Jacob Ogles
Democratic candidate Derek Reich has narrowly outraised state Rep. Fiona McFarland via their respective candidate accounts. But the Republican incumbent still holds a massive cash advantage thanks to a political committee with six figures still in the bank.
Reich, an Osprey Democrat running with no support from the state party, has managed to raise nearly $221,000 for a rematch with McFarland. By comparison, the Sarasota Republican raised about $217,000 through her candidate account as she seeks a third term in arguably the only battleground legislative seat in Southwest Florida.
Notably, Reich also has spent far more, and as of Oct. 4 had less than $22,000 in cash on hand compared to McFarland’s nearly $96,000.
But the full cash advantage for the incumbent comes into view by looking at committee fundraising.
The McFarland-controlled Friends of Sarasota reported almost $416,000 in cash on hand at the close of the period. It keeps building money, reporting $23,000 in new donations in September and another $2,500 the first week of October.
Reich’s Florida First Fund, meanwhile, has picked up fundraising since late September but has collected less than $20,000 over its lifespan and closed the period with less than $7,000 in the bank.
That means McFarland, looking at the last month of the campaign, has almost $512,000 ready to deploy. Reich has more than $34,000 under his control.
And Reich isn’t getting any support from Democrats at the state level. His campaign reports that Sarasota County’s Democratic Executive Committee provided him with access to a voter database and significant research, in-kind support valued at about $5,200. Former state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald gave him fundraising lists valued as a $1,000 in-kind contribution. But the Florida House Democratic Campaign Committee and Florida Democratic Party have stayed out of the race.
By comparison, the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee provided $16,000 in polling to McFarland’s campaign.
McFarland in 2022 won 56% of the vote in House District 73. That notably was a higher percentage of the vote than Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis or U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio earned in the district.
But in the last Presidential Election, voters in the district were sharply split, with Republican Donald Trump winning 49.7% of the vote to Joe Biden’s 49.4%. Sarasota Democrats have hoped to see a more competitive battle in a high-turnout Presidential Election year than in the Midterm when Republicans overperformed statewide.
McFarland notably won her seat in 2020 under different district lines, flipping a seat that previously had been represented by Democratic state Rep. Margaret Good.
