{"id":110556,"date":"2026-01-08T16:18:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110556\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:18:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:18:44","slug":"political-committee-linked-to-charlie-crist-hauls-record-725k-in-just-7-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110556\/","title":{"rendered":"Political committee linked to Charlie Crist hauls record $725K in just 7 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Pete Shines, the political committee supporting Charlie Crist should he decide to run for St. Pete Mayor, raised $725,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025 over the course of just 49 days, according to Michelle Todd Schorsch, who chairs the committee.<\/p>\n

Crist has not committed to running for Mayor, but has said he\u2019s seriously considering it<\/a>. Todd Schorsch, who is married to Florida Politics Publisher Peter Schorsch, established the committee<\/a> in early November. While it does not officially mention support for Crist \u2014 the committee<\/a> was established to support \u201ccandidates committed to a brighter future\u201d for the city, she previously told Florida Politics \u2014 it is widely expected to fuel an eventual campaign, should Crist run.<\/p>\n

Todd Schorsch has been a longtime ally of Crist, serving as a special assistant to him when he was Florida Governor, a role that put Todd Schorsch at the center of Crist\u2019s political career.<\/p>\n

Fundraising reports for the committee are not due until Jan. 12. Todd Schorsch self-reported information about the committee\u2019s fundraising activity in a press release Wednesday. The donor list includes big names in the Tampa Bay area and beyond, from various sectors and across political ideologies.<\/p>\n

For example, donors include Democrats such as former state Rep. Ben Diamond, former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, and Bob Poe, a former Democratic Party Chair, as well as Republicans such as Brian Ballard, former Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director and former state Rep. Dane Eagle, former gubernatorial Chief of Staff Erik Eikenberg and former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are also several big names in business on the donor list, including billionaire investment banker Trevor Burgess, Bill Edwards, Matt Weidner, Steve Yerrid and others. And two sports icons also donated: former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks and Jimmie Giles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diversity of the donors to the committee demonstrates support for a candidate who can unify St. Petersburg\u2019s unique community, while ensuring the needs of all constituents and stakeholders are met and balanced,\u201d Todd Schorsch said.<\/p>\n

The $725,000 haul appears to be the largest initial fundraising push in city mayoral election history. The St. Pete Shines committee provided historical fundraising data, which Florida Politics independently verified, noting that the committee\u2019s first fundraising quarter total far surpasses all recent mayoral candidates. It\u2019s more than the $513,000 Seamless Florida raised in its first two months to support former Mayor Rick Baker\u2019s 2017 campaign against then-incumbent Rick Kriseman. And it far surpassed Kriseman\u2019s Sunrise PAC\u2019s $72,200 raised over the course of its entire first year.<\/p>\n

Similarly, St. Pete Shines outperformed current Mayor Ken Welch\u2019s PAC\u2019s initial fundraising to the now-defunct Pelican PAC supporting his first mayoral election, which raised just over $25,000 in its first three months. St. Pete Shines also outperformed that committee\u2019s top two months, which saw $233,006 in collection in September 2021 and $178,806 the following month. St. Pete Shines also outraised Welch\u2019s entire 2021 official mayoral campaign, which collected just over $507,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited and humbled by the enormous support from a diverse network of St. Pete stakeholders representing the business community, political interests from both sides of the political aisle, and constituents from all walks of life,\u201d Todd Schorsch said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe record support for St. Petersburg\u2019s continued momentum is humbling, and shows that the Sunshine City is the world\u2019s next premier destination, where experienced leadership is needed to ensure our renaissance is sustainable, not fleeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Crist runs, he\u2019ll challenge Welch, and he\u2019s not likely to be the only one. City Council member Brandi Gabbard has said she is also running. All three are registered Democrats, though the race is nonpartisan. Maria Scruggs, who has run unsuccessfully before, is the only candidate who has actually filed for the race so far.<\/p>\n

Welch\u2019s fundraising numbers have not yet been released for his new political committee, The Pelican Political Action Committee<\/a>. As of September 30, the committee had raised just under $235,000, with the third quarter of 2025 being the top fundraising period, at 142,300 raised. The state revoked<\/a> his previous Pelican PAC over several missteps, including failing to appoint a Treasurer, failing to file required paperwork and not reporting some contributions.<\/p>\n

The new PAC Treasurer, Yolanda Brown, has until January 12 to file its fourth quarter reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Pete Shines, the political committee supporting Charlie Crist should he decide to run for St. Pete Mayor,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3174,56414,56415,3300,22942,3347,56416,10946,20146,56417,56418,56419,2346,56420,37377,56421,202,204,18455,203,37378,199,201,200,56422,3521,3525],"class_list":["post-110556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-ben-diamond","tag-bill-edwards","tag-bob-poe","tag-brandi-gabbard","tag-brian-ballard","tag-charlie-crist","tag-dane-eagle","tag-dave-aronberg","tag-derrick-brooks","tag-erik-eikenberg","tag-george-lemieux","tag-jimmie-giles","tag-ken-welch","tag-matt-weidner","tag-michelle-todd-schorsch","tag-pelican-pac","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-mayoral-election","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-pete-shines","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-steve-yerrid","tag-the-pelican-political-action-committee","tag-yolanda-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}