GOP leadership committee bolsters Miami senators

BY THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

A political committee led by incoming Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, is spending heavily to try to help two Miami senators return to Tallahassee. The Negron-chaired Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee made $170,635 in in-kind contributions from Sept. 3 to Sept. 16 to Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, who is trying to fend off a challenge from state Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, in Miami-Dade County's redrawn Senate District 37, according to a newly filed finance report. Almost all of the in-kind aid came in the form of staffing. Meanwhile, the Negron committee also made $47,585 in in-kind contributions to Sen. Anitere Flores, who has been challenged by Democrat Debbie Murcasel-Powell in Senate District 39, which includes Monroe County and part of Miami-Dade County. The aid to Flores included polling and research. The Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has piled up cash in advance of the November elections and had about $9.87 million on hand as of Aug. 26, according to the latest figures available for the committee on the state Division of Elections website.