TALLAHASSEE --- Annette Taddeo, the former state legislator running as the Democratic candidate for the Cabinet office of Chief Financial Officer, has qualified for the state program giving public campaign money to eligible statewide candidates.
But Taddeo remains far behind in overall fundraising compared to incumbent Republican CFO Blaise Ingoglia with voters already casting ballots and the election down to its final weeks.
Ingoglia is among the statewide candidates who didn't apply for the state funding program, which restricts participating candidates to a spending cap of $1 for each registered Florida voter --- there were 13.48 million registered voters for the August primary. The cap is $2 per voter for those running for governor.
In the 12th week of distributions, Taddeo picked up nearly $65,000 on Friday through the state’s Public Campaign Finance Program, which has now distributed $4.4 million this election cycle to a handful of statewide candidates.
Taddeo, who applied for the state funding program when she qualified to run in June, had to reach a threshold of $100,000 in contributions from Florida residents.
The threshold is $150,000 for gubernatorial candidates.
When created, the program was promoted as a way of reducing the influence of well-funded special interest donors by helping underfunded candidates compete in costly statewide elections. But critics have long described it as welfare for politicians.
The Legislature has twice asked voters to end the program, but the efforts in 2010 and 2024 both failed to reach the needed 60 percent approval.
READ MORE: Democrats Annette Taddeo and Earle Ford compete to face CFO Blaise Ingoglia in November
The public money used matches contributions of $250 or less from individuals residing in Florida to the campaign accounts of statewide candidates that applied and qualified for the funding.
Through Oct. 2, Taddeo has raised a little more than $175,000 through her campaign account. The political committee Friends of Annette Taddeo had picked up nearly $400,000, which doesn’t count toward the matching funds.
At the same time, Ingoglia, who was appointed to the Cabinet office in July 2025 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, raised $1.5 million through his campaign account. The political committee Friends of Blaise Ingoglia and Government Gone Wild PAC combined to have $1.5 million on hand.
Ingoglia has also received more than $1 million worth of in-kind assistance, mostly from the Republican Party of Florida for consulting and staffing.
A poll out Friday by The James Madison Institute put the CFO contest as statistically even, while the races for governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general and agriculture commissioner showed the Republican candidates up by 10 percentage point gaps.
David Jolly, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, continues to draw the most from the state program.
Jolly picked up just over $241,000 on Friday to bring his total for this cycle to nearly $2.6 million.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican candidate for governor, got almost $39,000 on Friday, pushing his state funding to $1.07 million.
In the contest for attorney general, the state program on Friday distributed $16,435 to Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez and $2,792 to Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier.
Uthmeier, who DeSantis appointed to the office last year, has now received $170,000 from the state. Rodriguez, a former state legislator who worked in the Biden Administration, has received $335,000.
Joey Mendoza Atkins, a lawyer from Miami and the Democratic candidate for Agriculture Commissioner, applied for the funding but hasn’t raised enough to qualify for the program.
In addition to putting up $8,480 to meet the qualifying fee, Atkins has raised just $47,000.
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, the only Cabinet officer running for reelection, also didn’t apply for the state funding program.
Simpson has raised $1.2 million through his campaign account, of which more than $800,000 has been spent. Simpson also oversees four political committees --- Florida Green PAC, Friends of Wilton Simpson, Future Florida and Home Grown PAC --- that combined to hold $22.7 million entering the final month of the campaign.
