TALLAHASSEE --
Florida’s sputtering economy did not stop interest groups and donors from spending $306 million this election cycle on state political campaigns, according to final election year tallies released Friday.
The number is lower than the $550 million reported in the 2010 election cycle and does not include the massive amount of federal cash spent in the presidential race. But it points to a new trend: more dollars are going to campaign committee rather than individual candidates.
Three out of every four dollars were unlimited checks to political committees, while the rest went into the campaign accounts of individuals, which are capped at $500 a check.
The shift is a sign that Florida’s $500 limit is outdated and dysfunctional — and ripe for reform, said Dan Krassner, executive director of Integrity Florida, which did the analysis of the campaign finance data released by the Florida Division of Elections.
“Candidate accounts have become nearly irrelevant,’’ said Krassner, executive director of Integrity Florida. The current system allows corporations to write unlimited checks to political committees with loose affiliations to candidates but require them to give no more than $1000 to individual candidates for both the primary and general election. The result is, he said, “the public cannot easy follow the money.’’
House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who has called for an overhaul of the state’s campaign finance reforms said Friday the numbers prove his point that the political committees – known as Committees of Continuous Existence, or CCEs – have gotten out of hand.
“I’m not trying to cap the amount of money that’s spent and raised, but we should do everything we can to move spending to the candidates and the parties, not committees,’’ he said.
The Integrity Florida analysis found an explosion in the last three election cycles of CCEs — the loosely-regulated entities, which can collect unlimited checks and can pay for consultants, travel, meals and other expenses for a candidate but can’t pay for advertising or mailers. Dozens of legislators use the committees to augment their election bids and steer money to other campaigns.
Weatherford, and Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, raised the most cash of any legislators who controlled a CCE. Also raising large sums were the two candidates vying to become the next Senate president, Sens. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, and Joe Negron, R-Palm City.
The cash haul was not limited to the current candidates. Gov. Rick Scott’s political committee benefited from the ability to collect unlimited checks in Florida. He raised $360,000 in November and December, including a $100,000 check from AT&T.
In 2010, when the governor and three Cabinet races were on the ballot along with state legislators, contributions to individual candidates comprised 44 percent of the total. In 2012, contributions to individual candidates dropped to 25 percent of the total, just below where it was in 2008 when 26 percent of the $265 million spent went to individual campaigns.
Meanwhile, 1,119 political committees, including the political parties, raised $230 million or 75 percent of the total in 2012, compared to 56 percent in 2010.
Because some of the money is transferred from a CCE to an ECO or political action committee -- often in a veiled attempt to shield the donor and recipient from the disclosure -- some of the totals reported is double counted, Krassner said
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