Inside the war chests: Caban political committee raises $125K; Ferguson pulls closer to Porter

Despite having no opposition, Leon County Commissioner Christian Caban raised a huge amount of money — over $145,000 — last quarter, far more than any of the other candidates.

Caban, elected to the District 2 seat in 2022, raised some of the money through his local campaign account, which is subject to contribution limits of $1,000 per donor. But the bulk of it came in through his political committee, Friends of Christian Caban, which has no limits.

Several other candidates for local and multi-county office in 2024 also posted big numbers from the latest fundraising quarter, which ran from Jan. 1 through March 31, giving voters the first glimpse into their finances for the first time in three months.

Among the other top fundraisers were State Attorney Jack Campbell, who raised $61,150; Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna, who collected $60,650; Rudy Ferguson Sr., candidate for Tallahassee City Commission Seat 1, who raised $54,420, and School Board member Rosanne Wood, who took in $44,550.

Campbell, who’s unopposed, Hanna, who faces three challengers, and Wood, who has a single opponent, are all running for third terms. Hanna’s closest opponent, Chiles Principal Joseph Burgess, has raised nearly $39,000, less than a third Hanna’s amount. Wood’s challenger, Daniel Zeruto, has raised about $1,700.

Ferguson — in one of two races that could decide control of City Hall — is among four candidates challenging City Commissioner Jack Porter for Seat 1. His fundraising last quarter pulled him within about $7,000 of the incumbent, who has raised $72,762.

Here are takeaways from the reports:

Caban rakes in donations from developers, FSU boosters and DeSantis backers

Caban’s political committee, which he chairs, raised $125,452 from its formation in January through the end of March, according to state campaign finance reports. His official campaign account collected $20,000, including $13,000 from the candidate himself.

The big haul is no doubt meant to deter any would-be competitors from running against Caban, managing partner of Wolf Hospitality Group. The political committee — a rarity for candidates in local races — also could come in handy should Caban decide to run for some other office in the future, something he said he’s not focused on now.

“There’s a very diverse number of folks and backgrounds … from having first responders to principals, to teachers to folks who are just retired in our district to business leaders,” Caban said. “I think we want to show that we have broad support, we’re here to stay and that our mission, what we’re advocating for about being unapologetically selfish for District 2, is resonating.”

Some of Tallahassee most prodigious corporate self-bundlers wrote multiple checks to Caban’s committee. He also saw a big outpouring from Florida State University boosters and board members, prominent business people and lobbyists and key figures in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ unsuccessful presidential campaign.

NAI TALCOR, the city’s preeminent commercial real estate firm, and related entities gave $6,000. Ox Bottom Mortgage Holdings and several other firms owned by the Ghazvini family, the developers behind Canopy at Welaunee, gave $5,000. Arbor Properties and related firms gave $5,000.

The Southern Group, one of the state’s highest-earning lobbying firms, and 10 of its lobbyists gave a combined $10,663. Lobbyists from the firm who gave include former FSU President John Thrasher, and David Browning, who served on DeSantis’s finance committee. Nick Iarossi, co-founder of Capital City Consulting who served as co-finance chairman for DeSantis’ White House run, gave $2,500.

Peter Collins, chair of the FSU Board of Trustees and managing partner of Forge Capital Partners, donated $5,000. Bob Sasser, executive chairman of Dollar Tree and an FSU trustee, gave $2,500.

Businesses that wrote $5,000 checks include U.S. Sugar; The Vestor Companies, a Jacksonville development firm; and Strategic Analytics and Consulting, which is operated by Ryan Tyson, a close DeSantis adviser during his presidential bid.

Two of the six candidates who ran against him in 2022, including former County Commissioner Manny Joanos, contributed to his political committee, as did Michael Crow, the husband of Hannah Crow, Caban’s chief competitor two years ago.

Caban’s committee gave $100 apiece to four Title I public schools in his district and another $100 to the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation. It has spent less than $3,000 so far.

“I decided to open my own political committee because I think it provides more flexibility,” he said, adding that it will support both his campaign and the “mission” of his office.

Ferguson narrows Porter's fundraising edge in city Seat 1 race

The race for City Commission Seat 1 has emerged as one of the most competitive fundraising-wise of all the local contests. Ferguson’s showing was a roughly eight-fold improvement over his previous best quarter last fall, when he raised about $6,700.

