State Sen. Jack Latvala (R) “raised $273,000 last month for his political committee. … The August haul leaves the committee with about $4 million in the bank heading into September.”
“The top contributor to ‘Florida Leadership Committee’ last month was investor and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones II, who cut a $50,000 check to Latvala. … The committee also spent about $100,000 last month, including a $20,000 payment to Tel Opinion Research, several small consulting contracts and a handful of donations to county level Republican parties.” (SaintPetersBlog)
“Like many of his Tampa Bay constituents … Latvala lives in a flood-prone evacuation zone. Ordered out Friday, he’s headed north to Tallahassee. Before leaving, [he] held a kickoff fund-raiser for his campaign for governor Thursday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater — also in an evacuation zone.” Latvala called term-limited Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) response to Hurricane Irma “a little cautious.” (Tampa Bay Times)
WHO ELSE IS STILL RAISING MONEY? “Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine (D) dumped another $66,000 of his own money into his political committee last month. … Including his own money, Levine brought in $251,015 for ‘All About Florida’ last month. … Expenditures came in at just $38,000, including $8,000 to Matthew Van Name for campaign management, $6,000 to Edge Communications for consulting work, and $5,000 to Sayfie Media for event sponsorship.
Through the end of the month, the committee had raised a total of $4.77 million and had only spent about $116,000. Levine was the source of more than $2.6 million of that money.” (Florida Politics)
State Speaker Richard Corcoran’s (R) “political committee has hired Taylor Budowich. … Budowich joins Watchdog PAC from Tea Party Express … where he served as the organization’s executive director and national spokesperson.” (SaintPetersBlog)