Progress Energy sends $100k to incoming Senate president
by Michael C. Bender | July 29th, 2010The Freedom First Committee, the political advocacy group run by Merritt Island Republican Mike Haridopolos, collected $100,000 from Progress Energy on Wednesday. Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones gave another $100,000. In recent weeks, Haridopolos has also taken $50,000 checks from FPL, the Florida Association of Realtors and the Florida Medical Association.
Haridopolos has been sending the money to other so-called 527 groups. Since the beginning of the month, he’s given $190,000 to the Florida First Initiative, a group run by GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum. Haridopolos has also given $50,000 each to Floridians for Conservative Values, a stealthy political attack group that operates out of a West Palm Beach, and Truth Matters, Inc.
Truth Matters appears to be operated by Richard S. Cole of Miami. In June, the group took $73,000 from a state Senate leadership committee known as Alliance for a Strong Economy (it’s managed by Palm Beach Gardens council candidate Howard Rosenkranz) and sent nearly all of it — $69,800 — to Citizens Speaking Out Committee, another group run by Alachua County Republican Chairman Stafford Jones that is aiding McCollum.
Haridopolos’s House counterpart, Dean Cannon, withdrew $70,000 from the Florida Republican Party on Monday and tucked it into his Florida Liberty Fund. The same day, Cannon used the fund to send $65,000 to Florida Citizens for Change, a 527 run by Harold Wise of Miami.
Tags: 527s, Bill McCollum, Dean Cannon, Howard Rosenkranz, Mike Haridopolos
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July 29th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Democracy at work, I cant help but visualiz a shell game going on here ” ok its under here and round and around it goes follow it or youll lose it ok where is now”, who knows . What do you get these days for a $100,000. donation
July 30th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Shows we need an outsider in Tall. Not a Crist fan, but he did appoint two to the Public Service Board that had no ties to FPL. Yet only to be fired in a dramatic late-session vote April 27 when the Florida Senate refused to confirm his nomination.
Same dirtbags, time to clean house!