Fried gets $1 million from big business, ‘dark money’ groups

TALLAHASSEE — Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is getting major contributions from groups supported by Florida Power & Light and Big Sugar, and from dark money committees, while U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist’s donations largely come from labor unions and liberal philanthropists, campaign finance records show.

The donations signal who’s putting their weight behind the two top contenders for the Democratic nomination for governor. Knowing who they are may help push the 23% of voters who polls suggest are still sitting on the fence just days before Tuesday’s primary election, Florida political scientists said.

Fried “is getting a not insignificant amount from big business and dark money,” said Daniel Smith, a political science professor at the University of Florida. “How much is Big Sugar thinking Nikki Fried will be in their pocket if she is elected?”

Records show that her Florida Consumers First political committee has garnered at least $1 million from committees who received contributions from the politically powerful sugar industry, FPL and other major corporations as well as from so-called dark money committees whose donors are nearly impossible to trace.

About $265,000 came from five committees chaired by the chief executive officer of the politically powerful business lobby Associated Industries of Florida, which receives about half its funding from FPL and Big Sugar. Another $30,000 came from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and its affiliates, and $87,500 from the Florida Alliance for Better Government, which also received a large share of donations from FPL and Big Sugar.

“Of course, I get donations from everywhere, but that doesn’t mean that’s what’s empowering me,” Fried said when asked about the donations at a campaign stop on Tuesday night. “The only people I am beholden to are the people, and I have said that time and time again, look at my record. It is defending the people, and that will never change.”

Fried said she didn’t think she received any money from Big Sugar but her recent reaction to an unflattering story about her efforts to curb sugar cane burning from the Palm Beach Post has raised questions about her relationship with the South Florida-based industry.

Fried called the piece “a hit job on the eve of the election” and made an unsubstantiated accusation that the reporters were paid by the Sierra Club to write it.

It’s possible the corporate donors simply like Fried more than they like Crist, said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. But he said it’s more likely those companies are putting money into her campaign to weaken or even defeat Crist, who is not well-liked by FPL, Big Sugar and the insurance industry.

“Big Sugar and utilities could not be cozying up to Democrats,” Jewett said. “They are contributing to the Democrat they think they will be more able to easily beat or possibly they may think is a better candidate.”

It’s also plausible they are giving to Fried because of the relationship they have with her as commissioner of agriculture, he said. “She is the commissioner of agriculture, and in many situations, you might expect regulated industries to donate to the person that regulates them,” he said.

Money from figures in ‘ghost’ scandal

Fried also has received money from committees set up or run by people involved in the ghost candidate scandal. She received $185,000 from Floridians for Economic Advancement, which was set up by consultant Alex Alvarado, who ran other committees that promoted no-party candidates in 2020 Senate races under investigation by Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.

Floridians for Economic Advancement is one of 11 committees that leaked records show are controlled by political operatives central to that probe. Another nine committees, which also received contributions from Big Sugar, FPL and AIF, contributed a total of $218,000 to Fried’s political committee.

“Some of the same characters are popping up here,” said Michael Barfield, director of public access for the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which helped the Orlando Sentinel track dark money spent on ads promoting the ghost candidates of 2020.

Those campaigns confused voters by backing candidates who weren’t actively seeking the office to weaken the support of legitimate Democratic candidates, Barfield said. One of those allegedly helped clear the path for Jason Brodeur to win the Senate District 9 race in Central Florida and helped prevent Democrat José Javier Rodríguez from winning another term in the Florida Senate, a Sentinel investigation found.

“Republican operatives donating to Democrat or independent candidates, to me, [is] suspicious. It’s an attempt to influence votes in a race they wouldn’t otherwise be interested in,” Barfield said. “The twist here is that Fried is a serious candidate.”

Fried also received $80,700 from Citizens for a United Florida, which got $85,000 from Floridians for Economic Advancement and $9,000 from a committee called Equal Justice, which donated an additional $138,000 to Fried and received $50,000 from Floridians for Economic Advancement.

Fried also received $100,000 from a committee called Her Bold Move of Providence, Rhode Island. That committee’s sole contribution comes from another committee called Embrace Equality in Washington, D.C., which has a starting balance of $360,530 and no donors listed.

Funneling anonymous money into political committees, moving it around and mixing it up with contributions from identifiable donors is designed to hide where the money is coming from, Barfield said.

“Unfortunately, it’s legal, and facilitated by the ubiquitous movement of dark money,” Barfield said. “The system is designed to facilitate that nondisclosure.”

Fried, who as agriculture commissioner regulates charities, launched an investigation in January into one of the committees behind the ghost candidate scandal.

Unions fuel Crist Campaign

Meanwhile, Crist’s political committee has received about $94,500 from some of the same anonymous committees that gave to Fried. But his biggest contributions – about $629,000 of the nearly $7 million his committee Friends of Charlie Crist has raised – came from labor unions.

Crist also received $325,000 from Barbara Steifel, a liberal philanthropist and Democratic megadonor from Coral Gables, and $70,000 from Canadian billionaire Charles Bronfman.

He has no money from AIF or its five committees chaired by its CEO, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, electric utilities or Big Sugar.

But then, he hasn’t exactly endeared himself to those businesses, either, said Susan MacManus, a political analyst and retired University of South Florida political science professor.

“People give money for several reasons,” MacManus said. “Some of it has to do with business concerns that he isn’t really pro-business. They have long memories of him.”

When Crist was governor from 2007-11, he successfully pushed property insurance reforms that angered big national insurers like State Farm so much that it stopped writing home insurance policies.

Crist also proposed a $1.75 billion Everglades cleanup plan that included buying all of U.S. Sugar’s land, but that deal was blocked by the Legislature.

Crist also angered FPL with plans to expand solar energy and fight greenhouse gas emissions.

“It looks like they don’t expect her to win, but make it a tougher race for him,” MacManus said of the corporate donations to Fried. “You give them the right to go after the other candidate.”

Complete primary election coverage can be found at OrlandoSentinel.com/election.