RSS Feed of the blog

Contributors:

Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email

Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email

Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email

TBO RNC 2012 Section

Florida Political Blogs:

• State Of Sunshine
• Pushing Rope
• Interstate4Jamming
• News Service of Florida
• FLA Politics
• Sayfie Review/

News Blog Search

Advanced Search

Most Recent Entries

• How come the poll results don’t match?
• Q Poll: Mack has long lead in primary, ties Nelson in general matchup
• Mack campaign retracts Fortuno endorsement quotes
• Coburn backs LeMieux, answering Mack’s Fortuno
• Q Poll: Romney has significant lead in Florida
• Storm The Swarm: SOCCENT deputy chief asks for technology to stop threat of Iranian small boats
• Nelson disses Obama on Castro daughter
• Hoyer to campaign with Ehrlich
• Mack dumbest speaker in Congress?  It’s complicated
• Guetzloe sentenced for not filing tax returns
• Mack asks feds to investigate LeMieux appointment
• Pentagon Reports Deaths of 7 Troops This Week in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom
• Mack demands investigation of LeMieux appointment
• Ross backs Mack
• LeMieux wins East Hillsborough GOP straw poll

More

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• RNC 2012: The Road to Tampa
• Political Safari

Monthly Archives

• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011

Bondi exploits national fundraising ties

Posted Mar 12, 2010 by William March

Updated Mar 12, 2010 at 10:05 PM

Pam Bondi will hold a fundraiser tonight in Tampa for her attorney general race, at an art gallery on South MacDill—but she’s likely to strike the real gold March 29 at a Washington D.C. fundraiser where she’ll be taking advantage of national-level political contacts.

The names involved in the D.C. event indicate Bondi’s connections to financial backers of the Bush family, and to the Washington lobbying community.

The D.C. event is sponsored by former Gov. Bob Martinez, one of the most influential Tampa-based Republican fundraisers, who only rarely gets involved in local races; and former Sen. Mel Martinez, who got a job with a high-level Washington lobbying firm after he left his Senate seat last summer.

Others involved:

—Mary Matalin, well-known former speechwriter and political commentator who worked for both Presidents George W. Bush and his father.
—Hector Alcalde, former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Sam Gibbons and one of the most influential Washington lobbyists with Tampa roots.
—Kathleen Shanahan. chief of staff for former Gov. Jeb Bush, who has been advising Bondi’s campaign.
—Ron Kaufman, White House political director under the elder Bush.
—Maria Cino, a former Department of Transportation appointee—temporarily acting secretary—under the younger Bush presidency and a high-level national party activist.