We are now six months into the second term of Gov. Rick Scott _ and a nearly as much time into the new reality that greets Republicans in the state.
This Friday will mark an important milestone since Scott, the Republican Party of Florida and Senate Republicans went their separate ways back in January.
On Friday, the RPOF and the affiliated committee associated with the Senate will post their second quarter numbers.
It's this report - followed by the third quarter one in early October - that may give an accurate picture of just how serious the fallout has been over the last few months.
As everyone knows Republican Party activists rejected Leslie Dougher, Scott's hand-picked selection for party chairman. In anticipation of the schism, party leaders loyal to Scott and Senate Republicans transferred large amounts of money into separate fundraising accounts.
Since that time Scott's Let's Get to Work political committee has kept a fairly robust fundraising _ and spending regimen. It was the entity that helped put together Scott's well-attended presidential summit in Orlando and spent money on television ads touting Scott's agenda. But that's money not heading into the coffers of the party which is now headed up by Rep. Blaise Ingoglia.
Meanwhile, this year's legislative session went haywire due to a dispute over health care, which resulted in a special session to pass a new budget and caused an even larger split between Scott and some GOPers.
Scott's fundraising reports show that in cash alone he has raised nearly $2.1 million during the year. This doesn't include the $580,000 that was transferred from party accounts shortly before Ingoglia took over or the more than $250,000 that Disney donated for travel, food and beverages associated with the summit that the governor held at the start of June.
Big donors so far this year to Scott include committees linked to the state's two big business lobbying groups, Associated Industries of Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce as well as hedge fund investor and now real estate developer Jeff Vinik.
The Senate campaign efforts, meanwhile, have been in flux because of the still-unsettled battle between Sens. Joe Negron and Jack Latvala for president. In late June, current Senate President Andy Gardiner tapped Sen. Bill Galvano to lead the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Gardiner's move was apparently aimed at telegraphing to potentially nervous donors and backers that the Latvala-Negron contest was not going to derail ongoing efforts to maintain the Republican majority in the Senate.
And Galvano wasted little time in showing his commitment that the committee has money.
Records show that Galvano had his own political committee - Innovate Florida - hand over a $250,000 check to the Senate committee on June 24.
Galvano's donation is apparently aimed at stemming anxiety that donors may have that the tug-of-war between Latvala and Negron would have on the overall effort to help Senate incumbents during an upcoming presidential year.
Latvala earlier this year hired top Florida political fundraiser Meredith O'Rourke in an effort to help his presidential aspirations.
So far this calendar year Latvala's political committee Florida Leadership Committee has hauled in more than $800,000 - including more than $70,000 in the month of June (despite a special session which limited contributions.)
Negron's Treasure Coast Alliance has raised just a tad over $1 million in 2015, with most of that happening in the month of May. The group collected $25,000 during the month of June.
The records for the Treasure Coast Alliance show that so far it has given $5,000 to the Republican Senate committee this year, while Latvala's political committee has not donated anything.
But if you do the math there's at least $4 million during the first half of 2015 that did not go to the RPOF and instead has gone into other accounts that are largely controlled by individual Republicans.
The 2016 elections are still a ways off, but it will be worth watching the run-up to the crucial presidential election to see what kind of resources the state party has available, and conversely how much money and organization the national party and national campaigns will have to expend in the state because of the current set -up.
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