Campaign Contributions - 1st Quarter

I finally got a chance to sit down for a few hours to knock this out. I was up until 2am working on this last night and got it finished this morning.

Today, I am going to break down the campaign contributions and how I will be doing it going forward. I want this to be in-depth and easy to follow. I have been bouncing ideas off of friends to find a fair way to do this but also categorize the contributions.

I feel that the categorizing is important. It allows people to see where money is coming from, not just people, but sectors. However, word of caution. Just because someone is categorized in "Trades" does not mean that they support crazy growth or anything like that. I just need a way to categorize them without calling everyone individually and asked each of them why they donated.

So not doing that.

Here is what I came up with: Lobbyist, Developer, Trades, Services, In-Kind, Candidate's own finances, Individual Contributions and Out of Town Contributions.

Here is what each of them mean and how I decided. Anything over $100 is included in these categories. Anything under that is included as Individual.

Lobbyist - Pretty self explanatory. Someone who is registered in the State/County as a lobbyist.

Developer - This is someone who has direct development interest in the county. Someone who has brought a large project to the board... Someone who has helped present a large project to the board.. and so on. I did not include people who have family connections to a developer as "developers" for this.

Trades - These are your trades industries... Builders... Plumbers... Contractors... A/C Companies... Concrete... etc

Services - These are service based industries... Realtors... Doctors... Attorneys... Photographers... Restaurants... and so on.

In Kind - These are things that are donated to a candidate by someone else. Could be a business or individual, but categorized as an In-Kind contribution. There is going to be an asterisks here that I will explain in a moment, which may change how I categorize this going forward.

Own Finances - These are contributions/loans by the candidate or their spouse to the campaign. I am counting the spouse's contributions here as they come from the same household as the candidate, thus their own money, even if through a business.

Out of Town - These are contributions that come from an entity outside the county. Some of them have direct ties to the county but have corporate offices outside the county. Others I assume are family members and the like. But including the out of town money here, unless it is a developer type, in which case it goes to developer.

One thing to remember, since I am including In-Kind Contributions here, the numbers will not be exactly the same as financial statements.

Ok. That explained, let's look at each candidate's 1st quarter reports. I will go by how they are listed on the Supervisor of Elections website, so it does not appear I am picking favorites or anything.

A bit of house keeping since I know it will come up.

The Lamb's are going to be listed in the services category. Yes, I am aware they are connected to a developer (James Dicks) who is basically family, but they have been around and involved far longer than Dicks has been doing development projects in Citrus. Yes, they buy real estate and whatnot, but I do not see them doing housing projects or other things that we see developers doing. But they are certainly engaged and their support means something, so they need to be listed as more than individuals

Therefore, I am putting them in the services category.

Also, anyone associated with a business that I can tell will be included in the categorization. Even if it was truly a personal contribution, they are getting categorized because I have no way of knowing the difference. Again, I am not calling everyone and asking them. If they own a business and their name is on the chart, it is getting categorized.

If someone has multiple donations (individual and business), they are ALL getting categorized as the business entity for the chart. In my eyes, it is the same thing.

Let's talk In-Kind for a moment. I noticed that with Rebecca Bays, Citrus Hills did two In-Kind donations for beverages and Hors D'oeuvres for $1,000 each. As we all know, they are developers and donate a lot of money to candidates generally. They did it In-Kind this time, so keeping it there for now. However, if this becomes a trend where entities start doing In-Kind rather than direct contributions, I will start to categorize those as well... because it is basically the same thing.

If you wish to view these yourself, you can go to the website.

Diana Finegan

Total Contributions: $32,588.91 (including In-Kind).
Average Contribution: $248.77

Here is where her money is coming from:

First thing I notice, little developer money. This is the Lowman's project for Monkey Island Riverside Resort. They are a "developer" here because they did a whole application with a bunch of steps for this restaurant, more than just opening a restaurant as one would normally do. Second thing I notice... a LOT of service industry money. These are your hotels, restaurants, doctors, attorneys, Tour Operators, etc.

Notable contributors:
- Gene McGee/Sunrise Consulting Group - $3,000
- Casey Damron/Sodium Fishing Gear - $2,000
- Sean Gerrits/SMG - $2,000
- Gregory/Danette Williams (Lakeside Ranch) - $2,000
- Dr St Martin/Quickcare Med - $2,000
- Attorney Bill Grant - $1,000
- Monkey Island Riverside Resort - $500

She has spent $427.98 of her own money or from her husband's business (In-Kind).

