For the second straight month, Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long has topped her previous best fundraising figure.
The month of Sept. saw Long, a 70-year-old Democrat and former state representative from Seminole, reel-in $11,800 — the highest total contribution figure of her then five-month-old reelection campaign.
Long, however, beat that Sept. high this past month — Oct. — by $700, for a total of $12,500 raised during that reporting period. Her new campaign contribution sum now sits at approximately $45,958 — collected over the past six months.
Those Oct. contributions came in the form of 57 checks. Two were written out for the maximum allowable $1,000, eight were written out for $500, 14 for between $200 and $300, and 33 for between $50 and $150.
One of the $1,000 contributions came from Trevor Burgess, President and CEO of C1 Bank and its bank holding company C1 Financial.
C1 Bank is the official bank of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and the Outback Bowl, which is held each year at Raymond James Stadium. C1 is also a corporate partner of the Miami HEAT.
The other $1,000 donation came from Paramedics Plus, an LLC which currently has a five-year $246 million contract with the county to provide all emergency, non-emergency and inter-facility ambulance transportation throughout Pinellas. The contract between the county and Paramedics Plus was entered into last March, 2015.
Two names that jump out from Long’s Oct. donors list include actor Richard Felix, who donated $100, and is best known for the films Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), Exorcismus (2010), and Fragile (2005); and former Gov. Charlie Crist, who gave $500.
A few more of the $500 donors include the St. Petersburg restaurant and bar 400 Beach Seafood & Tap House, New Orleans law firm Adams & Reese, Tampa transportation logistics consultant Transpo Consulting, and Brandon government and legislative affairs consultant RSA Consulting Group.
Long’s only expenditures during the month of Oct. were $188 for postage stamps, and $500 for food and drinks at a fundraising event held at 400 Beach Seafood & Tap House.
So far, Commissioner Long is the only candidate filed to run for County Commission’s District 1 seat.
Some of her past donors of local political repute include two fellow PSTA board members — St. Petersburg’s District 4 City Councilmember Darden Rice, and Dunedin Mayor Juliana Buljalski — as well as former Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala, Madeira Beach Mayor Travis Palladeno, fellow Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard, and Largo City Commissioner Michael Smith.
In addition to Long’s District 1 seat, County Commission seats for Districts 3, 5, and 7 will also be up for grabs during the 2016 general election, which falls on Nov. 8.
