Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham’s campaign said her donors won’t dictate her policy positions. | AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Graham stresses protecting the environment, but takes $50K from developer fined $1.7M by state
TALLAHASSEE — A main theme of Democrat Gwen Graham’s nascent gubernatorial campaign has been criticism of Scott administration policies she says have battered Florida’s environment.
“Too much of Florida’s beauty is being lost to development and neglect,” she said in the May 2 speech formally rolling out her campaign.
Nearly one month before the speech, though, a political committee controlled by Graham received $50,000 from James Finch, a Panama City developer who in the past has been hit with large fines from environmental regulators.
In each case, Finch has said his company, Phoenix Construction Services, did nothing wrong.
In the most prominent case, his company settled with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for $1.7 million in fines related to the construction of the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City.
State investigators said the company did not take steps to prevent runoff into nearby waterways, a move that helped it save $900,000. At the time, Finch denied wrongdoing.
“I mean, like I’ve said, the DEP fines are unreal,” Finch told POLITICO Florida on Tuesday when asked about his environmental record in the context of the Graham contribution. “It’s like you can’t be a businessman without getting those fines.”
Graham’s campaign said her donors won’t dictate her policy positions.
"Anyone who contributes to our campaign knows Gwen is determined to enforce Florida's environmental laws and to protect our unique land and water,” said Graham spokesman Matt Harringer.
On Tuesday, the campaign also announced the endorsement of Nathaniel Reed, chair emeritus of 1,000 Friends of Florida; Manley Fuller, president of Florida Wildlife Federation; and former House speaker Jon Mills, who sits on the Everglades Foundation’s board of director. Fuller and Reed gave $5,000 to Graham’s political committee, while Mills gave an unknown amount directly to the campaign, according to Harringer. The campaign has not yet filed its first campaign finance report, but contributions to the campaign are capped at $3,000.
Including Finch's $50,000 contribution, the largest from any outside donor, Graham’s committee has received three $50,000 checks. Her federal congressional campaign account has transferred $250,000 to her state-level committee.
Finch is a longtime political donor. His biggest contributions have gone to Charlie Crist, a current congressman and former one-term governor. Finch gave to Crist’s gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns when he was a Republican, and more than $100,000 to his failed 2014 gubernatorial campaign, which came after Crist became a Democrat. He has also given $65,000 to the Republican Party of Florida since 2004.
At the federal level, Finch has given tens of thousands of dollars, mostly to Republicans. During the 2008 presidential election cycle, he gave $25,400 to the Republican National Committee and $40,000 to a committee supporting John McCain’s presidential bid, according to campaign finance records. He has given smaller amounts to Democrats, including $2,700 to Graham’s lone congressional run.
“I’m more independent. Really, I’m upset with both parties,” Finch said.
He said he is “leaning towards Gwen Graham,” but he has not made a final decision about whom he plans to support in the gubernatorial election. He said he opposes Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, the only big-name Republican in the race, because he’s a “career politician.”
“I don’t think what we need is someone who becomes a politician and doesn’t do anything else,” he said. “It’s like when Jeb [Bush] started crying that he was the chosen one. He wasn’t. That [politics] is all he has done.”
He did praise Graham’s time in Congress, specifically when she voted in 2015 to support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which was championed by the oil and gas industry and decried by environmentalists.
“I thought she did a good job as far as being up in Washington,” he said. “She voted for the pipeline.”
Graham took heat from environmentalists for the vote, which helped approve the pipeline that would pump oil from Canada to Texas. Construction was originally blocked by the Obama administration, a decision overturned in March by President Donald Trump.
At the time, Graham held up the vote as an example of the moderate, bipartisan reputation she was trying to build with congressional colleagues. “Democrats and Republicans came together to pass this legislation, now we must continue to work together to protect our country’s natural resources," she said then.
Since kicking off her campaign, two of Graham’s main focuses have been public education and the environment. In her campaign kickoff, she said she wants to focus on banning fracking, buying state conservation land, and fighting oil drilling.
She also held a campaign event in Tampa working with ecologists on wetland restoration. The event was part of one of her “work days,” a type of campaign event first used by her father, Bob Graham, a former senator and two-term governor.
Finch, who said he did not speak to Graham about his contribution, said if the money conflicts with any image her campaign is trying to build, he said he would gladly take it back.
“I can take my money back,” he said. “I’ve never seen a politician who wanted to give that back.”
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