If you’ve been following VoteWater for a while, you know about our Dirty Money Project. Since we launched it in 2024, we’ve been connecting the dots between the campaign contributions pouring in from builders, developers, utilities, phosphate companies, and sugar producers — and the votes those same officials cast once they’re in office.

The results have been eye-opening. But we’re just getting started.

Today, we’re announcing a major expansion of the Dirty Money Project for the 2026 election cycle — and we’re asking our newsletter community to help make it happen.

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Why 2026 Can’t Wait

This year key federal, state and county office are on the ballot. Elected officials across South Florida will decide critical questions about development, water management, and environmental enforcement that will shape our communities for decades. The special interests behind water pollution and sprawl already know this. They’re already writing checks.

The Dirty Money Project exists to make sure South Floridians can see exactly who is writing those checks, and what they’re buying.

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What We’re Building

Our 2026 expansion has three main pillars:

A bigger, smarter database. We’re hiring a dedicated data specialist to build automated tools that pull campaign finance data in bulk, run it through custom analysis scripts, and keep our database current across every relevant race in all eight South Florida counties — St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Collier, and Lee. Right now, a lot of this work happens manually. That limits how much we can cover and how fast we can move. The new specialist changes that.

A redesigned web platform. We’re rebuilding the Dirty Money portal on VoteWater.org from the ground up — a cleaner interface, a more powerful searchable database, and an AI-powered chatbot that lets you query the data yourself. Want to know how much a specific county commissioner has taken from development interests? You’ll be able to find out quickly.

Six investigative reporting series. This is the heart of the expansion. We’re not just building tools — we’re using them to produce consistent, high-impact reporting across six distinct themes:

• “Who Funds Them?” profiles — One lawmaker at a time: total raised, top industries, top donors and key votes.
• How Donors Shape Policy — Connecting specific contributions from polluting interests to specific votes, permits, and regulatory decisions.
• “Clean Hands” Counter-Narrative — Spotlighting officials who’ve kept polluter money out and built strong environmental records. Accountability isn’t just about exposure — it’s about rewarding the right behavior.
• Unopposed but Heavily Funded — Why are lawmakers with no real opposition still raking in donations? We’ll find out who’s paying and what they expect in return.
• County Commissioner Deep-Dives — Hyper-local profiles of individual county commissions, using locally sourced data on developers, agricultural interests, and influence spending.
• PAC-to-PAC Dark Money Flows — The shell game that obscures where polluter money really comes from. We’ll map how a dollar from U.S. Sugar becomes a vote on your county commission.

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The Timeline

We’re moving fast. With donor support, the expansion will launch in May 2026 and is timed to maximum effect through both the August 18 primary and the November general election. By the time voters head to the polls, our database will be live, our reporting will be published, and dirty money will have nowhere to hide.

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How You Can Help

The total cost for this six-month expansion is $50,000 — covering the data specialist, investigative reporting, the web redesign, social media graphics and video, and media outreach to amplify our findings.

A contribution at any level — $25, $50, $100, whatever you can do — directly funds this expansion.

This is not a one-time investigation. Every dollar we raise goes toward building permanent infrastructure that will make it easier to expose dirty money in every election cycle going forward.

Donate to VoteWater by clicking here

Florida’s water doesn’t have a lobbyist. But it has you — and it has us.

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VoteWater is a Florida 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. Contributions are generally not tax-deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes.