Who Are The Major Donors to Local Campaigns?

Using publicly available information, Tallahassee Reports has built a data base of donations and expenditures for this past cycle of local elections. The data base includes information on over $800,000 in donations and $600,000 in expenditures.

The data base covers donations and expenditures for all candidates seeking election to the Leon County Board of Commissioners and the City Commission. It is important to note that data is also included for candidates that ultimately were elected without a challenger.

Over the coming weeks, Tallahassee Reports will publish information gleaned from this data base. The first report focuses on the major donors to local elections.

During the 2014 primary cycle, approximately $822,000 was donated to local campaigns. To determine the major donors, Tallahassee Reports aggregated donations from the same physical address required to be submitted to the supervisor of elections.

Under some circumstances, a review of an address revealed other donors linked to the same address.
The top ten addresses with individuals linked to those addresses are listed below with their connections, if any, to local government.

1. 311 Jennings Street, Tallahassee, FL.

This address was listed for 75 separate donations by over 20 different businesses and one individual. The donations totaled $24,250. The principals listed for the businesses are John Burnette and Kim Rivers.

Burnette and Rivers are local business owners – think Front Porch, the Gateway project, Hotel Duval (recently sold) and Double Tree (bought earlier this year) and were the driving force behind Imagine Tallahassee.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

Imagine Tallahassee was a self described grass roots organization developed to provide ideas on how to invest the economic development portion of the penny sales extension. Over the next 20 years elected officials will determine which economic projects to fund with approximately $70 million from the sales tax revenue. The recommendations by Imagine Tallahassee will play a role in these decisions. In addition, the Gateway project is budgeted to receive a “vacancy grant” of $194,000 from the Community Redevelopment Agency in 2015.

2. 1018 Thomasville Road, Suite 200, Tallahassee, FL.

This address was listed for 51 separate donations by approximately 7 different business names. The donations totaled $16,500. The principals listed for the businesses were Ed Murray and Frank Langston.
The principles own the most successful commercial property business in Tallahassee-just look for those red and black NAI TALCOR signs.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

NAI-TALCOR has a contract with the City of Tallahassee to provide “general real estate services.” The contract was awarded in 2011 and was extended on July 31, 2014.

3. 4708 Capital Circle Northwest, Tallahassee, FL

This address was listed for 51 separate donations by approximately 7 different business names. The donations totaled $16,400. The principals listed for the businesses were the Ghazvini family and Tom Asbury.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

The business interests located at this address include residential construction and large local government projects like Cascades Park and Gaines Street infrastructure.

4. 401 East Virginia Street and 4501 Rockbridge Hollow, Tallahassee, FL

These two addresses are linked to John and Bradford Lewis and were listed for 45 separate donations by 9 different businesses and two individuals. The donations totaled approximately $14,000.

John Lewis was the founder of Superlube and with his son, Bradford, own a number of local businesses including an interest in the Red Elephant Pizza restaurants.

5. 4223 Capital Circle Northwest, Tallahassee, FL

This address was listed for 20 separate donations by 3 different business names and two individuals. The donations totaled $7,250. The principals and individuals responsible for the donations were Emory and Catherine Mayfield.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

The Mayfield’s are listed as principals with M of Tallahassee Inc., a construction company that is currently contracted to work on Cascades Park,

6. P.O. Box 2068, Tallahassee, FL

This address was listed for 20 separate donations by 5 different business names and one individual. The donations totaled approximately $7,000. The main principal listed for the businesses is Kim Williams.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

Marapan Recycling, a business owned by Mr. Williams, has a contract with the City of Tallahassee to recycle residential waste.

7. 507 East Call Street, Tallahassee, FL

This address was listed for 15 separate donations by 2 different individuals. The donations totaled approximately $6,273. The individuals were Nancy Linnan and James York.

Nancy Linnan practices primarily in the areas of environmental/land use and administrative law and government consulting. In the growth management area, she works with developments of regional impact, comprehensive plan amendments, sector plans, and local land use approvals.

8. 1080 Commerce Blvd., Midway, FL

This address was listed for 19 separate donations by 4 different businesses. The donations totaled approximately $6,250. The address is home to Ajax Construction.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

Ajax Construction was recently awarded the contract to build the Public Safety Complex.

9. 18851 NE 29th Ave, Suite 1010, Miami, FL

This address was listed for 10 separate donations by 5 different businesses and one individual. The donations totaled approximately $6,000. The address is listed as the location for lobbyist Ron Book.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONNECTION

Mr. Book has had the lobbyist contract for the City of Tallahassee for a number of years.

10. 550 East Georgia Street, Tallahassee, FL

This address was listed for 15 separate donations by 3 different businesses and one individual. The donations totaled approximately $4,950. The individual donor, Dean Minardi, is linked to the business contributions.

  donors, Local campaigns