Donors kicked in more than $150,000 to the Democratic rivals in Palm Beach County’s hottest state Senate primary during the last quarter, with state Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, collecting $85,730 and state Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, garnering $71,548.

Bernard and Clemens are running in the Aug. 14 primary for the heavily Democratic District 27 seat.

In other Senate primaries, Republican Melanie Peterson raised $10,290 in contributions during the quarter that ended June 30 while GOP rival Geoff Sommers raised $5,126 from contributors. But Sommers has an overall financial edge after putting $40,000 of his own money into the race.

The Sommers-Peterson winner will face Democratic state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, in Senate District 25. Abruzzo has raised $100,283 so far.

In Palm Beach-Broward Senate District 34, state Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, raised $106,196 in contributions during the last quarter and received another $48,885 in in-kind help from the Republican Party of Florida. Her GOP primary rival, Mike Lameyer, raised $2,025 in the quarter.

The Republican winner will face Democratic state Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Boca Raton, who raised 88,940 in the quarter. In a race that is a top priority for Florida Democrats, the state Democratic Party has given $77,858 worth of in-kind help to Sachs.

Incumbent Senators Bogdanoff and Sachs are running in the same district after new boundaries were drawn this year.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 11:54 am and is filed under 2012 campaigns, George Bennett. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.