Jesse Scheckner
Democratic lawyer Jay Shooster hit a fundraising milestone in the last one-month reporting period between Sept. 7 and Oct. 4, crossing the $800,000 mark in cash collected since he filed for House District 89 last June.
He also spent big — $378,000 — and enjoyed nearly $3,000 worth of in-kind aid for staff expenses from the Florida Democratic Party.
Shooster is running to supplant incumbent Republican Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a journalist-turned-politician who flipped HD 89 red two years ago. Through early October, he outraised her more than threefold.
Last period, Shooster collected more than 200 personal checks, a significant share from outside the Sunshine State. Of nearly 1,400 contributions he reported so far this cycle, more than half came from non-Florida donors.
Shooster’s two biggest checks came from California members of the effective altruism movement with which he’s been involved for years: $8,000 from Eli Rose, a senior program associate with Open Philanthropy; and $5,000 from Eric Neyman, a researcher at the Alignment Research Center.
Russ Norby, a Chicago software engineer, gave Shooster $3,000. New York entrepreneur, conservationist, filmmaker and publisher Susan Rockefeller and her husband, David Rockefeller Jr. of the famed Rockefeller family, gave $1,000 apiece.
Shooster also received $5,000 from Vector MRI in Boca Raton and $2,500 from Ban Assault Weapons Now, a Miami-headquartered political committee co-founded by survivors and the family members of mass shootings in Parkland and Orlando.
He also got $1,000 apiece from the Florida Leadership Council, Equality Florida Action PAC, Florida Pipe Trades Council, Americans for Progress, Florida Future Leaders and Humane Society Legislative Fund.
One of Shooster’s legal specialties is animal welfare. He also represents environmental and labor rights groups, and is an artificial intelligence policy fellow at the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, where he advocates for responsible AI regulation.
Shooster took donations through three accounts: his campaign account and a pair of political committees called Future Leaders Florida and New Future Leaders Florida, the latter of which he launched in late August.
He gave $175,000 of his holdings to the Florida Democratic House Campaign Committee.
Another big chunk of his spending — $166,000 — went to California-based Impact Politics LLC for advertising.
Shooster paid $20,000 to Washington-based Compete Digital for digital services, $5,000 to Renaissance Campaign Strategies in Tampa for political consulting and close to $2,300 for financial consulting services from Denver-based Lawlor Strategies.
He also spent $6,000 on campaign signs.
By Oct. 5, he had about $269,000 left to spend with exactly a month to go before Election Day.
Gossett-Seidman, who has scored millions in appropriations for her district and passed several notable laws, raised $39,000 last period between her campaign account and political committee, Peggy for the People. By the period’s end, she’d spent half that sum.
The Republican Party of Florida also helped her out with $4,000 worth of in-kind staffing assistance.
She received more than 40 personal checks, almost all of them from Florida residents.
Two of her Republican House colleagues, John Snyder of Stuart and Tiffany Esposito of Fort Myers, gave her $1,000 apiece. Former Palm Beach County Mayor Robert Weinroth, who mounted an unsuccessful congressional bid this year, chipped in $500.
Many businesses gave too. North Carolina-headquartered utility company Duke Energy gave Gossett-Seidman $5,000. The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Associated Industries of Florida, which represents some of the state’s most powerful corporations, donated $3,500 each.
Marina One, a Deerfield Beach marine facility, gave $3,000.
She also took $1,000 from Comcast Corp, Florida’s Voice for Early Learning, Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, the Business PAC of Palm Beach County, Broward Builders PAC and Florida CPA PAC.
Of the roughly $20,000 Gossett-Seidman spent last period, $15,500 covered advertising costs. The rest went toward a campaign fundraising event and donation-processing fees.
Between when she won her seat in November 2022 and Oct. 4 this year, Gossett-Seidman raised $226,500. She had $143,000 left a month from Election Day.
HD 91 covers a southern portion of Palm Beach County including Boca Raton and parts of Highland Beach and West Boca. Previously a dependable Democratic stronghold, the district grew more conservative after redistricting in 2022.
The General Election is on Nov. 5.
