Defending Rural Florida Calls for Campaign Finance Reform to Stop Developer-Driven Corruption

Defending Rural Florida is calling for urgent and meaningful campaign finance reform to protect our communities from the outsized influence of developer money in state politics. Across Florida, rural towns, family farms, and working-class neighborhoods are being sacrificed to serve the interests of those who can afford to buy legislative outcomes, often at the expense of local control, conservation, and common sense.

The people of Florida have lost their voice in the Florida Legislature. Once a body intended to represent the interests of everyday citizens, it is now dominated by a flood of special interest money. This influence is not just immense, it’s cloaked in secrecy, routed through a tangled web of legal loopholes and obscure financial channels that effectively drown out the public’s will.

At the heart of this system is Florida Statutes Chapter 106, which outlines the state’s campaign financing laws. While these laws were designed to regulate political fundraising and spending, they have instead become a roadmap for how to legally launder massive amounts of money into state politics.

Three types of committees are sanctioned under this statute: Political Committees (PCs), Affiliated Party Committees (APCs), and Electioneering Communications Organizations (ECOs). Each of these entities can accept unlimited contributions and make unlimited expenditures, a blank check for influence. These organizations are not only allowed to coordinate directly with candidates and their campaign teams, but they can also freely funnel money to each other and to political parties.

This has created an untraceable money merry-go-round.

Imagine a large corporation or wealthy developer wanting to support a specific candidate. Instead of giving directly to the campaign, which is subject to strict limits and public disclosure, they donate a massive sum to a Political Committee. That committee then sends a portion to an ECO, which may send some to a Party Committee, and so on. Each transfer muddies the trail, making it virtually impossible for the average voter to determine who is truly funding a candidate or political ad.

The result? Voters see slick mailers, glossy ads, and campaign events, but they never see the real check writers.

Developers Are Driving Florida Policy

Among the biggest players in this influence game are Florida’s major land developers. These politically connected developers pour money into PACs and campaigns, ensuring that laws passed in Tallahassee clear the way for high-density, high-impact development projects, often at odds with what local communities want or need.

Laws like the Live Local Act were not written to solve Florida’s housing challenges; they were written to serve the development industry. These laws strip counties and cities of control over local land use, giving developers a green light to build in inappropriate or unsustainable areas, even rural zones with limited infrastructure or water access.

What began as campaign contributions ends with bulldozers clearing farmland, roads overrun with traffic, and rural lifestyles pushed to the brink.

A Legislative Agenda for Reform

Defending Rural Florida’s legislative agenda includes:

Closing campaign finance loopholes that allow unlimited, undisclosed money to flow through PACs and ECOs;

Banning pass-through money transfers between political committees to prevent laundering;

Enforcing real-time disclosure of contributions and expenditures;

Prohibiting coordination between industry-funded PACs and lawmakers on pending legislation.

The Bottom Line

Until Florida reforms its campaign finance system, rural communities will continue to lose ground, literally and politically. Local voices will remain drowned out by moneyed interests pushing unchecked growth and profit-driven policies.

Floridians deserve better. They deserve a Legislature that listens to their concerns, protects their land, and serves the people, not the highest bidder.