Brodeur spending at $1.3M for 2020

Campaign’s $1.6M in donations barely keeps up with expenditures

State Senate candidate Jason Brodeur and the Friends of Jason Brodeur political committee have taken in a huge fundraising haul, raising more than $1.6 million since his last election to the state House in 2016.

But with more than a year before the 2020 election, Brodeur and his committee have been going through that money almost as fast as they’ve taken it in.

Since November 2016, they’ve spent more than $1.3 million, according to expenditure reports as of September, and only a third of that has gone toward the usual tools of the campaign trade – consultants, ads, mailers and legal fees.

Instead, most of it has gone to contributions to other campaigns, PACs, committees and Republican organizations.

Tens of thousands of dollars of campaign spending has also gone toward firms operated by prominent Republicans, and in one case, to a controversial blogger associated with the Proud Boys and InfoWars. ‘Strategy’

Brodeur, a Republican who served eight years in the state House from 2010-2018 before gearing up for his Senate campaign, wouldn’t answer any questions about his campaign strategy.

“I know you’re going to ask it 12 different ways, but I’m not going to answer campaign strategy questions in the middle of a campaign,” Brodeur said in an interview.

He did say the spending was needed because the 9th District, which includes Seminole and parts of southern Volusia County, is a rare contested district amid a sea of solidly Republican and Democrat seats. Incumbent GOP state Sen. David Simmons is retiring due to term limits.

“There are only two contested Senate seats in Florida, and this is one of them,” Brodeur said, referring to District 9 and another open seat in Miami-Dade County,

District 39. “It’s entirely necessary to try to get out in front of this.”

Even so, the three declared candidates for District 39 spent only a combined $32,691 as of September.

Brodeur’s main opposition so far is Democrat Rick Ashby, who has raised $2,244 – most of it coming from a $1,600 personal loan – and spent $1,903. Democrat H. Alexander Duncan has raised $600 and spent nothing, and Democrat Alexis Carter has raised and spent nothing.

Not counting the committee, Brodeur’s campaign spent more than $276,000, more than three times as much as any other state Senate campaign, save that of Democrat Scott Maddox, who pleaded guilty to three felonies and spent $130,000 of his campaign funds on lawyers.

Brodeur released his first ad earlier this month, a 60-second TV spot entitled “Call Me,” that shows him taking calls from constituents.

Consultants: big, small and controversial

More than $192,000 was paid to Taylor Strategies of Tallahassee, headed by GOP fundraiser Sandy Taylor, while another $63,000 went to Millennium Consulting, the firm owned by longtime Republican consultant and Edgewood Mayor John Dowless.

Another $37,000 — $30,000 from the committee and $7,000 from the campaign account for consulting and mailers — was paid to Cloud Metrics and CFP Media, two companies operated by blogger Jacob Engels.

Engels, 27, who describes himself as a journalist for Alex Jones’ website Info Wars, has appeared at rallies and events with the Proud Boys. It is a self-described “Western chauvinist” organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a designation its members dispute.

Engels also is associated with political provocateur Roger Stone, currently under indictment on charges of obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering. Engels, along with several Florida Proud Boys members that Stone described as volunteers, have been pictured with Stone and active on social media defending him.

Engels had been paid by former GOP congressional candidate Scott Sturgill in 2018 for unspecified campaign work, although the campaign later distanced itself from him.

Asked about Engels, Brodeur repeated that he did not comment on campaign strategy.

Engels did not respond to requests for comment.

More than $271,000 of the spending went to organizations, including the state Republican Party and the GOP’s U.S. Senate campaign committee.

The campaign is one of the biggest contributors to committees ranging from the Florida Patriot Fund (associated with Halsey Beshears, secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation) and Protect our North Florida Values.

Spreading the wealth

The rest of the money has gone to direct contributions to other candidates,

Friends of Brodeur, which has no limits on contributions, spent $333,000 of its contributors’ money backing the unsuccessful campaign of Republican Matt Caldwell for Agriculture Commissioner. Caldwell lost by a narrow margin to Democrat Nikki Fried.

The campaign also gave to almost 70 other campaigns across the state, maxing out $1,000 individual contributions not only to races in Seminole, Volusia and other counties near District 9 but also in races ranging from the Cape Canaveral City Commission to Jefferson County sheriff.

The majority of such maximum contributions, however, were for other state House and Senate campaigns, including state Sens. Ed Hooper and Manny Diaz Jr., state Senate candidates Jennifer Bradley and Jose Felix Diaz and now-Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nunez.

That’s similar to the strategy used by party leaders to build support for a bid for House speaker or Senate president, especially since the parties choose their leaders for upcoming sessions sometimes years in advance.

Since 2014, House Speaker Jose Oliva’s committee, called Conservative Principles for Florida, raised more than $3.2 million and doled out $1,000 contributions to more than 70 GOP campaigns.

“He’s either wasting his money or investing in a leadership role,” Democratic consultant and former state Rep. Dick Batchelor said of Brodeur. “If you’re raising that amount of money and giving it out to candidates, you’re trying to curry favor … to have their backing or sponsorship.”

But, Batchelor added, “I would think there’s an inherent risk. If it was disclosed to me that the money I’ve given is actually being diverted to other campaigns I may or may not agree with, if you came back to me for my own contribution and asked for [another] check.”

Brodeur would not say if he would run for a leadership position, saying, “I think that is a luxury of people who have been elected. I’m focused on getting elected first and haven’t thought about that.”

The contributors

Brodeur’s list of contributors, like many candidates of both parties, includes some of the biggest companies in Florida. And Brodeur has a history of filing legislation favorable to those companies’ interests.

In 2017, he filed a bill for the 2018 legislative session that would’ve exempted fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings from the state’s gambling regulations. It didn’t pass. His committee received a $7,500 donation from FanDuel three months later, just before that session began.

Brodeur also filed a bill for the 2017 legislative session that would’ve allowed Florida Power & Light to charge its customers for its investment in fracking operations. That bill also didn’t pass. Since that session ended, FPL has given $30,000 to his committee.

Another bill, filed in 2012, would have allowed online travel companies to avoid paying sales taxes on hotel rooms. Disney, which has a similar service, had been pushing for such a change. That bill didn’t pass, either. His committee has received nearly $100,000 from Disney since 2016.

Brodeur said he was not serving donors’ interests over that of his constituents and would not do so if elected.

“I have an eight-year voting record,” Brodeur said. “It’s pretty indicative of what I’ll do.”

“He’s either wasting his money or investing in a leadership role. If you’re raising that amount of money and giving it out to candidates, you’re trying to curry favor.” — Dick Batchelor, former state representative, on Brodeur