State campaign finance data for the fourth quarter of 2025 has dropped, and initially we were going to write about how much Big Sugar gave last year.

And in fact, we WILL write about it, right here: According to the data, Florida’s sugar industry donated more than $3.3 million at the state level alone in 2025; U.S. Sugar and its subsidiaries gave more than $2 million, while Florida Crystals and its subsidiaries gave about $1.3 million.

Obviously, that’s big money during an off-election year, and it helps explain just how the sugar industry got a provision inserted into this year’s omnibus agriculture bills (House Bill 433 and Senate Bill 290) that would allow agricultural producers (like Big Sugar) to sue over disparagement of non-perishable products (like sugar) and over farming methods (like burning sugarcane prior to harvest).

But as we and others have noted, the 2026 Legislative session is shaping up to be the “Session of Sprawl on Steroids.” And as such, we wondered how much “dirty money” developers and builders doled out last year.

Answer: According to our research, builders and building industry association PACs (political action committees) around the state gave at least $1.37 million last year to candidates and PACs. Donors identified as “real estate developers” or “real estate development” gave another $3.44 million.

In other words, MORE than Big Sugar. Some highlights:

• The Florida Home Builders PAC gave more than $440,000 to candidates and PACs, including more than $125,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
• Lennar Homes Inc., one of the nation’s biggest homebuilders, gave $354,000 to the CCC PAC, a political action committee which in turn gave more than $1.5 million to candidates and causes in 2025, including $105,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, $75,000 to the Republican Party of Florida and $25,000 to the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
• The Florida Home Builders Association donated more than $220,000, most of it to the Florida Home Builders PAC.
• The ABC Merit Shop PAC (ABC = Associated Builders and Contractors) gave $184,000 to dozens of candidates and causes, including $25,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

On and on it goes, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. At the county/municipal level, developers are among the most “generous” donors to political candidates and causes.

So it’s no wonder that Florida decision-makers trip over themselves to let builders ignore urban boundaries or zoning, or cut citizens out of the approval process, or sue local governments that try to enforce their own regulations. The only wonder is that we don’t see more of it.

For a look at Big Sugar and big development contributions, click here.