Jacob Ogles recently published an article entitled “Francis Rooney, development leaders to raise big bucks for Gary Price in Naples:…and “big bucks it is”.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/650940-francis-rooney-development-leaders-to-raise-big-bucks-for-gary-price-in-naples/
According to Mayoral candidate Price’s recent campaign finance report, he has raised $188,000, with additional developer sponsor events on the horizon.
It is quite shocking to review the list of donors—the preponderance of whom are developers, architects, real estate investors etc—all in some way connected to the Real Estate industry. One “developer” alone contributed $10,000 via various related companies so as not to exceed the $1,000 maximum contribution per “donor”.
It is also disturbing to note that many contributors do not reside in the city!
And what is not widely known is that one of mayoral candidate Price’s major sponsors (via an affiliated company) has been awarded over $23 million dollars in contracts by the City of Naples . Another major sponsor has benefited from many of their projects having received variance/deviations to the land development code.
It is estimated that Gary Price voted as a prior PAB and/or council member over 85% of the time to approve variances and or deviations to the Land development/zoning codes.
The amount of money being raised by developers, architects and other Real Estate interests in trying to influence a City of Naples election is unprecedented. One has to wonder why? And what this will mean if Gary Price is elected.