Florida in Five: Money from FPL and Big Sugar may be funding ads to keep abortion banned in Florida

Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Oct 27, 2024

This is Seeking Rents, a newsletter and podcast devoted to producing original journalism — and lifting up the work of others — about Florida politics, with an emphasis on the ways that big businesses and other special interests influence public policy in the state. Seeking Rents is produced by veteran investigative journalist Jason Garcia, and it is free to all. But please consider a voluntary paid subscription, if you can afford one, to help support our work. And check out our video channel, too.

Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

A lot of the advertising attacking Amendment 4, the ballot measure that would overturn Florida’s near-total abortion ban, has come from two sources.

One is Florida taxpayers, who have been forced to spend millions on an anti-Amendment 4 campaign by the DeSantis administration.

The other is the Republican Party of Florida.

Now, we don’t yet know exactly who is giving the state GOP all this money to spend trying to keep abortion banned in Florida. That’s because Florida doesn’t require political parties to reveal their general-election donors until the Friday before Election Day. That means that the Republican Party of Florida — and the Florida Democratic Party, too — can wait until the end of this week to file their final fundraising reports.

But we do know a few big donors already. And one of the biggest so far is the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the business-lobbying front group that controls more than half a dozen political committees — all of which must file more frequent fundraising reports.

Those reports show that the Florida Chamber’s political committees have given more than $2.3 million combined to the Republican Party of Florida since the start of September. (The Florida Chamber, you may recall, also helped write one of the most anti-worker pieces of legislation to pass the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature this year.)

But where does the Florida Chamber get its money? Well, much of it comes from just three companies: NextEra Energy, the parent company of electric giant Florida Power & Light, and the Big Sugar producers U.S. Sugar Corp. and Florida Crystals.

In fact, records show the Florida Chamber’s political committees have raised roughly $5.7 million combined since the start of September. NextEra and U.S. Sugar have given $1 million each; Florida Crystals has kicked in another $600,000.

The only donor that’s given more is an organization called “Secure Florida’s Future” — a dark-money nonprofit that is controlled by Chamber executives and which has put $1.9 million into the Chamber’s political committees since September.

And, really, there’s no reason not to think FPL and Big Sugar are behind some of that funding, too.

To be very clear: We do not know who has given money to Secure Florida’s Future, which does not have to disclose its donors.

But we do know that FPL and Big Sugar have channeled money through other dark-money nonprofits in the past. To give just two quick-and-documented examples: FPL financed one nonprofit that paid for an election scheme that helped elect a Republican state senator in Gainesville, while U.S. Sugar funded another nonprofit that underwrote an organization called the South Florida Water Coalition that promoted the sugar industry’s interests.

Now, the Florida Chamber of Commerce openly opposes the other citizen-led constitutional amendment on this year’s ballot: Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana in Florida. The Republican Party of Florida is also paying for ads attacking that amendment, too, so it’s certainly possible that’s how the party is spending the Chamber’s money. (Although it’s worth noting that Secure Florida’s Future has also put at least $4.6 million directly into another political committee created specifically to campaign against Amendment 3.)

By contrast, the Florida Chamber is publicly neutral on Amendment 4.

But it’s also not doing a thing to stop the Florida GOP from using Chamber money to attack the abortion-rights ballot measure.

That’s according to Alicia Hill, a chamber spokesperson.

“Regarding your first question, the Chamber has no position on proposed Amendment 4,” Hill told me earlier this month. “To address your second question, about directing a political entity on how to use millions of dollars of contributions, that is strictly prohibited under law and therefore, we do not engage in any such activity.”

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.

This story is WILD

Red Lights, Green Cash: How a Florida Legislator Boosted School Bus Cameras and Benefited Her Family (The Tributary)

At least one election has ended well

Billionaire-backed group fails to oust Florida's largest teachers union in major union election victory (Caring Class Revolt)

Fallout from Florida’s abortion ban

Doctors Agreed Her Baby Would Die 3 Months Before She Was Forced to Give Birth (Rolling Stone)

See also: DeSantis health lawyer resigned to avoid threatening more TV stations (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Election roundup

Judge grants GRU Authority's request for temporary injunction against upcoming referendum (The Gainesville Sun)

See also: Florida is using opioid settlement money on an anti-marijuana ad campaign (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: GOP state attorney candidate raises $1.4M with help of Trump billionaires (Palm Beach Post) ($)

And some non-election news

Tenants battle vermin, sewage in investor-owned mobile home parks (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Perspectives

Florida could be doing so much more to counter climate change if DeSantis would allow it (Florida Phoenix)

Rick Steves: It’s time to legalize adult use of marijuana in Florida (Miami Herald) ($)

Florida Supreme Court chief justice turns into unlikely critic of FPL rate increase (Florida Times-Union) ($)

Sydney Solis

Oct 27·edited Oct 27

Big Sugar gets Big Subsidies, so much it's considered "Stalanist style." So taxpayers in the Socialist State of Florida once again are funding these anti-democratic corporations' actions. Ditto FPL. END THE CORPORATE WELFARE that is destroying democracy. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-us-spends-4-billion-a-year-subsidizing-stalinist-style-domestic-sugar-production-2018-06-25.

Expand full comment