Jacob Ogles
Donations to Rep. Carolina Amesty’s re-election effort have diminished since her arrest on forgery charges. But she still entered the last month of her re-election bid with more cash on hand than Democratic opponent Leonard Spencer.
Amesty as of Oct. 4 had raised more than $99,000, and still had $29,000 in her candidate account as the reporting period closed.
Of course, most of Amesty’s fundraising precedes her Aug. 29 arrest on four felony counts. Since that point, she has raised about $2,400 collectively from seven donors.
Meanwhile, the political committee Friends of Carolina Amesty has seen a net negative intake. While collecting a single $500 donation since the arrest, the political committee returned $13,000, including $12,500 to Orlando real estate developer Joseph Saunders.
But the committee had collected a healthy number of donations before that and closed the period with a little over $23,000 in the bank.
By comparison, Spencer, who entered the race against Amesty in May, has raised more than $17,000 in donations since his opponent’s arrest, and more than $67,000 in total. He also put in a $15,000 candidate loan in early August. After spending more than $63,000 on the campaign through Oct. 4, the Democrat had a little over $19,000 still in the bank.
Additionally, the Friends of Leonard Spencer committee has raised nearly $38,000 independently, and closed the period with more than $12,000.
Ultimately, that means Amesty had control over more than $52,000 with a month to go until the Nov. 5 election. Spencer, meanwhile, controlled just over $31,000.
But he is also getting help from his state party. The Florida House Democratic Campaign Committee has provided almost $116,000 in direct in-kind support to Spencer through field consulting and polling. The Florida Democratic Party provided about $4,500 in staffing and polling services on top of that.
Amesty, by comparison, has had $21,000 in in-kind support from the party in the form of campaign staff, but it notably all came before her arrest.
The Florida House Republican Campaign Committee has offered no direct support to her campaign, though it has funded political mailers attacking Spencer.
