As important as those observations are, they are obvious. It doesn\u2019t take a political junkie like me to connect those dots.<\/p>\n
But there were plenty of more insider-baseball nuggets buried within the latest round of finance reports that, while they may not be as easy to spot, have implications on the future of this race that are just as important to note as the top lines.<\/p>\n So with that, here are five things I think about the latest political committee fundraising reports.<\/p>\n Brandi Gabbard isn\u2019t using her PC<\/p>\n Gabbard told Florida Politics that while she has a political committee, Forward Together PC<\/a>, she\u2019s not raising funds to it, opting instead to focus on her official campaign account.<\/p>\n There are a few caveats to note here. First, there are voters who will find this decision noble. And they\u2019re not entirely wrong. Political committees, by design, make it easier to shield donations. She can proudly claim the mantle of full campaign transparency.<\/p>\n But how will she get that message out?<\/p>\n That brings me to my second caveat, which is that we don\u2019t know how much Gabbard raised via her campaign account \u2014 those reports aren\u2019t due until the end of the week. It will be interesting to see if her campaign activity rivals the funds Crist and Welch raised to their PCs.<\/p>\n My money is on, she didn\u2019t. That\u2019s not a dig on Gabbard, it\u2019s an acknowledgment of facts. Political committees do not have the same restrictions as campaign accounts. It\u2019s why you see $10,000, $20,000, even $50,000 contributions to PCs. The most a donor can give to a mayoral campaign is $1,000.<\/p>\n But even with those caveats, it\u2019s troubling to see a sitting City Council member whose first mayoral debate performance was objectively good ignoring what is perhaps the most important resource at their disposal.<\/p>\n It makes me wonder if Gabbard has not taken into account the approximately 40% increase in the cost of running a campaign during an even-numbered year as compared to an odd number. This is the first time Gabbard will appear on an even-numbered year\u2019s ballot, with both her City Council elections having taken place before the city switched up its election calendar.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because turnout in even-numbered years is about 40% higher than in off years.<\/p>\n At any rate, without a PC it\u2019s hard to imagine Gabbard having the resources to communicate her priorities and differentiate herself from Crist and Welch. If the goal is to just make a runoff, Gabbard will need every option available to her to make the cut. By ignoring her PC, she\u2019s cutting off an important lifeline.<\/p>\n Welch\u2019s donations all came from those with business before the city<\/p>\n That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the whole No. 2.<\/p>\n But for the sake of providing receipts, let\u2019s walk through who they are.<\/p>\n Welch\u2019s top donor to his St. Petersburg Progress PC<\/a> was Sun Labs USA, run by Sidd Pagidipati and the Pagidipati family. Sidd Pagidipati is a principal with Ellison Construction, which was part of the stalled Historic Gas Plant District project. Sun Labs kicked in $50,000 to Welch\u2019s PC, St. Petersburg Progress.<\/p>\n Reza Yazdani donated $25,000. Yazdani owns a large parcel of land near Eckerd College, on which he has plans to develop<\/a> a 12-story, 96-unit condo complex. So far, the city has denied Yazdani\u2019s variance requests, including a height variance and the overall site plan.<\/p>\n Then there is Altis Cardinal, which dropped in with a $24,000 contribution to Welch\u2019s PC. The firm is behind an $800 million mixed-use development<\/a> in the Skyway Marina District that\u2019s already under construction, but whose plans will span several years and require additional interaction with the city.<\/p>\n The other three donors \u2014 Salem Gharsalli, Morgan MacMillan,\u00a0and Jarrett Wolfe\u00a0\u2014 each contributed $5,000. And each either have business before the city now, or could reasonably at some point in the near future.<\/p>\n MacMillan is the co-founder of St. Pete Country Fest, which will return to Vinoy Park this November. Various city approvals are needed for such large-scale events at city parks. Wolfe, meanwhile, is the founder and managing partner for SmartChoice, a communications technology company that expanded to St. Pete from New York City earlier this decade. And Gharsalli runs a chain of local restaurants<\/a>, Salem\u2019s Fresh Eats, whose continued expansion could require action and\/or support from the city.<\/p>\n What some see as shady is actually defensive<\/p>\n I have heard some criticism about Crist\u2019s political fundraising relying too heavily on contributions from political committees. The concern is about transparency \u2014 funding from a political committee is much harder to track than from an individual donor or specific company.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s what many people don\u2019t know: There are a lot of donors who wanted to donate to Crist, but feared doing so would risk relationships with the city in the interim. Some have said they were specifically intimidated by the Mayor, who suggested that if their names show up on opposing campaign finance reports, business before the city will suffer.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fair to want transparency in political contributions, but it\u2019s also important to understand why discretion is sometimes unavoidable.<\/p>\n Large no more<\/p>\n Former St. Pete Fire Chief Jim Large had a pretty good first fundraising haul, with more than $37,000. It\u2019s not the type of fundraising rollout that makes a successful candidate in a race where six figures is the minimum. But it was respectable for a lower-tier candidate attempting to run with the big dogs.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Mike-Suarez-Display-Ads-728x90-px.png\")
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