Amendment 4 raises $17M in political donations in a week

In a battle with the state over whether to expand abortion rights, the political committee backing Amendment 4 continues to reach new highs in donations.

Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF) collected about $17.2 million during one week, the group reported in the Oct. 5-11 campaign finance report. FPF also spent about $14.3 million during that same week.

The weekly fundraising numbers were beefed up by three multimillion-dollar donations, although the majority of donors are giving small amounts. More than 3,100 people gave $100 or less.

The New Venture Fund — the biggest donor — gave about $9.5 million, followed by $5 million from The Fairness Project and about $2.3 million from the Hopewell Fund.

All three nonprofits are based in Washington, D.C., and invest in health care, public policy and other issues.

FPF has raised about $90 million from about 40,000 donors throughout the campaign to enshrine abortion rights protections in the state constitution. The Nov. 5 ballot initiative needs at least 60% of the vote to pass in what’s been an increasingly hostile campaign.

During the same period, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida Freedom Fund — which is raising money to oppose Amendment 4 and Amendment 3, the latter of which would legalize recreational marijuana — raised about $340,000 from six donations between Oct. 5 to Oct. 11. The biggest donors to the DeSantis PAC were the tobacco company Philip Morris International, with $300,000, followed by the Visa credit card company with a $25,000 donation.

Florida Voters Against Extremism, another Amendment 4 opposition group, raised nearly $270,000 from 31 donors during the period, including $250,000 from the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization.

But DeSantis, who personally opposes Amendment 4, has found a far bigger war chest to fight reproductive freedom advocates: the state’s.

DeSantis is using state resources to oppose Amendment 4. The latest battleground has been on the airwaves. The Department of Health sent cease and desist letters this month threatening criminal prosecution to TV stations that played pro-Amendment 4 TV ads. One Fort Myers TV station obeyed and pulled the pro-Amendment commercials, although the ads are now back on TV, FPF said earlier last week.

A federal Judge ruled in favor of FPF’s First Amendment lawsuit and granted a temporary restraining order to keep the state from interfering with TV stations.