Fundraising reports from Democrat Gay Valimont confirm she raised nearly $6.5 million to run in a Special Election for Florida’s 1st Congressional District.

The massive amount dwarfs the $1.6 million she raised when she challenged and lost to former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz last year. With Gaetz since resigned, she now faces Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis in an April 1 Special Election in Florida’s 1st Congressional District.

Based on voter registration data in the district, Patronis should enter the contest as a favorite. However, Valimont’s numbers show she collected more than four times what Patronis reported through the last fundraising period, which ended on March 12.

Her FEC filings show Valimont collected nearly $6.4 million just since Jan. 9. The donations come from across the country as Democrats nationally look to express outrage at President Donald Trump’s policies since his return to office.

Patronis won a Republican Primary in January mainly because of the strength of Trump’s endorsement.

The National Democratic Committee announced on Thursday a coordinated campaign with the Florida Democratic Party in Special Elections in Florida congressional districts, part of an effort to organize Democrats in all parts of the country.

Still, Republicans significantly outnumber Democrats in CD 1. As of the March 3 closing of voter rolls, around 312,000 Republicans were registered and eligible to vote in the Special Election, compared to fewer than 119,000 Democrats and about 136,000 other voters.

The district remains the most Republican-heavy in Florida, and Trump won a higher percentage of the vote there than anywhere else in the state.

But just as Valimont challenged Gaetz as an embarrassment to the district, she said voters across the political spectrum are now agitated by Trump. She has also stressed she lives in the district while Patronis does not.

“We’re talking to every voter we can. Yet, my opponent is ducking every chance to face voters at debates and joint forums,” Valimont posted this week. “If he doesn’t care enough to connect with our district now, what do you think he’ll be like as FL-1’s rep?”

Post Views: 0

Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

After a lengthy debate, the House Health & Human Services Committee approved legislation expanding the breadth of procedures and prescriptions administered by optometrists.

Sponsored by Rep. Alex Rizo, HB 449 is this year’s edition of the long-running “Eyeball Wars.” Optometrists have sought authority to provide more advanced care, such as laser surgeries for years. Ophthalmologists firmly oppose any scope of practice expansion.

Both professions require extensive post-baccalaureate education.

Ophthalmologists who attend medical school, receive a medical doctorate, and complete a multi-year residency under the supervision of one or more established ophthalmologists; optometrists hold doctorates in optometry, and while sometimes referred to as “optometric physicians,” they neither attend medical school nor do they complete a residency. 

In practice, optometrists’ primary concern is vision care, such as the provision of corrective lenses. By contrast, ophthalmologists’ focus is eye care, which encompasses the diagnosis and treatment of all maladies involving the eye, impact on vision notwithstanding.

Multiple ophthalmology residents stressed the gravity of that distinction during public testimony. Spencer Barrett, a third-year resident physician at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in South Florida, emphasized the importance of the highly specialized training he and others in his cohort receive.

“I, as a microsurgeon, would not feel qualified in the slightest to perform brain surgery or vascular surgery or know when to do it any more than I would trust a brain surgeon to operate on the eye because I have not undergone the years of training needed to do so safely,” he told members of the committee.

“Giving optometrists the opportunity to conduct these surgeries and procedures without the training required puts Floridian safety at risk.”

Proponents of HB 449 recognize the distinction between the two professions but say that the current state of eye care access in Florida demands legislative action. 

Rizo bolstered this claim — and even converted an initially reticent committee member from a “nay” to a “yay” — by citing American Medical Association data recommending one ophthalmologist per 4,000 residents in a given region. There are approximately 1,700 ophthalmologists in Florida, which would be adequate for a state of 7 million residents, not Florida’s 23.5 million and growing.

Rizo addressed medical doctors directly in closing: “Everything that you do, every single one of you, every single one of you that is in the medical profession. Thank you. Thank you for what you do.”

He then emphasized that optometrists would only be able to conduct specific, less complex procedures — multiple opponents harped on the vagueness of this section of the bill — and that statistics show the action is warranted.

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see. And I hope that throughout today’s presentation, throughout our conversations, I hope that we can see what we need to do,” Rizo said, quoting Henry David Thoreau.

Committee members voted 13-5 in favor of the bill, which next heads to the House Health & Human Services Committee.

Evening Reads

—“How the Justice Department is remaking itself in Donald Trump’s image” via Jeremy Roebuck, Mark Berman, Perry Stein and Spencer S. Hsu of The Washington Post

—”How the GOP went from championing campus free speech to fighting it” via Jeremy W. Peters of The New York Times

—”The left’s misguided critique of abundance liberalism” via Eric Levitz of Vox

—”Dr. Oz is now the grown-up in the room” via Benjamin Mazer of The Atlantic

—”New College of Florida could take over USF Sarasota-Manatee, Senator says” via Lawrence Mower of New College of Florida

—”Florida’s GOP-led Legislature aims to limit the power of city, county governments” via John Kennedy of USA Today Network-Florida

—”Ron DeSantis wonders why ‘young people’ aren’t doing immigrants’ jobs” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics

—”‘A true champion’: Ben Albritton honored for rural advocacy” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics

—”James Uthmeier wants pay raises, promotions for cops who stop Tesla vandals” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics

—”Every ‘Snow White’ controversy over the film’s tortured production” via Krystie Lee Yandoli of Rolling Stone