Ferguson picked up at least $6,500 from construction firms and principals, $4,250 from developers and real estate firms and professionals. Among his donors are Tom Asbury of Premier Fine Homes and Behzad Ghazvini of Sandco.

His single biggest source of money for the quarter came from 15 different doctors at Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic, including David Bellamy, who in 2022 tried to unseat City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, Porter’s lone ally on the city board.

Bellamy, an orthopedic surgeon at TOC, and his wife each gave $1,000. All told, $12,000 came from TOC and the Bellamys, who also gave to Caban’s political committee. In a fundraising email to supporters, Ferguson’s campaign said he was “catching up” to Porter.

“We are so close, and this momentum demonstrates the trust and support of numerous local residents, community leaders and business owners in our efforts to bring positive change to the City Hall,” the email said.

Porter, who’s seeking a second term, continued to draw on donations from Tallahassee progressives and activists, often in small amounts. Roughly 20% of her contributions came in amounts of $27, a figure popularized by Sen. Bernie Sanders that’s meant to convey grassroots fundraising.

In a text to the Democrat, Porter mentioned the protracted contract negotiations between the city and the firefighters union and recent news that the city, which raised taxes last year, was facing a $3.8 million budget deficit for 2025.

“Our firefighters are underpaid, developer sprawl is out of control, executives at City Hall are running deficits while padding their pockets and everyday people are tired of it,” Porter said. “That’s why we are seeing such overwhelming support by everyday people making small dollar contributions.”

Three other people have filed to run for Seat 1, including businessman David Wamsley, who announced his campaign last week, after the latest fundraising quarter, and told the Democrat he hopes to raise a lot of money quickly. “We’ve got to make up for lost time,” he said.

Louis Dilbert, director of Veteran Affairs at Florida A&M University, has collected $20,958. Anthony DeMarco, an IT professional, hasn’t raised any money.

Welch, Richardson maintain fundraising leads amid challengers

The Seat 1 race isn’t the only one that could change the voting math at City Hall, where Mayor John Dailey and City Commissioners Dianne Williams-Cox and Curtis Richardson serve in the majority and Porter and Matlow in the minority.

Richardson, first elected to the City Commission in 2014, is facing a challenge from former City Commissioner Dot Inman-Johnson, who campaigned last weekend with Matlow.

Inman-Johnson raised about $10,600 over the quarter, bringing her total to $38,462. Richardson raised over $20,000, putting his total at $79,660, nearly twice her amount. A third candidate, Bernard Stevens Jr., has raised only $250.

In the Leon County Commission District 4 race, Commissioner Brian Welch, running for a second term, raised more than $26,000, bringing his total to $140,733. Isaac Montilla, his only opponent, raised nearly $19,000, bringing his total to $84,532.

Welch got five $1,000 checks from developer Hadi Boulos and $1,000 from NAI Talcor.

He received $1,000 from Bannerman Crossings I II and III, corporate entities managed by Tierra Vista Group LLC, which is managed by Claude Walker, CEO of Summit Group Companies. Another Summit firm also gave Welch $500.

One of those same corporate entities, Tierra Vista Group, also gave $1,000 to Montilla. In another campaign-finance twist, reports show Montilla himself gave $200 to Welch early last year, months before he filed to run against him.

Montilla, a chiropractor, received at least $7,625 from doctors and people in the medical and health-care fields. He also got nearly $9,000 from 20 different attorneys and law firms.

17 candidates notified about errors in their finance reports

Like every election year, a number of the campaigns have made errors on their finance reports, prompting notices to go out from the Supervisor of Elections Office. Seventeen of the candidates have received such notices dating back to last year for problems including late reports and donations that exceeded the $1,000 contribution limit.

Porter was notified April 11 that two of her contributors exceeded the donation cap, one by $500 and another by $250. Porter said she has already refunded the overages to the donors and notified the elections office. She said the refunds will be reflected in her next report.

Kenneth “Ken” Preston, who’s challenging Property Appraiser Akin Akinyemi, was notified April 5 that his total expenses of $32,719 exceeded his contributions of $32,465. He also had two donors exceed the $1,000 limit, one by $500 and the other by $250.

Caban’s political committee received an audit letter from the state April 12 saying two $1,000 donations didn’t include an occupation of the donor and two other $1,000 donations, from David and Mary Bellamy, were labeled as cash but didn’t include an explanation. Caban said both contributions were cashier’s checks.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee elections: Caban PC raises $125K; Ferguson closing on Porter