Big money flows to Lakeland's Colleen Burton, some from companies and groups outside Fla.

What do Abbott Laboratories, CVS, Humana, Cigna, Comcast, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and JP Morgan Chase have in common?

One answer: They are among the major corporations and industry groups that have contributed to Florida Sen. Colleen Burton during her nine years in the state Legislature.

Burton, a Lakeland Republican, is a formidable fundraiser. Her political committee, Friends of Colleen Burton, has received more than $1.7 million in contributions since she formed it in 2018 while serving in the Florida House.

Burton has also collected nearly $1.5 million in direct campaign donations during her five elections for the Legislature, starting with the 2014 cycle.

“She is a prolific fundraiser,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. “She must really invest a lot of time and energy into raising money.”

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Last August, during the homestretch of the 2022 election, Transparency USA issued a report showing that Burton had raised more money than any other Republican in the state House at that point.

Burton first gained election to the Florida House in 2014 and easily repelled challenges over the next three cycles. She handily defeated Democrat Veysel Dokur, a late entrant, in last year’s Senate election, having collected about $423,000 — including money carried over from previous campaigns — compared with about $18,000 for Dokur.

Republicans dominate in Polk County, and Burton has always run in safely red districts. So why raise so much money? Jewett said legislators have varying motivations for piling up the campaign cash.

“Political science research suggests a little bit about why this might be happening,” Jewett said. “Even if you're in a safe district, the thought is if you raise a lot of money, that helps keep it safe, that you scare off any potential challengers because they see how much money you have raised and they realize how much they probably would have to spend in order to be competitive, to knock you off.”

A bulging campaign war chest also scares off any fellow partisans who might be considering a primary election challenge, Jewett said.

There is another reason for a legislator to amass a bundle of campaign money: aspirations of attaining leadership in the House or Senate.

“If you have a reputation for being able to raise a lot of money and then sharing that with your colleagues to make sure that you keep the majority, that certainly works in your favor when they're trying to make leadership decisions,” Jewett said.

That approach worked for Burton’s fellow senator representing Polk County, Sen. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula. Albritton proved himself a prodigious fundraiser and transferred considerable money from his political committee to support fellow Republicans en route to being designated Senate president for the 2024-2026 term.

It’s not clear whether Burton, 65, is seeking the Senate’s top position. She did not answer that question in an email from The Ledger. She has filed to run for re-election in 2026, and state records show that Burton’s campaign account transferred $20,000 in December to her 2026 campaign.

Many out-of-state contributors

Legislators have two ways of raising money. They can accept direct campaign contributions, beginning as soon as a new election cycle opens. Those donations face limits of $1,000 per contributor for each cycle — the primary election and the general election.

State lawmakers may also create political committees, which are allowed to coordinate directly with candidates, unlike federal political-action committees. In 2013, the year before Burton joined the Florida Legislature, lawmakers scrapped the existing cap of $500 on contributions to committees. The entities now face no limits on the size of donations.

Before joining the Legislature, Burton directed a trio of nonprofits — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Polk County, Polk Vision and the Imperial Symphony Orchestra. That background might help account for her prowess at political fundraising.

Burton had success from her first campaign in 2014, when she raised about $286,000. While many of her backers were individuals in Florida, she collected checks from such corporate donors as Humana, an insurance corporation based in Kentucky; Consulate Health Care, a nursing home company based in Atlanta; and the Doctors Company, a medical malpractice insurer in California.

Since then, Burton’s official campaign account has drawn a wider array of corporate and industry supporters, some from Florida and others from out of state. Burton moved into positions on health-related committees while in the House, and she has drawn plentiful financial backing from the medical sector.

Just since 2021, the roster of donors to Burton’s official campaign includes Amgen, a biotechnology company based in Virginia; Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical titan based in Indiana; Centene Management, a managed care company based in St. Louis; and Prime Therapeutics, a pharmacy benefits management company based in Minnesota. She has also drawn contributions from a wealth of industry groups, such as the Florida Assisted Living PAC, Florida’s Cardiology PAC and the Florida Insurance Council.

