Local Dark Money - Flipbook - Page 128
With Friends like theseÉÉ.
These Florida following candidates
administered, or are currently administering,
their own personal political committees called
ÒFriends of insert candidateÕs nameÓ. Many
won their races, and continued to administer
their namesake political committees while in
oûce.
(
This practice appeared around 2017. Gayle
Harrell and Ed Hopper appear to be early
adopters of chairing a political committee while
they contemporaneously were bound by
campaign Þnance limits for their candidate
campaign fundraising. PACs with unlimited
funds are bad enough. Political committees run
by a candidate make campaign Þnance limits a
joke. When candidates administer a political
committee while they are running for oûce, or
serving in oûce, what diûerence do campaign
donation limits make? A donor with deep
pockets can simply contribute a sum of any
size to that candidateÕs ÒFriends of me, myself
and IÓ political committee. Three individuals
