Political contributors pull out their checkbooks and funnel thousands of dollars into local races.
By JENNIFER LIBERTO and WILL VAN SANT
Published October 31, 2004
Heading into Tuesday's general election, several of the more competitive races in Hernando County have piqued the interest of at least one strong and growing sector of the local economy.
Builders, contractors, developers and real estate brokers have opened their pocketbooks this year, pouring in thousands of dollars into several local races, according to campaign contribution records and interviews with candidates.
Candidates had until Thursday to collect the last of their campaign contributions, which had to be either faxed, dropped off or mailed to county and state officials by 5 p.m. Friday.
In the Hernando County Commission District 1 race, Republican Jeff Stabins, endorsed by the West Central Florida AFL-CIO and the Hernando Builders Association, leads in the money race with $18,167.
During the last reporting period, Stabins received a veritable deluge of cash from the construction industry, with many businesses making the maximum $500 donation. Civil-Tech Consulting Engineers, DAB Constructors and the Hernando Builders Association all gave at the maximum amount.
Stabins also got support from developers and builders based in New Port Richey. Tri-County Development, River Crossing Development and Deeb Construction all gave Stabins $500, as did a statewide political action committee, Florida-Fire PAC, that represents firefighters.
Stabins' Democratic opponent, Bill Fagan, by comparison, has brought in $5,214. Nearly $4,200 of that was an in-kind contribution from Fagan's wife for advertising.
In District 3, Democratic incumbent Diane Rowden has brought her total to just over $15,100, she said. Throughout the campaign season, Rowden has had the broadest base of donors, with many individuals giving in amounts of $5 and $10. However, in the most recent fundraising cycle, Rowden said, she had landed a $500 contribution from the Florida-Fire PAC.
Her Republican opponent, Mark Cattell, had a whopper of a fundraising cycle, thanks largely to a surge in support from the development and building community.
Cattell, who is endorsed by the Hernando Builders Association, got a $500 dollar contribution from that group, as well as from Civil-Tech Consulting Engineers. Like Stabins, Cattell also got a big boost from New Port Richey-based developers, with River Crossing Development and Deeb Construction both giving him $500. All told, Cattell took in $12,295. Steven Ashmore, a no-party candidate, trails in the money race with $4,160.
In District 5, Republican Janey Baldwin had apparently mailed her campaign report to the Supervisor of Elections Office because there was no report on file Friday. That's a standard way for a candidate to submit such reports, as long as they are postmarked by Friday's deadline.
Baldwin could not be reached for comment, but when the last reporting period closed on Oct. 8, she had brought in $27,513. The vast bulk of that amount Baldwin gave to herself in a series of large donations of between $1,000 and $6,000.
Democratic candidate and former County Commissioner Chris Kingsley, who has been endorsed by the Hernando Builders Association and the West Central Florida AFL-CIO, said he had raised his contributions to about $26,800.
That's up from $15,391 when the last reporting period closed three weeks ago. Kingsley said two recent fundraisers had provided the last-minute money boost. Asked who had given large amounts in recent weeks, Kingsley said he could not recall. The report, which was mailed in, had been prepared by somebody else, he said.
District 5 write-in candidate Richard Power brought in $680 in contributions.
In the District 2 race for Hernando School Board, Pat Fagan, the county's longtime parks and recreation director, has collected far more than Linda Prescott, a teacher with 35 years of experience.
Through the end of the campaign cycle, Fagan has collected $8,900, with contributions from builders, real estate agents and developers; state Rep. David Russell, and Brooksville lawyer Joe Mason. Prescott collected $1,800, with contributions coming from several Spring Hill residents, including County Commission candidate Chris Kingsley.
In the two Brooksville City Council races, David Pugh Jr. has amassed more money than any of the other candidates, reporting a total of $6,685, not including in-kind contributions, according to his campaign report filed Friday.
Pugh has collected three times more than his Seat 2 opponent, with contributions pouring in from the building and development industry, including Brooksville real estate broker Gary Schraut.
Pugh has probably amassed the largest war chest of any candidate in city history, City Clerk Karen Phillips said.
Pugh faces former council member Pat Brayton, who received $2,220 in contributions. Among his biggest donations was $200 from Coastal Engineering Associates Inc. He also collected $100 from council member Richard Lewis, whose seat Brayton is trying to fill.
