The campaign treasurer for State Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Cantonment, received a letter on Jan. 4 from the office of Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd questioning expenses totaling $18,650, including a check for $5,114 to Salzman.
Seven checks, totaling $4,115, were dinged for possibly not being made to influence the result of her election.
Made to Influence Election? | |
Escambia Federated Republican Women | $ 35.00 |
Escambia Co. Public School Foundation | $ 500.00 |
Escambia Federated Republican Women | $ 500.00 |
Foundation of Greater FWB Chamber | $ 450.00 |
Escambia Co. Public School Foundation | $ 600.00 |
Walton Republican Women Federated | $ 30.00 |
Republican Party of Florida | $ 2,000.00 |
Total | $ 4,115.00 |
Another 18 checks, totaling $9,421, are being audited because the campaign failed to provide explanations.
Explanation of Transaction Required | |
Junior Achievement Pensacola | $ 150.00 |
Pensacola Breast Cancer Association | $ 100.00 |
Pensacola Chamber | $ 360.00 |
Marcus Pointe Baptist Church | $ 1,500.00 |
Beulah Church | $ 200.00 |
AMI Kids Pensacola | $ 1,000.00 |
Alpha Center | $ 500.00 |
AMI Kids Pensacola | $ 400.00 |
Freedom Foundation of Valley Forge | $ 100.00 |
Temple Beth-EL | $ 100.00 |
AMI Kids Pensacola | $ 103.20 |
Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation | $ 100.00 |
Boy Scouts of America | $ 1,300.00 |
Gulf Coast Veterans Advocacy Council | $ 50.00 |
Pensacola Little Theatre | $ 208.00 |
Seville Rotary | $ 600.00 |
Veterans Memorial Park | $ 1,649.95 |
Pensacola Beach Songwriters Festival | $ 1,000.00 |
Total | $ 9,421.15 |
Several of the expenditures may pass muster if Salzman lists them as sponsorships, not donations. If the campaign does not comply with the request, the Florida Elections Commission can impose civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation.
Meanwhile, Salzman’s Political Action Committee, Committee to Protect Northwest Florida, has been sent nine letters for failure to file reports since September 2020. The PAC has paid $2,275 in fines and received in July 2023 a final notice for $625 in fines that is still outstanding.
Last year, the PAC spent $158,021 – $25,836 in reimbursements to Salzman. She has only one opponent that has pre-filed, Franscine Mathis, who has not raised any money for her campaign.
Her campaign spent $83,967 – bringing her total expenditures in 2023 to $241,988. She has less than a year to go before the November 2024 general election.
In the 2022 election cycle, she faced Mike Hill in the GOP primary and Mathis in the general. Salzman spent $350,359 – only $108,371 more than in the 2023 off-year.
I’m sorry CJ, did you not get the memo that Everybody’s Doing It? So as a die-hard republican, you’ve apparently been okay with everybody else in the GOP who uses their PACs in this fashion, up to, including, and especially Ron DeSantis?–who is, to the best of my knowledge, still under federal investigation for this very type of comingling of funds and activities:
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“BREAKING: Campaign Legal Center Files FEC Complaint Against Ron DeSantis and State PAC for Violating “Soft Money” Ban
DATE MAY 30, 2023
https://campaignlegal.org/press-releases/breaking-campaign-legal-center-files-fec-complaint-against-ron-desantis-and-state
“Watchdog group accuses Ron DeSantis of breaking campaign finance law”
https://apnews.com/article/desantis-pac-campaign-complaint-never-back-down-21cbc0eaedb309c0159b008df0485ea9
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I honestly can’t decide, CJ, whether your comment thus falls into your “charmingly, wistfully out of touch” missives or your “deliberately, disingenuously ignorant” genre. Which is truly maddening, as you put a ton of time into researching important matters and providing actual data’facts that the average person doesn’t have the time or inclination to go get. But then the contextual cocktail in which you deliver what’s real is so muddled with fallacies, bias, and lacunae that it’s difficult to separate the herbs from the alcohol.
Anyway, what we have substituting for the rule of law among our state agencies these days is simply a formula of degree + politicking. Apparently, Michelle’s PAC/campaign bleeds hit a degree of ridiculousness that, whether technically illegal or no, there’s enough there for somebody with influence at Byrd’s office to rattle her cage.
Now we’ll see whether running around knocking doors in sub freezing temperatures for DeSantis yields her the degree of protection she and the others up there freezing their keisters off for nothing else no doubt hope it will.
This isn’t about accountability. It’s simply more Lord of the Flies Fascism brought to you by the Florida Greedy Oligarchy Party.
Thanks for the education about Salzman’s Political Action Committee (PAC) – “Committee to Protect Northwest Pensacola.” A more accurate name might be – “Committee to Keep Michelle Salzman in Office.” I’d seen her private PAC listed on campaign finance reports but not thought to find out what it was or who was directing it. I hadn’t realized that a candidate could set up their own PAC as a shadow campaign slush fund. How can that even be legal? If not, someone should file a complaint about that fact. Salzman’s PAC is based out of the same mail box at the same UPS Store on West Nine Mile Road as her campaign. Salzman is the chair. Dave Murzin is the Treasurer and Registered Agent. A few contributions really stand out like several from the Levin Papantonio Rafferty law firm that total up to $47,500 and those totaling up to $20,890.25 from the Lewis Bear Company. Florida Power & Light (Nextera) has given a total of $5,000 to Salzman’s PAC. A PAC called “Citizens for Pensacola” set up by Jim Reeves in 2021 the day before his son filed to run for mayor and for the stated organization purpose of getting his son elected donated $2,000 to Salzman’s PAC. She returned the favor many times with her PAC donating $9,000 to to Citizens for Pensacola PAC that has, as example, given money to DeSantis, Reeves and other Republican candidates. Salzman’s PAC donated $1000 to Reeves’ campaign. That’s in addition to the $967.22 Salzman and her husband donated to Reeves’ campaign. Two of Salzman’s PAC expenditures were to buy something at “Lionfish Apparel” and really jump out at you. The second expenditure on December 18, 2023 described as “Event Expense” was for $7,256.25. Salzman is listed in this old story: https://www.cityandstatefl.com/politics/2022/10/florida-political-money-puzzle-political-action-committees-campaign-contributions-elections/379093/