At least on paper, this year’s quiet election for Florida agriculture commissioner is hardly a campaign at all.
Incumbent commissioner Wilton Simpson is running for re-election with the endorsement of President Donald Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and 61 of the state’s 67 sheriffs. He entered the race in April with $33 million stashed across four political action committees. His opponents, combined, had about $40,000 on hand.
Despite Simpson’s towering cash advantage, special interests have continued to pour cash into the commissioner’s coffers, according to campaign finance records from four Simpson-controlled political committees: Friends of Wilton Simpson, Home Grown PAC, Future Florida and Florida Green PAC.
This year, Simpson’s campaign and his committees have collected $4.1 million in political contributions from sugar growers, ranchers, supermarkets, lobbyists, a fireworks distributor and one landowner who recently sold a $10 million conservation easement to the state, among other donors.
“They’re trying to buy access and influence with the candidate in the hope that they’ll receive favorable treatment once the candidate is elected,” said Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a watchdog group that aims to promote integrity in government and expose public corruption.
Florida campaign finance laws limit direct contributions to candidates to $3,000 per person each election. But there’s no limit on the amount of money companies can donate to candidates’ political committees, and — unlike the federal government — Florida has no rules limiting coordination between candidates and their committees.
“There’s nothing illegal about it. It’s just the way the game is played here in Tallahassee,” said Wilcox. “It erodes the public’s confidence that government is working in the public’s best interest and not the best interests of these large campaign contributors.”
Simpson did not respond to a request for an interview or emailed questions about his fundraising.
‘The appearance of pay-to-play’
In June, Friends of Wilton Simpson collected $100,000 from Siboney Ranch, a 1,162-acre cattle ranch in Okeechobee County. A few months earlier, Simpson’s department paid Siboney Ranch nearly $10 million for a conservation easement.
Siboney Ranch is officially registered to a law firm in West Palm Beach, but its address is the same as Siboney Contracting Co., a construction supply company owned by Enrique Tomeu. Tomeu’s personal trust gave Friends of Wilton Simpson another $100,000 on the same day as the donation from Siboney Ranch.
“It has the appearance of pay-to-play,” said Wilcox.
Tomeu and Siboney Ranch did not respond to requests for comment.
Sugar rush
This year, Simpson’s committees received more than $690,000 from farms, ranches, food distributors, supermarkets, pet food suppliers and other agriculture-related donors that his department oversees. Simpson’s campaign got at least another $314,000 in direct donations from companies and people who listed an agriculture-related occupation.
Florida’s biggest sugar growers, Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar, gave Simpson’s committees $250,000 and $102,500, respectively. But they may have funneled most of their giving through other political committees.
U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals are major contributors to Florida PC, Florida Jobs PAC and Florida Chamber of Commerce PAC, which collectively gave Simpson another $655,000. Florida PC shuffled money into The Committee and Florida Farmers, two committees that gave Simpson an additional $95,000.
As senate president, Simpson helped pass a law that shielded sugar growers from lawsuits over the air pollution they cause when they burn their fields. As agriculture commissioner, he championed a farm bill that would originally have made it easier for sugar growers to sue environmentalists, scientists and journalists who published unflattering information about the industry’s pollution. (That language was scrapped before the bill passed.)
Senate friends
Some of Simpson’s biggest benefactors have donated millions of dollars to his committees since he was the president of the state senate, allowing him to fill his campaign chest for this year’s race long before he announced his candidacy.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida gave Friends of Wilton Simpson $1 million this year — continuing a streak of donations dating back to Simpson’s state senate days, when he helped broker a multi-billion-dollar gambling deal between the Seminole Tribe and the state.
NextEra Energy, the parent company of Florida Power & Light, gave Simpson’s committees $250,000. NextEra and FPL have given Simpson’s committees more than $1.6 million over the years.
As a state senator, Simpson pushed to remove Florida’s longtime Public Counsel, a consumer advocate who fights utility rate hikes on behalf of Floridians, and replace him with an industry lobbyist shortly before FPL asked for a record-setting rate hike. Simpson also muscled a bill through the legislature to end “net metering,” a practice that allows Floridians to sell power from their solar panels to FPL at retail rates. Gov. DeSantis vetoed the bill, saying it would raise costs for families.
As agriculture commissioner, Simpson oversees the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Energy, which makes energy policy recommendations and manages energy efficiency and renewable energy programs throughout the state.
“The investor-owned utilities want to stay on Wilton Simpson’s good side,” said Shelby Green, a researcher at the Energy & Policy Institute, a watchdog group that monitors utilities. “Maybe they feel obligated to based on their past working relationship, where they’ve used Simpson as a bill sponsor or as a senate president to push through bills that have allowed FPL and the other investor-owned utilities to…make more money off of their customers.”
Gunmaker Sig Sauer donated $50,000 to Friends of Wilton Simpson and $270,000 to state legislators ahead of a February vote on a failed bill that would have shielded gun manufacturers from product liability lawsuits in Florida. Sig Sauer has faced more than 100 lawsuits nationwide alleging that its P320 pistol has a design flaw that makes it fire unintentionally. Although Simpson no longer has a vote in the senate, he still wields influence in the chamber and, as agriculture commissioner, oversees concealed weapons licenses.
Finance fireworks
American Promotional Events, the maker of TNT Fireworks, gave Friends of Wilton Simpson $32,500 this year — doubling its total giving to Simpson throughout his career.
As agriculture commissioner, Simpson oversees the Florida Forest Service, which has the power to issue statewide bans on fireworks during dry years when wildfire risk is high. Although historic droughts have put Florida on pace to break wildfire records this year, Simpson issued a press release in June declaring “Floridians Can Let Freedom Ring During Fourth of July and America 250 Celebrations.”
In the press release, Simpson urged Floridians to be careful because “the past six months have been one of the state’s busiest fire seasons in recent memory.”
Nicolás Rivero is an environmental accountability reporter at The Florida Trib. He can be reached at nicolas.rivero@floridatrib.org.