Leading the pack in the Seat 3 race is civic activist Frankie Burnett, whose $2,145 dwarfs challengers Brent Gaustad, an educator, and Robert Osmond, who owns Osmond Printing Inc.
Gaustad raised $750; Osmond, $350.
In the competitive race for county sheriff, Republican incumbent Richard Nugent raised $53,778 from more than 400 donors, including U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, state Rep. David Russell and County Commissioner Robert Schenck. He explained on Friday that, unlike his opponent, there were no duplicate entries and no contributions to himself.
"I am feeling real good about it, but you don't know until the votes are counted," Nugent said.
Democratic opponent James "Eddie" McConnell trails the sheriff by about $17,200, with his campaign coffers drying up. McConnell has spent $34,508 of the $36,530 he has collected, according to his final finance report.
The main contributors were private citizens, which the Brooksville Police Department detective said illustrates his broad-based community support.
"We're very confident," said McConnell, who lost a bitter contest to Nugent by 3 percentage points in 2000. "From the beginning, we have been very grass roots and got positive feedback from people."
In state and federal races, incumbents scooped up high-dollar contributions from powerful industries, including agriculture and health care. Challengers collected most of their contributions from individuals and relied on more traditional grass roots support to fund their campaigns.
In the state Senate race for the west side of the county, incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Fasano of New Port Richey raised more than $250,000 through mid October, with major contributions coming from the insurance, gambling and health care industries.
His challenger, Democrat Steve Mattingly of Spring Hill, has run his campaign on a $3,735 shoestring, with contributions from local Hernando County Democrats, family and friends.
Using a homemade stencil, Mattingly hand-painted dozens of his own campaign signs. After spending months collecting the signatures needed to get on the ballot, he had to take out a loan to pay the $1,800 qualifying fee instead because Citrus elections officials made a last-minute decision to toss out some of his petitions.
"The special interest people are not in my pocket," Mattingly said recently at a forum in Bayonet Point.
On the east side of the county, Republican state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland has collected $163,899, much of it from agriculture, in an effort to keep the seat she clinched when she ran unopposed in 2002.
Her opponent, Carol Castagnero, a Lakeland Democrat and educator, has refused donations from special interest groups. She had only collected $2,450 through the middle of October, most coming from her own pockets.
David Russell, R-Brooksville, who represents District 44 in the state House of Representatives, raised far more money than Democratic challenger Jim Hughes, a veterinarian who lives in central Pasco County.
Russell raised $117,000, most of it from political action committees and industry groups, including those representing agribusiness, road builders and mines. Many of his local contributors were prominent Republicans, including Sheriff Richard Nugent and County Commissioner Tom Mylander, Hernando's former longtime sheriff.
Still, Russell raised less this year than in 2002, when the state party contributed funds to help him stave off Democratic challenger Greg Williams. Hughes, whose campaign has been crippled by revelations that he had been accused of domestic battery and convicted of passing bad checks, was viewed as less of a threat, Russell said.
"I'm not considered vulnerable," he said.
The Democratic Party, likewise, contributed nothing to Hughes' campaign, which raised a total of $15,125 - $10,000 of which was a loan from the candidate.
Hughes said the fundraising disparity "is another indication that Tallahassee is under the control of special interest groups."
In the race for House District 43, Rep. Charles S. Dean of Inverness has collected $83,397 as of mid October, much of it coming from the agricultural industry, but some also from gambling and tobacco interests.
Challenger Mike Jarrett, a Democrat from Dunnellon, has criticized Dean for so many out-of-district campaign contributions. Jarrett had raised $4,263 through the middle of the month, with donations coming almost exclusively from local people who want to see him topple Dean.
In the District 5 race for U.S. House, incumbent Republican Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite is skunking her opponent, Democratic challenger Robert Whittel of Brooksville, by more than half a million dollars.
Through Oct. 13, Brown-Waite had collected a total of $871,086, and spent $617,850. Most of her contributions have come from political action committees, including donations from the American Health Care Association, the National Rifle Association and the Wish List, a group dedicated to getting Republican women elected to Congress. She also received $14,000 in contributions from U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority.
By comparison, Whittel had collected a total of $130,523, most of it from individuals, especially fellow lawyers from Tampa and Miami, as well as about $10,000 from family members. He also received a contribution from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He had spent $110,755 through Oct. 13.
Staff writers Dan DeWitt, Duane Bourne and Bridget Hall Grumet contributed to this story.
