Local Dark Money - Flipbook - Page 11
nothing new. What is new is how PAC money Political Action Committee money - has found
its way into local elections. In Sarasota
County, Florida, where I live, it’s been a gamechanger.
In April 2015, School Board incumbent Frank
Kovach announced he would not be running for
re-election. Citing how Sarasota’s School
Board races had been “corrupted by cash”,
Kovach noted that when he first ran in 2000,
$10,000 was a reasonable campaign budget to
run for School Board. But in 2014, District 1
School Board candidates Bridget Ziegler and
Ken Marsh gathered $51,000 and $72,000
respectively for their campaigns. Mrs. Ziegler
also got an assist from the political committee
“Citizens Against Taxation Political
Committee”, which received $45,000 from
“Phoenix Media”, a firm which was not
registered in the state of Florida. Ziegler
narrowly defeated Marsh, with 50.87% of the
vote vs. 49.13%. At the School Board meeting
where he announced his decision not to run,
