Talk about being “busted.” A Tallahassee attorney who fronted “large sums of money” to a professional poker player is suing after the player lost over $22,000 of that bankroll in unauthorized side gambling, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
Blaise Ingoglia wants to put the Florida GOP’s second quarter fundraising numbers into context, telling state Republicans that a number of factors, including the possibility of special sessions, contributed to the mediocre haul. Ingoglia, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and a Spring Hill state representative, acknowledged that second quarter fundraising numbers “were not great,” but told committee members that those numbers were “not inconsistent with what has been raised in similar situations.” “What was completely glossed over…
Sen. Jack Latvala is stepping up to help the Republican Party of Florida, and he’s calling on others to follow his lead. The Clearwater Republican took to Twitter on Wednesday and said he plans to raise $25,000 to the Florida GOP in both the third and fourth quarter, for a total of $50,000 in the final six months of 2017. Latvala, a prolific fundraiser, then challenged others to match it. The pledge, and subsequent challenge, comes on the heels of…
Republican state Rep. Shawn Harrison is holding a campaign kickoff party later this month to launch his re-election bid in House District 63. The event, hosted by House Majority 2016 and featuring special guest Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, is Thursday, June 29, beginning 5 p.m. at the historic Tampa Theater, 711 N. Franklin St. Included on the extensive list of local GOP leaders making the host committee are House Speaker Richard Corcoran from Land O’Lakes, and Speakers-to-be Jose Oliva and…
Blaise Ingoglia was part of a small group of state party heads who met with President Donald Trump earlier this month to talk about issues important to their communities. Ingoglia, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and a state representative, was one of 10 Republican party leaders, primarily from swing states to meet with Trump and Reince Priebus, the president’s chief of staff, during a meeting in Washington, D.C. last week. The Spring Hill Republican said the president…
House members voted Monday in favor of a budget conference committee report that keeps the state’s Agency for State Technology. The measure passed on a vote of 109-2. The House had earlier angled for a major overhaul, even doing away with the agency, but agreed to keep it intact during budget negotiations. The agency came under fire in January after a report by Florida Auditor General Sherrill F. Norman’s office laid out a laundry list of security and other problems at the…
Florida’s Republican Party has governed Florida for less than a third of the past 150 years. After the Civil War, a coalition of newly enfranchised blacks, a small number of native white Republicans and northern carpetbaggers dominated Florida politics from 1865 to around 1885. After the blacks were stripped of their voting rights at the end of Reconstruction, the Republican Party ceased to be a political force. By 1900, more than 90 percent of black voters were dropped from the…
