Matlow Political Committee Gets a $200,000 Check as Money Piles Up in Tallahassee's City Hall Races
Newly filed campaign finance records show a $200,000 contribution from the Green Advocacy Project to Friends of Jeremy Matlow, in a local election cycle where candidates and political committees together have moved more than $3 million.
Money is pouring into Tallahassee's City Hall races in the final days before the November 3 general election, and the largest single check in the newly filed records went to the political committee backing City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow. The Green Advocacy Project, a national climate advocacy organization, wrote a $200,000 check dated October 19 to Friends of Jeremy Matlow, according to campaign finance records reported by the Tallahassee Democrat on October 31. The Democrat reported the contribution may be the single largest check ever dropped into a Tallahassee municipal election, and that the same group gave $150,000 to a Matlow committee during the 2024 cycle.
The mayor's race between Matlow, who leads the local progressive movement, and former state lawmaker Loranne Ausley is one of three City Commission contests that will decide which side controls City Hall. Ausley was the top local fundraiser in the reporting, with $587,583 raised through October 16, while Matlow raised $313,374, the Democrat reported. Across the city, county, school board and county judge races, candidates raised a combined $2.38 million and spent $2.07 million, with the total easily exceeding $3 million once political committees and parties are counted.
The committee spending cuts both ways. Tallahassee United, a committee behind mailers and messages attacking Matlow and Dot Inman-Johnson, raised $447,750 and spent $414,000, while another committee, the Voice of Florida Business, took in more than $1 million and spent $638,927 so far this year, though only a portion was earmarked for Tallahassee, according to the Democrat's reporting. Voters decide the contests on Tuesday, November 3.
