The financial floodgates have started to open now that former Gov. Charlie Crist has officially waded into the 2014 gubernatorial campaign.
Crist’s campaign committee has received $872,000 in contributions since the Republican-turned-Democrat opened his campaign at the start of November, according to a list posted on the committee website Friday.
Meanwhile, the “Let’s Get to Work” campaign committee backing Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election has countered by posting $3.9 million in contributions so far this month.
“There are a few things we can say with some degree of accuracy. This is going to be a very expensive race,” said Florida Atlantic University associate professor of political-science Kevin Wagner, whose expertise is in current affairs.
Entering November, the “Let’s Get to Work” committee had raised $13.9 million, according to the state Division of Elections website.
Scott has pledged to spend more than $25 million “defining” Crist during the first part of 2014. Meanwhile, Crist has asked supporters for help in combating the $100 million price tag Scott’s campaign has reportedly put on keeping the governor’s office in GOP hands.
The glut of money for Crist and Scott will make it difficult for Democratic Nan Rich, a former Senate minority leader from Weston, to effectively get her message out statewide, Wagner said. Rich has struggled to raise money since opening a campaign account last year.
And with Crist now an official candidate, Wagner expects the contribution numbers, particularly for Scott who sunk about $70 million of his own money into the 2010 gubernatorial contest, to continue to grow quickly.
“I’d expect that Gov. Scott will have an advantage in financing, not just from his own resources, but as a sitting governor he has both the visibility and position that leads to large contributions from interested parties,” Wagner said. “Crist has been a good fundraiser, but Democrats have been out of power long enough that they have a harder time reaching the same groups and lobbyists.”
Contributors to the former governor’s committee, “Charlie Crist for Florida,” included the Coral Gables-based Grossman Roth law firm, $250,000; Venice retiree Rosalie Danbury, $150,000; and retired Coral Gables philanthropist Barbara Stiefel and Coral Gables attorney William Andrew Haggard, $100,000 each.
Meanwhile, Scott’s big contributors this month have included health care executive Mike Fernandez, who donated $1 million; the William Edwards Trust, $500,000; Lawrence DeGeorge of Jupiter, $500,000; the Florida Chamber of Commerce Alliance, $350,000; Florida Power & Light, $250,000; and the corrections company Geo Group, and Geo Care LLC, a combined $150,000.
Associated Industries of Florida gave $25,000 this month to the Scott committee.
Also, the electioneering communications organizations Voice of Florida Business and Committee for Effective Representation, both chaired by AIF President Tom Feeney, gave $150,000 and $104,500, respectively, on Nov. 12.
The same day Floridians for a Stronger Democracy, a political committee chaired by AIF lobbyist Ryan Tyson, gave $125,000.