The Lords Paramount of Florida

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

Photo credit: Florida Department of Management Services

This is Seeking Rents, a newsletter and podcast devoted to producing independent journalism 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 you can support my work by becoming a paid subscriber and/or by making a one-time donation.

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

Republican and Democratic leaders in the Florida Legislature just filed their caucus fundraising reports for the past four-plus months, and they are a stark reminder of a basic fact of life in Florida politics:

Two giant donors dominate the state.

Billionaire Ken Griffin — the hedge-fund magnate who has become the state’s biggest individual campaign contributor since moving from Chicago to Miami a few years ago — gave another $3 million each to the leadership funds run by the top-ranking Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate.

The combined $6 million from the finance exec with a $50 billion net worth accounted for more than $1 out of every $10 raised (again) by the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee and the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee since the start of April. It was more than the Florida House Democratic Campaign Committee and the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee raised in total from all donors.

The largest corporate contributor, meanwhile, was NextEra Energy Inc., the Fortune 500 owner of Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest electric company. NextEra, the reports show, gave more than $1 million combined to the two GOP leadership funds, which are controlled by incoming House Speaker Sam Garrison (R-Fleming Island) and incoming Senate President Jim Boyd (R-Bradenton).

But NextEra also tossed $300,000 at the Democratic leadership funds managed by incoming House Minority Leader Christine Hunschofsky (D-Parkland) and incoming Senate Minority Leader Tracie Davis (D-Jacksonville).

As a regulated monopoly — whose profits are ultimately controlled by state politicians — FPL and the state’s other big corporate utilities are always careful to keep a grip on the Florida Democratic Party, just in case the minority party ever regains power in Tallahassee.

Griffin and FPL both have a history of dictating the agenda in the state Capitol, on issues ranging from non-compete contracts and charter school subsidies to electricity rates and tax breaks.

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And in an election cycle where everyone seems focused on data centers and artificial intelligence, so, too, are Griffin and FPL.

The utility company, for instance, lobbied for lighter regulations on data centers and is now trying to develop hyperscale facilities around the state. And Griffin recently told attendees at a conference organized by investment bank Goldman Sachs that AI will usher in “a golden age”

“We better damn well build the data centers in America. Because they’re going to get built somewhere in the world,” Griffin added during the discussion. “It would kill me if we end up having to pay a bunch of foreign countries tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of money a year for [data center usage].”

A couple of other quick notes from the final round of campaign finance reports before Tuesday’s primary elections:

• A political committee set up by Meta Platforms to back AI-friendly Democratic legislators has spent more than $200,000 on mailers and digital ads supporting state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Democrat from Tampa who is squaring off with fellow Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner of St. Petersburg for an open seat in the Florida Senate. There’s no Republican candidate in the race, so the winner of the primary will join the 40-member Senate in November.

  A separate committee set up by Facebook and Instagram’s parent company to support AI-friendly Republican legislators has spent about $100,000 so far, much of it — maybe all — to boost Rep. Mike Redondo (R-Miami), a future speaker of the state House who has a GOP primary challenger.

• Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta isn’t the only Big Tech giant suddenly ramping up its campaign spending in Florida. Records show Google has showered more than $200,000 on state lawmakers over the past two months, a lot of it in just the last few weeks.

  

  Google — which, like Meta, is also a leading developer of hyperscale data centers — gave $50,000 each to the House and Senate GOP leadership funds run by Garrison and Boyd. But it also gave $15,000 apiece to Redondo, Rep. Jennifer Canady (R-Lakeland) and Sen. Tom Leek (R-Ormond Beach), who are all future presiding officers, too. And the company gave gifts of between $5,000 and $10,000 to eight other Republican legislators.

The stories behind Senate Bill 180 and the Hope Florida scandal

A couple of quick programming notes before we get to the weekly news roundup:

I will be speaking to the Central Florida Sierra Club Group on Wednesday evening, in what should be a wide-ranging discussion touching on Senate Bill 180, data centers and other important issues that came up during the 2026 legislative session — and that are sure to resurface in 2027.

The meeting will be held at Leu Gardens in Orlando. The room opens at 6:45 pm and the program will start at 7. It’s free and open to the public, but you must sign up in advance — which, handily enough, you can do by clicking here.

I will also be participating in a Thursday afternoon webinar on the Hope Florida scandal organized by the Florida Center for Government Accountability alongside FLCGA Executive Director and public records guru Michael Barfield and Lawrence Mower, the former Tampa Bay Times reporter who’s now hounding the Texas Legislature for the Houston Chronicle.

If you want to virtually join us for the hour-long discussion, click here to register. It’ll start at noon.

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

Elections: Schools

Conservative Virginia group tries to sway Orange school board race (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

See also: Broward School Board elections heat up amid personal attacks and a legal battle (South Florida Sun Sentinel) ($)

See also: Groups invest in campaign to ‘move on from Moms for Liberty’ (Florida Phoenix)

Elections: Cities

Charlie Crist, once a scourge of utilities, now reaps windfall from their allies (Florida Trib)

See also: Some Charlie Crist campaign money passed through PAC at Florida frat house (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Ark Invest gives big to Charlie Crist days after Trop project snubbing (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Decoding Tallahassee PAC attacks: Shadowy groups flood mailboxes in election (Tallahassee Democrat)

See also: Lawsuits fly in special election to fill at-large Jacksonville council seat (Florida Trib)

See also: Rays stadium talks loom large over Tampa mayoral race (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Elections: Counties

Money pours into pivotal Orange County mayor, commission races (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

See also: Inside the war room of a dark money campaign (Florida Trident)

See also: Deceit in District 1? Familiar political players reemerge as the county remains silent (The Bradenton Times)

See also: Bombshell claims against Sara Baxter. Mayor denies them (Palm Beach Post) ($)

See also: Orange County Clerk of Courts: Modernization, controversy mark Democratic primary (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

Elections: State

Meta pumps money into a Democratic state Senate primary in Tampa Bay (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Gambling money goes all in on Florida, Byron Donalds and ... St. Petersburg? (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Donalds says FL law will prevent electric bill hikes from data centers. That’s not guaranteed. (PolitiFact)

See also: Mission Improbable: A onetime Republican is trying to prove Democrats can win in Florida (Associated Press)

Elections: Federal

Pro-crypto PAC fabricates Miami Herald headlines to attack Florida Democrat (Miami Herald) ($)

See also: Down-the-stretch mischief (Politico Florida)

See also: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Still Here (Politico Magazine)

See also: Florida’s Black representation in Congress could hit historical low. It depends on one race (WLRN)

Meanwhile…

Toned-down Amendment 3 ballot language ready for another judicial review (Florida Phoenix)

See also: DeSantis administration blows deadline to detail emergency, immigration spending (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Weakened federal heat protection rules leave Florida workers sweating (Florida Trib)

See also: Grandmothers, landscapers, even kids, swept into Florida’s shadowy immigration database (Florida Trident)

See also: The Preacher and the Political Machine Florida Trident)

See also: Judge rejects $150 million FPL securities settlement (State Affairs Florida) ($)

Perspectives

What happens 10 years after Florida’s proposed property tax cut? (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Florida lets private schools use faith to discriminate but not protect public health (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

Giant piece of green land may disappear - Recent zoning changes have opened the door (Florida Times-Union) ($)

The case against Florida’s ‘benevolent’ utility corporation (Tampa Bay Times)

Rich guys with racecars want to roar into Florida panther habitat (Florida Phoenix)