{"id":372948,"date":"2026-08-16T11:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T11:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/372948\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T11:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T11:44:09","slug":"money-pours-into-pivotal-orange-county-mayor-commission-races-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/372948\/","title":{"rendered":"Money pours into pivotal Orange County mayor, commission races \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voters in Orange County are faced this year with what is likely to be the most consequential election cycle in its history<\/a> \u2013 and with the attention comes enormous sums of money pouring into the race.<\/p>\n

Five seats on the Board of County Commissioners are up for grabs this year on a commission that expands from six districts to eight. Most importantly, four candidates \u2014 Chris Messina, Tiffany Moore Russell, Stephanie Murphy and Maya Uribe \u2014 are vying for the all-powerful position of mayor, which serves as the county\u2019s chief executive and administrator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s hyperbole,\u201d said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. \u201cYou\u2019ve got six out of nine people who could potentially have new faces and that could really impact the direction that Orange County takes over not only the next four years, but maybe longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CampaignCampaign flyers for the Orange County mayoral candidates Chris Messina, Tiffany Moore Russell, Stephanie Murphy and Mayra Uribe. The four candidates seeking the region\u2019s most powerful office will face off in the Aug. 18 primary. (Rich Pope\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Murphy, a former congresswoman, has spent nearly $1.5 million on the race so far, roughly a half-million dollars more than her three opponents combined, according to campaign finance reports on the county election supervisor\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

Her fundraising haul is highlighted by six-figure donations from her federal PAC, Walt Disney World, billionaires J. Hyatt Brown and Michael Bloomberg, and Avalon Park developer Beat Kahli.<\/p>\n

Voters this week received a mailer from Uribe\u2019s political committee, Action For Florida, charging that \u201cMurphy and her developer buddies want to develop the rural areas of Orange County.\u201d The phrase \u201cFollow the Money\u201d is also in Disney-style font next to a list of Murphy\u2019s backers and big type reading \u201cOrange County is Not For Sale!\u201d<\/p>\n

Uribe, an incumbent county commissioner, has spent $550,481 so far. Tiffany Moore Russell, the incumbent Clerk of the Courts, has spent $295,590. And Chris Messina, an entrepreneur, has spent about $130,000.<\/p>\n

Murphy, Uribe and Moore Russell are Democrats and Messina is a Republican. Though the race is nonpartisan, some of the candidates have taken great pains to tie themselves to their parties.<\/p>\n

A flyer from Messina states, \u201cThere is only one conservative candidate\u201d in the race, while Moore Russell touts some of the local Democrats who have endorsed her, including county Property Appraiser Amy Mercado and Public Defender Melissa Vickers.<\/p>\n

However, many of the county\u2019s biggest names in politics \u2013 including outgoing Democratic mayor Jerry Demings \u2013 haven\u2019t endorsed anyone in the race.<\/p>\n

The four candidates have varying plans to address the biggest challenges facing the county, including housing affordability<\/a>, transportation<\/a> and growing the economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, representing hoteliers and tourism interests, is backing two candidates. After having already endorsed Murphy, the powerful group announced last week it was backing Moore Russell as well. The association didn\u2019t respond to an inquiry as to why it chose both.<\/p>\n

Four of the five commission races, including the contests for two new seats, also are set for primaries Tuesday. Combined, the 28 candidates on the primary ballot have raised nearly $850,000 and spent more than $600,000 so far in this election cycle.<\/p>\n

District 6 incumbent Mike Scott and challenger Lawanna Gelzer, the owner of a child-care business, top the fund-raising charts among all commission candidates, having each raised a little over $80,000 for their campaigns.<\/p>\n

The majority of money in Gelzer\u2019s account came from $52,000 in loans to herself and donations from relatives. Scott edged her by 656 votes four years ago.<\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s campaign total includes $10,000 from business entities associated with Kahli, the Avalon Park developer;\u00a0 $4,000 from donors associated with RIDA Development Corporation, which manages the Hilton Orlando on I-Drive; $3,000 from donors associated with Rosen hotels; $3,000 from enterprises associated with ICON Park on I-Drive; $2,000 from the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association\u2019s political action committees; $2,000 from entities related to Universal Orlando Resort; $1,000 from a firefighters union; and smaller donations from people associated with the Orlando Dreamers\u2019 appeal for tourist-tax money to build a baseball stadium near SeaWorld.<\/p>\n

Businesses tied to Kahli also gave thousands to Kamia Brown in District 2; Shannon Currie in District 7; and Victor Torres in District 8.<\/p>\n

Many others in addition to Gelzer self-funded their campaigns with hefty loans.<\/p>\n

In the new District 7, which includes College Park, Maitland, Pine Hills and Rosemont, lawyer Beryl Thompson-McClary had loaned her campaign $33,000 at last count, according to campaign finance reports, and has received multiple contributions from individuals in the music industry.<\/p>\n

Her husband,\u00a0R&B musician Thomas McClary, was one of the founders of The Commodores and shares a writing credit on the group\u2019s 1977 funk hit \u201cBrick House\u201d<\/a> with Lionel Ritchie and other members of the group.<\/p>\n

Fellow District 7 candidate and former Orlando city commissioner Vicki Vargo has loaned her campaign more than $45,000.<\/p>\n

In District 8, George Haas, an engineer and a first-time candidate, has loaned his campaign $46,000.<\/p>\n

On Friday, attention in the commission races focused on a sign hanging from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association headquarters, which faces Interstate 4 north of Lee Road in Winter Park, suggesting the group endorsed District 7 candidate Deidre Graybill, who is the 2026 president-elect of the Realtor Association.<\/p>\n

But the giant banner\u2019s fine print, too small for motorists to see, shows it was paid for by Cliff Long, the organization\u2019s chief executive officer, \u201cindependently of any candidate or committee.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters in Orange County are faced this year with what is likely to be the most consequential election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2811,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-372948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372948","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=372948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}