Pols Look For Holiday Bucks From Broward
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Broward’s deep-pocketed campaign contributors are playing Santa to two out-of-town pols this week.
Gwen Graham, daughter of former U. S. Senator and Gov. Bob Graham, will be raising money on Tuesday for her congressional campaign in the Panhandle.
Gwen Graham
Richard DeNapoli, former Broward Republican chair who moved to the Sarasota area, will hold a fundraiser on Wednesday for his state House race.
Graham’s race is the most interesting. The Panhandle’s Second Congressional District is a tough place for any Democrat to win, but the Graham name should count for something.
U. S. Rep. Steve Southerland, a Republican who beat seven-term Democrat Allen Boyd in the 2010 GOP sweep, currently holds the Second Congressional District.
The fundraiser’s host committee includes some of Broward’s biggest Democratic names — lawyer/fund raiser Mitchell Berger, Broward party chair Mitch Ceasar, former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, lobbyist George and Seth Platt and former Bob Graham staffer and now lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker, among others.
That’s no surprise.
Bob Graham was from Miami Lakes and his base was South Florida. He remains extremely popular in Broward, eight years after he left the Senate.
Graham is already hammering Southerland for supporting the sequester and voting against reauthorization of the bipartisan Violence Against Women Act.
She’s an attorney who spent 13 years as a stay at home Mom and a PTA activist. She has also worked as director of labor relations for the Leon County Schools. Gwen is married to a cop who became a lawyer and is currently the general counsel for Florida’s Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles.
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December 16th, 2013 at 3:31 pm
“Graham’s race is the most interesting.”
Truer words have never been said.
December 16th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Hope she wins.
December 16th, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Gwen Graham’s victory would be a big setback for the Tea Party fools in North Florida. I hate what they are doing to this country.
December 16th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
George Platt is being sued as one of the guarantors on a 2mil loan that appears to have gone belly up.
Maybe he is looking for a bailout?
http://www.clerk-17th-flcourts.org/Clerkwebsite/BCCOC2/OdysseyPA/CaseSummary.aspx?CaseID=6996752&hidSearchType=party_case&DisplayCitation=no&CaseNumber=CACE13016175&SearchType=