A TALE OF TWO DONORS

Two billionaires got involved in Broward elections. Why did one win and the other lose?

Two cliches tell the story: Money is the mother’s milk of politics, and timing is everything.

Those truisms help explain the two different results when two billionaires opened up their checkbooks for two candidates in Democratic primaries in Broward County.

One effort was successful. The other lost.

Case One: Sheriff Gregory Tony’s political action committee, Broward First, received a total of $810,000 from the billionaire S. Donald Sussman, a wealthy hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and megapolitical donor who has a home in Fort Lauderdale.

The Tony team used the money to buy television advertising and pay for a mail blitz.

Case Two: The political committee supporting Joe Kimok for state attorney, the Florida Justice & Public Safety PAC, received a similar amount, $760,100, from funds controlled by the billionaire George Soros.

Most of the money helped pay for proKimok advertising.

The candidates were different, and were running for the nominations for different offices.

But there was also a critical tactical difference.

Sussman’s first, and largest, contribution, of $500,000, came in 2019.

The money first meant that the Tony side was secure in its knowledge that it would have enough money to run a solid countywide campaign. It had another important, early effect: It sent a message of credibility to other potential donors that Tony was a serious candidate with serious support.

Months later, when Tony was hit with a barrage of negative publicity, Sussman’s contributions continued.

And voters were already seeing Tony advertising when Broward County started mailing out hundreds of thousands of mail ballots on July 9.

Kimok, by contrast, didn’t get the Soros money until very late in the campaign, which means the massive adverting effort it financed started late.

By the time Soros’ pro-Kimok money arrived, a large share of Broward voters had already cast their mail ballots.

The Soros money may have helped Kimok in the campaign, but possibly too late.

Almost all of it was spent on television and mail advertising, with finance reports showing expenditures starting on Aug. 10 — after tens of thousands of mail ballots had been cast and four days after the start of early voting.

The funding wasn’t a complete surprise. In late July and early August, one of the Soros’ committees bought $87,100 in goods and services to benefit the political committee. A campaign finance report said the money went for polling, which is typically used to assess a candidate’s viability and the kinds of messaging would be effective.

A clue about the possible impact: People who poured over results said Pryor won mail ballots, many of which were cast before the Kimok advertising campaign. Pryor led slightly in early voting, which started at regional centers on Aug. 8, but it was closer. Kimok won in-person Election Day voting, after people had seen the Soros-funded advertising.

In the end, Tony defeated former Sheriff Scott Israel by 2.21% of the vote.

Kimok lost to Harold Pryor by 1.26%.