Greg Evers Serving Florida Senate District 2

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Evers Leads Senate Race Dollars By Large Margin
NorthEscambia.com, January 13, 2010

Written by William · Filed Under News

If dollars were votes and today was election day, Greg Evers would win the Florida Senate District 2 race by a landslide. The latest campaign finance reports are in, and Evers has raised more than twice the dollars than the other two candidates in the race combined.

Two House members are hoping to move up the Senate chambers to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Durell Peaden. With 10 years in the Senate, Peaden is not running again due to term limits. Republican Reps. Greg Evers and Dave Murzin are in the race, as is Walter "Mike" Hill, a Pensacola insurance agent. There could be more candidates in the race by election day; qualifying does not end for several more months.

Evers has raised $217,730.81 to date. Murzin's campaign war chest has seen $75,938.99 in contributions, and Hill has raised $32,260. The numbers are current as of campaign finance reports due December 31.

But there's more than raising the most money in a political campaign, Murzin said.

"While money is certainly a factor in any political campaign, having more money than other more qualified candidates is not the deciding factor. Plenty of races both locally and on the state level have been won by hard work and personal interaction with the voters. That is where I am putting my efforts," Murzin said. "Money buys slick tv ads, fancy pieces of mail and one way communication but I learn more about what is important to my neighbors being at Frans Diner."

"In these tough economic times, I have been focusing on turning our economy around, getting people back to work and dealing with issues that hurt our small businesses, like unemployment compensation tax increases. I have not had the free time to call people and hit them up for cash," he said.

As of December 31, Evers had spent $26,586.26 on his campaign. During the last quarter of the year, his largest expenditures were $5,050 on web services, $5,000 to a Tallahassee consultant, $1,005 for campaign shirts and $1,000 to McGuire's Irish Pub for a fund raising event.

Murzin has spent $24,457.93 so far on his campaign, about one-third of his contributions. His only large expenditures during the last quarter of the year were $2,400 to EMRI for an advertisement and campaign expense reimbursements to himself for $522, $976.91 and $389.25.

Hill's expenditures during the final three months of 2009 were $24,457.93 including $2,183 to a Tallahassee campaign consultant and $340.80 to Sprint Wireless for a phone.

A state senator in Florida is paid about $30,000 a year.

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