apiece from women-supporting abortion rights group Ruth’s List Florida, which endorsed her last month, and Blue Florida, a Tampa-based political committee.
She also spent about $13,000. Most of it ($9,700) went to Coral Gables-based Diaz Consulting Group for mailers and printing services. The rest covered an event expense, donation-processing fees and data, digital and texting services.
By Sept. 21, she had $20,400 left.
While the Miami-Dade Democratic Party endorsed Gross-Kellogg last month, it has yet to provide her with any funding or in-kind support. The Florida Democratic Party has neither endorsed nor donated to her campaign, despite the county party’s recent assertion that HD 113 remains a D+4 seat, “providing a significant opportunity for Democrats.”
Matt Isbell of MCI Maps also believes the district is flippable, noting that Biden won there by 12 points in 2020 and DeSantis won it by just 2 points two years later.
HD 113 spans a center-east portion of Miami-Dade covering all of Key Biscayne and parts of Coral Gables and Miami.
The General Election is on Nov. 5.
