How much was the recent Jacksonville mayor’s race worth to Florida Democrats? The party’s latest financial disclosures offer some clues.
For starters, there’s the $426,000 that flowed into party coffers from a group called Conservatives for a Better Jacksonville. The party raised just over $1.1 million overall.
What is Conservatives for a Better Jacksonville? It’s a campaign committee started in April by Tallahassee Democratic lawyer Mark Herron, which funneled its contributions to the state Democratic Party. (Its other expenditures went to things like bank and administrative fees.)
Top contributors include former St. Joe Company executive Peter Rummell, other high-powered developers like Preston Haskell and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Delores Weaver — key backers of the centrist coalition that extended beyond traditional Democratic supporters and helped propel Alvin Brown to victory.
Here’s a look at some of the expenses that are either associated with Brown’s campaign in the disclosures themselves, or, in the case of the canvass fees, appear to be tied to the effort:
- $151,782 in canvassing fees starting on April 13, of which $144,402 went to people in Jacksonville
- $56,748 on the cost of campaign staff
- $8,000 on communications consultants
- $6,500 on “field” consultants
- $10,000 on management consultants
- $47,575 on research consultants
- $20,000 to Brown’s inauguration fund
That total is far from exhaustive, but at $300,000, it’s approaching a third of the Democrats’ total expenditures, which were just over $1.1 million, and slightly more than the party took in this quarter.
