Yes, developers are people too

Here’s a fun Thursday topic: campaign donations.

To say I spend an inordinate amount of time poring over campaign reports is the understatement of the day. I break these things down into ridiculous details, convincing myself that this data actually means anything.

For example, I discovered one day that I could come up with the average contribution per donor. I reasoned this would give me a better understanding of a candidate’s reach.

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I’m especially fascinated by the sheriff’s reports because of the staggering amount of money incumbent Mike Prendergast has collected in comparison to challenger Dave Vincent. I noticed though, that they were nearly equal in the total number of donors.

I did the math. The average Prendergast donor contributes $467; for Vincent, it’s $104 per donor.

And…I have no idea what to do with that. Probably a point to be made somewhere, though I’m not sure what it is.

Other random points:

— Campaign donations are a way of life this time of year. I encourage you to check out the supervisor of elections website that lists campaign spending of all candidates. It also has links to state and federal election sites.

— It’s a statistic worth pondering: Prendergast has raised $203,000 to Vincent’s $48,345. That is a fairly significant difference, wouldn’t you say? Wouldn’t it also seem logical that Prendergast would have MANY more individual donors?

Well, no. Just the opposite. Prendergast has 435 donors; Vincent has 466 donors. Prendergast has his campaign signs in businesses all over the county, but businesses don’t vote. With most of Vincent’s donors in the under-$100 range, those are actual voters.

— Prendergast, as expected, has the market cornered on thousand-dollar donors: Over a third of his donors gave the max. They include:

• Crystal and related businesses: $8,000
• Citrus Hills: $5,000
• Businesses managed by developer James Dicks: $3,000
• PACs: $8,000
• Out of Citrus County: $31,000

— It's a risk/reward when candidates take developer money. That’s been a cautionary flag for as long as I remember. On one hand, it’s nice that a quality local developer like Citrus Hills supports a candidate. On the other, these out-of-town wannabe Citrus County developers have some folks nervous.

Prendergast, for example, is taking a risk that anyone driving on Elkcam Boulevard who sees his campaign signs at the Pine Ridge Golf Course won’t connect those signs with Dicks, who wants the golf course developed and isn’t considered in high regard by many Pine Ridgers. 

— Dicks is the developer behind numerous projects in various stages of review. Some are approved, some are on the table. He’s also the prospective purchaser of Betz Farm. As developers go, it’s easy to say James Dicks is in the thick of things.

He’s been generous to candidates. Commissioner incumbents Ruthie Davis Schlabach and Holly Davis both received $6,000 from Dicks companies (interestingly, Jeff Kinnard is not a recipient).

— Speaking of Kinnard, along with $1,000 donations from various business owners, plus Citrus Hills, and Crystal, he also has donations from Rep. Ralph Massullo’s PAC, Better Lives for Floridians, as well as Friends of Blaise Ingoglia.

— Sometimes donors will hedge their bets by supporting competitors in the same race. That’s what we see in the superintendent of schools race, where Crystal and Dicks are donating to both Scott Hebert and Jason Koon.
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— Ken Frink isn’t an incumbent, but his collections look like one. He also has financial support from Dicks, and the developer behind the Tuscany Lagoon project in Beverly Hills (which the developer put on hiatus until after the election). Certainly, worth asking someone running for School Board why his support includes mega-developers.

— I’m generally not concerned with deep pockets backing candidates. But I’ve gotta say…taking donations from Citrus Hills, which has a decades-long track record of success in Citrus County, is one thing. Taking donations from out-of-town developers who see Citrus County as a goldmine is simply not a good look. These days, especially.

An incumbent may say, “Those donations don’t buy a single vote!” OK, fine. Still seems logical to separate oneself from those companies as much as possible, considering they’ll be coming before the board for votes on multi-million-dollar projects.

That’s it for today. My brain is full. Have a wonderful Thursday, friends.

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