One thing to note here as it was mentioned to me. She has an out of town donation from Paramedics Logistics Operating. They are headquartered in Texas. In my research, this is MedFleet and they have been operating here for years. However, as mentioned, they will be included in out of town since it is corporate office.

Stacey Worthington

Total Contributions: $48,794 (including In-Kind).
Average Contribution: $274.12

Where is her money coming from?

We have a bit more developer $$ here. Not a crazy amount by any means and not from the huge developers that do 1,000s of homes, but "developer" by my definition. She has also put a bit of her own money into this campaign (and from her/her husband's business) to the tune of $6,920.

Notable Contributions:
- Lambs (Individual and Business) - $4,000
- Kaufmans (Individual and Business) - $3,000
- Jimmy Stoltz (Individual and Business) - $3,000
- Diane Damron - $1,000
- Dr Desai - $1,000
- Dan Williams - $1,000
- Sean Gerrits - $1,000
- Laura Boehmer - $500
- Schlabach Security - $500
- Hometown Citrus - $970 (In-Kind)

Again, we are seeing more entities with their In-Kind contributions, notably Crump's Landing (catering) and Riverfront Investments (catering) which are both owned by Dan Williams.

One "shocking" thing. Notice Laura Boehmer's name on this list? If that sounds familiar, she is a lobbyist for Southern Group. She was the one involved with former commissioner Schlabach and current commissioner Rebecca Bays regarding the 491 appropriation request last year.

After all that blew up, kind of surprised Worthington would take her contribution.

A few interesting things overall for this race.

The Damron Family and the Gerrits family seem to be backing both candidates. You do not see that very often, but you are seeing it here.

The Schlabachs are also coming out to support Stacey. Not sure if that is a good sign or bad sign. Ruthie lost to Janet, in part because she lost Pine Ridge over the Dicks project but also because of the way many viewed Ruthie. Not sure if this helps or hurts Stacey.

A magazine giving free space to Stacey is interesting as that magazine also takes ads from other candidates, if I recall correctly. Wonder how they feel when media basically shows everyone where they stand in regards to the election as I did not see any other candidate getting an in-kind contribution from them.

Rebecca Bays

Total Contributions: $61,621 (including In-Kind).
Average Contribution: $648.64

Where it comes from.

We can see that she has put A LOT of her own money into this campaign. Over 27% of her contributions come from herself or her husband, by far the most so far this cycle.

Also, the elephant in the room. Look at that average contribution. Of the 93 total contributions, 27 of them were for the max amount of $1,000. Another 19 were for $500. These are big dollar contributors... Wonder how that makes the average person that will vote for her feel? Can she relate to that voter?

Notable Contributions (over $1000 is individual and businesses combined):
- Lambs - $5,000
- Kaufmans - $3,000
- Sean Gerrits/SMG - $2,000
- Casey Damron/Sodium - $2,000
- Citrus Hills (In Kind) - $2,000
- Edward Gerrits - $1,000
- Bill Grant - $1,000
- Coastal Development/CEA - $1,000
- Laura Boehmer - $500
- Jarey Schlabach - $500

Some big names. There are others I did not mention as well.

Again, like Stacey, Rebecca accepted money from Laura Boehmer. I can understand Stacey to an extent as it did not involve her, but Rebecca was 100% involved in the 491 incident. She was the person that actually had the discussions with Ruthie and Laura and got staff to submit the documents.

Same can be said about accepting from Jarey Schlabach. While not involved himself, his wife certainly was.

Why she took $500 from them is beyond me. She doesn't need it. I am honestly blown away by that. Again, goes back to optics that I discussed the other day. Not sure this is the best look for her when she could have easily declined it. That $1,000 is not going to swing this election.

Holli Herndon

Total Contributions: $8,801 (including In-Kind).
Average Contribution: $67.18

Where it comes from:

As you can see... stark difference between Holli and the other 3 candidates. Holli's campaign right now is grass roots. It is individuals driving the contributions. That is apparently from the average contribution. She has 130 total contributors, so it is not like she only has a small group of people. In fact, she has more contributors than her opponent.

Notable Contributions:
- Kim Speckner - $1,000
- Suzanne Swain - $500
- Chris Moling - $150

Not too many big names there. Her husband gave $1,000 from his business. But mostly those smaller donations and that has been her goal. Get out and reach the individuals and not rely on the major corporations in the county. $8,000+ pulled and only 2 donations of $1,000 is pretty impressive.

So there you have it. A break down of the first financial contributions for the local commission candidates. Will be interesting to see how this changes going forward.