Dirty Money
If you wanted a graphic illustration of how “dirty money” works, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything more egregious — obnoxious — than the Destin land deal. In September 2025, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Florida cabinet — including Attorney…
If you want an Attorney General dedicated to serving polluting industries and other special interests, James Uthmeier is your man. The state’s top law enforcement officer — the official charged with protecting Floridians from corporate wrongdoing — has never been…
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…
Florida Congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds can talk a good game about clean water. When he first ran for Congress he identified it as a top priority; he’s advocated for Everglades funding, and on his campaign website he…
The Florida Legislative session just wrapped, and what started out as the “Session of Sprawl on Steroids” ended with a bit of a whimper as some of the worst pro-development bills were either sanded down before passing or — like…
Here at VoteWater we talk a lot about electing clean-water candidates. But how can you elect them when they’re not running? There’s an abundance of candidates running for federal and high-profile state offices this election year — including 41 candidates…
State Rep. Lauren Melo wants you to know she loves wild Florida. Growing up, the Naples Republican used to hunt quail and learned to drive a “three on the tree” gear shifter in the wide-open spaces. As she told the…
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…
Look, you know how the game is played. Special interests call the tune, your legislators dance; they file bills written by and for deep-pocketed donors. And as you’ve heard us say so many times over the years, few donors have…
It’s been quite a year. It began with the battle over the future of Florida’s state parks and Big Sugar’s proposed rock mine in the Everglades Agricultural Area. It concludes, now, with a new EPA proposal to eliminate crucial wetlands…