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Corporate donors from other sectors have also been generous to Burton’s campaign. She has drawn contributions from the entertainment realm (NBC Universal, Comcast), energy companies (NextEra, Duke Energy, TECO), insurers (Aflac, Florida Blue) and liquor and tobacco (Florida Beer Wholesalers, Dosamar Corporation).

And Burton has gathered donations from Florida’s most prominent companies and business groups, such as U.S. Sugar, Associated Industries and the Florida Transportation Builders Association.

Burton established her political committee, Friends of Colleen Burton, in March 2018. With no limits on contributions, it has collected many checks for $10,000 or more, though donations in the range of $1,000 to $2,500 are more typical.

The biggest donor to Burton’s PAC is the Florida Prosperity Fund, giving a combined $72,500, according to Transparency USA. That conservative PAC drew money from some of the state’s most prominent corporate and industry groups.

Burton’s PAC has received $38,000 in donations from Centene, Transparency USA reported. That publicly traded company ranks 25^th on the Forbes 500.

PhRMA — officially the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Better Government Committee, a nationally powerful trade group — has delivered $25,500 to Burton’s PAC, according to Transparency USA. The PAC gave her $12,500 last year and provided $7,500 this year, just before the start of the legislative session.

Other top donors include Voice of Florida Business — the PAC of the Florida Chamber of Commerce ($23,500) — TECO ($20,000) and the Florida Insurance Council PAC ($17,000).

Sharing funds with Republicans

The day before the start of this year’s legislative session, Burton’s PAC reported a flurry of donations, with contributions of $2,500 each from such entities as the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Simply Healthcare Plans and the Florida Senior Living PAC, topped by a $10,000 donation from Floridians for Economic Advancement.

That conservative group has given $35,000 to Burton’s PAC since 2020. She has also received large donations from Citizens for Conservative Leadership, Floridians for a Stronger Democracy and Elevating Florida’s Future.

“I would say with the kind of money that she's raising, there almost certainly has been some aggressive fundraising, either directly from her, or presumably she's got a fundraising team making calls and contacts on her behalf,” Jewett said. “But I'm sure some of it has been directly from her.”

Burton did not answer a question about how much time she devotes to fundraising.

“As a state representative, I was honored to have strong support, both personally and financially, in my successful 2022 bid to serve in the Florida Senate,” Burton said in an emailed statement. “It is not uncommon for elected leaders to fundraise through political committees to defend their seat and to support fellow legislators and legislative candidates, which I have done effectively since 2018, as we continue to build Republican majorities and supermajorities in both chambers.”

Burton has been generous in sharing money with other candidates and political groups. Her political committee has reported three transfers totaling nearly $500,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The senator’s PAC provided $75,000 to the Republican Party of Florida in 2020. She has also given $25,000 to the Economic Freedom Committee and $2,500 to the Republican Party of Polk County. In last year’s election, Burton’s PAC made maximum donations of $1,000 to the campaigns of several fellow Republicans, among then Sen. Ileana Garcia, Sen. Jason Brodeur and Senate candidates Jay Collins and Corey Simon.

Burton’s official campaign gave $25,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee in January. She also reported a series of charitable contributions from her campaign early this year: $10,000 each to Volunteers in Service to the Elderly, United Way of Central Florida and One More Child, and $5,000 each to the Polk State College Foundation and Options for Women, a pregnancy care center, among others.

On the expenditure side, both the campaign and the committee have made regular payments to K. Ballard Consulting for finance consulting and Political Insights for campaign consulting.

Should rules be changed?

The rules allowing large sums to be transferred among political committees should be changed, said Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a nonprofit institute that is nonpartisan but has a progressive focus.

“That points to the absurdity, I guess would be the best word to describe it, of our campaign finance system regulation here in Florida,” Wilcox said. “I mean, we put limits on what you can contribute directly to a candidate’s campaign account, but then that same candidate can go out and create a political committee and raise unlimited amounts of money. So it just makes really no sense.”

Wilcox said his organization would like to see Florida adopt rules to prohibit transfers between political committees. He said the current practice, in which some legislators shuffle tens of thousands to other candidates’ committees, belies the notion that a donation will be used by the candidate who receives it.

Wilcox said that two prominent Republicans sponsored bills in this year’s session to end transfers between political committees, but the legislation failed to advance.

Jewett said the Republicans who control the Legislature, with supermajorities in both houses, have no incentive to revise the current rules on campaign finance.

Burton is not alone

Burton’s predecessor in the House and Senate, Lakeland Republican Kelli Stargel, was also adept at raising money. Stargel’s political committee collected $2.8 million from 2013 through early 2022, when she left the Florida Senate because of term limits.

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Like Burton, Stargel received sizeable donations from most of Florida’s prominent corporations and industry groups, such as the Voice of Florida Business PAC, Associated Industries of Florida, Florida Power & Light and Independent Living Systems.

Albritton, whose district covers a slice of southern Polk County, is among the Legislature’s most accomplished fundraisers. His committee, Advancing Florida Agriculture, has collected nearly $6.3 million in contributions since 2015.

As The Ledger reported in 2020, expenditure reports showed that Albritton regularly traveled out of state to meet with potential contributors. Financial reports for Burton’s committee show only two payments suggestions trips outside Florida: $44 for food at a restaurant in Gross Pointe, Michigan, in September 2021, and $833 for lodging at the Grand Hyatt in Nashville, Tennessee, in October 2022.

Burton has used her committee’s money to pay for lodging at such places as The Biltmore in Coral Gables and Eau Palm Beach Resort. Other notable expenses include $15,150 to Curate Travel and Events, a Tallahassee company; about $4,300 to the Watercolor Inn in Santa Rosa Beach for event fees and deposits; and about $6,830 to Roux 30A, a restaurant in Santa Rosa Beach.

Burton’s committee has reported spending about $2,700 on airfare.

Backers pleased with bills

During her first term in the Florida House, Burton was assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee, and the health realm has since become her specialty. She served as chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee during her final term in the House and was appointed to chair the Senate’s Health Policy Committee for this year’s session.

“Being a committee chair certainly can help your fundraising quite a bit,” Jewett said. “She’s gotten quite a bit of money from corporate PACs, including from other states. And so, often if you're a committee chair, then you will get donations from PACs and corporations that feel they might have business in front of your committee.”

Burton has sponsored and supported legislation promoted by some of corporate and industry contributors to her campaign and political committee. She has consistently said that political donations reflect approval of her policies and that campaign donations do not influence her actions or votes.

In 2021, during the peak of the pandemic, Burton introduced a House bill limiting liability lawsuits against health-care providers, including nursing homes, over claims related to COVID-19. The nursing home industry supported the bill, while the AARP opposed it. A Senate companion bill passed into law.

The following year, Burton sponsored legislation to extend the period of the liability protections for health care providers against COVID-related claims. Again, the Legislature approved a Senate companion bill. Burton’s committee also advanced a bill that reduced the required hours of care provided by nurses and certified nursing assistants at nursing homes.

Burton introduced a bill in this year’s session that allows certified nursing assistants in nursing homes to handle some tasks previously reserved for registered nurses. The bill passed and has been signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The senator sponsored a bill this year that would have made it harder to sue a nursing home or other long-term care facility over the death of a resident. That legislation did not advance.

Those bills drew backing from the nursing home industry, whose leaders cite a staffing crisis, worsened by the pandemic, as a threat to the economic survival of many facilities.

Political donations do not necessarily equate to legislation. But Jewett said money does yield access to elected officials, and the potential to influence them.

“There is a fair bit of political science research that shows that big donors do get more access, that they do get a seat at the table and, to use an old, trite saying, that they do get the ear of the legislator,” Jewett said. “And they do get more personal face time with the legislator. So if you're a big donor, you do get more access, not just in the Florida Legislature but every legislature, including Congress.”

Wilcox put it more bluntly.

“Politicians will always say that their campaign fundraising doesn't affect their vote,” he said. “That strains credulity to say that it is not affecting the bills they sponsor and then how they vote. … You have to ask yourself, ‘Why are these interests giving that much money?’ They’ve got to feel like they're getting something for that money. They're not giving money in the interest of good government. They’re giving money in the interest of government being good to them.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland's Burton draws big money, some from companies outside Florida