Maxwell: Disgusting waste. Florida taxpayers fund political campaigns

Florida's race for governor is on a blistering financial pace with Republican Byron Donalds leading the way in record fashion. So far, Donalds has collected more than $100 million from gambling interests, data centers, billionaires and private prison operators — all of whom want something from the guy who might control their financial fate. The idea of special interests making down payments on public officials might make you queasy. But what should really make you wanna toss your cookies is knowing that Florida taxpayers are also funding Donalds' campaign. And also the campaigns of David Jolly, James Uthmeier and others. That's because all of these politicians decided to help themselves to what's officially known as Florida's "Public Campaign Finance" program — a program also known as "welfare for politicians." The public-assistance initiative started with noble intentions, meant to reward candidates who choose to rely on small grassroots donations from individual citizens rather than giant checks from special interests. Today, however, the program is a perversion of what was originally promised. The fundraising frontrunners often get more public assistance than their underdog opponents. And all publicly funded recipients are still free to chase and cash giant checks from special interests. This program needs fixing. And that's easily doable. All lawmakers need to do is honor the promises made to voters in the first place. Back in 1998, the public was asked to approve a plan that would let candidates for statewide office get matching money for small, grassroots donations of $250 or less, as long as the candidates also agreed to limit their overall fundraising to a few million dollars. Voters liked the idea and approved it. But then, when Tallahassee lawmakers implemented the program, they bastardized it. They raised the spending caps and allowed candidates to qualify matching funds by only applying those caps to the candidates' official campaign accounts. Candidates can still set up separate PACs where they can collect and spend as much as they want. And boy, have they. The Friends of Byron Donalds PAC has taken checks as big as $10 million a piece. Yet Donalds has still been able to collect $886,000 from taxpayers by keeping the checks to his official campaign account smaller. In other words: The entire program is now a fraud. It's like letting a billionaire collect food stamps. Editorial: The rich and powerful friends of Byron Donalds Jolly, the Democrat, has actually collected more matching funds so far this year — a total of $1.9 million. Theoretically, that's in sync with the program's goal of helping the candidates who rely less on big donations from special interests. But since Jolly has also taken six- and seven-figure checks for his separate, Florida 2026 political committee, it still violates the spirit of this public assistance program. Perhaps more importantly, in recent years, it was the candidates who took the most money from special interests who also collected the most money from taxpayers, undermining the program's original intent. In 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis funded his re-election campaign with more tax dollars — about $7 million worth — than all the other candidates combined, even though he was the financial frontrunner. And Republicans Ashley Moody and Jimmy Patronis collected more than $500,000 in public money in their campaigns for attorney general and CFO — even though they'd outraised their longshot opponents 20-to-1. As I said at the time: In the battle of David vs. Goliath, Florida taxpayers help fund the Goliaths. So far this cycle, it appears that the Democratic Davids have collected more public assistance. But that's mainly because the Republican Goliaths aren't working as hard on collecting small, grassroots donations — the ones that qualify for matching funds. They're instead focusing on six-figure checks. Still, they want every taxpayer dollar they can get. Interestingly, some of these same politicians fume about welfare in other instances. Donalds has bemoaned what he has called a "welfare state" in America. And DeSantis rejected federal assistance for hungry children and families without health insurance. Apparently boot straps are only for the little people. It would be simple to fix this program's problems. Legislators must simply tweak the law to say that candidates can only qualify for matching public money if they don't open separate campaign committees that allow them to skirt the rules. (The other option would be to scrap the program altogether. But an amendment proposal to do that didn't clear the required 60% threshold with voters in 2024.) Amusingly, if you ever pin down state lawmakers, most admit the program needs fixing. In fact, in 2017, then-House Speaker Richard Corcoran railed against the subsidies with the Republican lawmaker saying: "You really have to be clueless or just plain selfish to accept money from our state coffers that could go to our schoolchildren, first responders, or be put back in the pockets of our taxpayers." But then after he was done blustering, Corcoran and his fellow legislators didn't do anything to fix the problem … because too many of their political pals like gorging at the taxpayer-funded trough. Public campaign financing: A good idea corrupted by big money | Editorial