FPL Pac spending on '08 FL House, Senate races

The 2008 election cycle's campaign funding figures are now published online and it seems that the deep-pocketed FPL Pac (Florida Power & Light's own Political Action Committee) funneled copious amounts of funding in the primaries and general election to certain races for seats in Florida's Congressional delegation.

FPL Pac spending on elections, like its well-funded lobbying efforts once elected officials are actually in office, are designed to influence the votes of elected officials in favor of FPL initiatives, when they come before legislative bodies and the regulatory agencies that the politicians appoint and oversee.

According to campaign spending figures online at CampaignMoney.com, FPL Pac spent a total of $145,500 to influence Florida's congressional election races during the '08 primary and general election cycle, with key Democrats and Republicans alike on the receiving end.

Click here for a breakout chart that shows the Republican-Democrat lineup for FPL largesse during this past election cycle. As the chart shows, Florida Republicans running for Congressional seats in '08 received a total of $89,000 from FPL Pac, while Democrats were not far behind at a total of $56,500.

The chart also shows FPL Pac's top campaign investment of $13,000 went to Republican Vernon Buchanan of the 13th Congressional District in Sarasota, while FPL Pac funding totalling $32,500 helped the three next greatest recipients -- the incumbent Miami-Dade Republican triumvirate of Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Iliana Ros-Lehtinen -- to again secure their lock on the County's U.S. Congressional delegation.

Not to put a damper on Democrats who may be feeling in a celebratory mood following the Obama victory, but some of your party's greatest champions in Florida also lined up for the campaign largesse being doled out by FPL Pac. That includes top recipient of FPL Pac money in the '08 Congressional races, Debbie Wasserman Schultz ($11,000) of Broward, who was an Obama stalwart during the campaign; Miami-Dade's Kendrick Meek ($10,000), the Treasure Coast's Tim Mahoney ($10,000), Boca's Ron Klein ($8,500) and that self-declared "fire-breathing liberal" Robert Wexler ($7,000).

Again, Republicans lined up for FPL Pac swill took the prize with a combined total of $89,000, but the Democrats showed themselves rather eager to compete for FPL Pac funding this past election cycle. The only real non-embarassment on the Democrat side was Sen. Bill Nelson, who accepted just $1,000 from FPL Pac. Good ol' Bill ... he won't cave on offshore drilling and he apparently still can't be bought by FPL!