Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Spalding raising big funds for House race
Carla Spalding has emerged as a new force in the universe of people who want to take down Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Spalding, who has styled herself as a passionate supporter of President Donald Trump and is supported by some controversial backers, raised more money than Wasserman Schultz — and more than all of the other challengers combined.
Spalding raised $213,000 in the first quarter of 2018. Wasserman Schultz reported this week to the Federal Election Commission that she raised $208,000 in the three months that ended March 31.
The Democratic incumbent still has a huge overall money advantage — more cash and no debt.
Despite her fundraising strength in the most recent quarter, Spalding doesn’t have the kind of cash she’d need to mount a serious advertising campaign in the expensive Miami-Fort Lauderdale television market. Neither does anyone else. Tim Canova, who recently
abandoned his plan for a rematch against Wasserman Schultz in the Democratic primary and is running in November as a no party affiliation candidate, struggled with fundraising in the first quarter of 2018. Canova raised $58,000 in the first quarter but spent even more. Records show he had a cash balance of $10,758 at the end of the quarter. The reason he has that much: $10,000 in new loans of his own money to the campaign.
Carlos Reyes, who launched his campaign for the Republican nomination with a plan to raise millions of dollars, also has run into fundraising problems. He took in $49,252 in the most recent quarter — and spent more than double that amount. The only reason he showed a cash balance of $32,045 on March 31 is $33,000 of loans he gave his campaign during the first quarter.
The Broward/Miami-Dade County 23rd Congressional District is solidly Democratic. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district as “D+11.” That means it preformed 11 points more Democratic than the nation as a whole in the last two presidential contests.
And the flow of money shows that the big money donors don’t see the district as competitive. Combined, five candidates raised $535,000 in the first quarter.
By contrast, the three candidates in the much closer 18th Congressional District in northern Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, collected a combined $1.3 million in the first quarter.
Carla Spalding
She’s been making the rounds of Republican events — and appealing to some of the most conservative, anti-establishment parts of the Republican Party. She recently tweeted support for Trump, whom she called “an outstanding world leader!” and criticism of James Comey, the FBI director fired by Trump, whom Spalding said “is not a real man on my list. He is a coward!”
Spalding has been repeatedly featured on the controversial Infowars conspiracy-theory website, whose founder is notorious for repeatedly claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre — in which 26 children and adults were killed — is a hoax perpetrated by opponents of the Second Amendment.
She’s also been promoted by Roger Stone, the Fort Lauderdale political operator who’s an adviser to Trump and was an adviser to former President Richard Nixon. During one of Stone’s interviews with Spalding on Infowars, he incorrectly stated Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is in the district she hopes to represent; Spalding didn’t correct him.
She has some establishment support. She was endorsed this month by Stanley Tate, the Florida real estate developer, philanthropist, big-time Republican political contributor and founder of Florida’s pre-paid college tuition program. Tate so dislikes Wasserman Schultz that he spurred the cancellation of an invitation for her to speak at Temple Israel of Greater Miami during the 2012 election season.
Spalding, a nurse and teacher, has been running in the 23rd Congressional District for months, but she’s a recent transplant to the district from Palm Beach County. Voter registration records show she switched her voter registration to Plantation, in the district, on Dec. 29.
During the 2016 campaign, Spalding ran as a Republican candidate in the district now represented by Brian Mast, R-Palm City. She ended up running as a no party affiliation candidate for the job and received 3 percent of the vote.
Spalding raised $212,782, spent $139,362, and ended the quarter with $85,057 in cash.
Tim Canova
Harnessing energy and financial contributions from anti-establishment progressives and supporters of unsuccessful presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Canova mounted a strong challenge to Wasserman Schultz in the 2016 Democratic primary.
He received 43 percent of the vote in the August 2016 primary, a result he never accepted. He’s devoted much of his energy to sowing doubts about the outcome. He’s also advocated progressive policy ideas.
Unable to recreate the energy — and funding — of the 2016 effort, he announced on April 2 he was calling off his plan to challenge Wasserman Schultz in the Democratic primary, and said he would run as a no party affiliation candidate in November.
Canova, a Hollywood resident, is a professor of law and public finance at Nova Southeastern University. Voter registration records show he changed his party from Democratic to NPA on April 11.
Financial records show Canova is raising far less than in his last effort, when he had $461,000 cash in the bank on March 31, 2016.
In the first quarter of 2018, Canova raised $58,064, spent $62,463, and had a cash balance of $10,758 on March 31. Canova’s campaign is $45,000 in debt from money he’s loaned to his campaign committee.
Carlos Reyes
Reyes launched his campaign with a lavish kickoff party at the Signature Grand in Davie late last summer. He outlined an ambitious fundraising goal: $5 million for the primary and general election.
Reyes, of Davie, is a well-known attorney in Republican Party circles, and former governor-appointed member of the South Broward Hospital District, the government agency that runs the Memorial Healthcare System. And he started with strong fundraising: $101,000 in seven weeks.
Since then, his fundraising has slowed significantly. He’s kept the operation afloat with $63,000 in loans of his own money.
He raised $49,252 in the first quarter, spent $108,070 and ended with a cash balance of $32,045.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
The Weston Democrat is serving her seventh term in the House. She’s well known in South Florida, where she was elected to her first office in 1992.
After winning 57 percent of the vote in the August 2016 Democratic primary, Wasserman Schultz won the November election with 57 percent of the vote.
She raised $208,198 and spent $183,564 in the first quarter of 2018. Wasserman Schultz’s cash balance on March 31 was $417,761.
Other candidates
Joe Kaufman, who has run as a Republican candidate for Congress in 2012, 2014 and 2016, has done little fundraising for his 2018 effort.
He raised $7,093 and spent $5,416 in the first quarter. Because of money left over from his previous campaigns, Kaufman had $390,853 in his campaign coffers on March 31, along with $89,863 in debts.
The counter-terrorism researcher, writer and lecturer lives in Tamarac, which is outside the district. Living outside the district is legal. The Constitution requires only that a member of Congress live in the state.
Three other candidates have filed paperwork declaring they’re interested in running; none filed reports indicating they’ve raised or spent any money.