Dirty Money

Why we fight

July 5, 2023

It doesn’t get more American than this. Leading up to the Fourth of July, Florida beaches and waterways were packed. Families in the sand, music and cold beverages on the boat, some fishing, some swimming — that’s why we live…

Big Sugar already spending big ahead of 2024 elections

June 7, 2023

The 2024 election cycle may seem a long way off. But Big Sugar’s already started to “invest” in compliant politicians and shady political action committees. State campaign finance records show that in the first quarter of 2023, the sugar industry’s…

Public officials should be on the side of the public, not developers

May 24, 2023

Here at VoteWater we make a big stink about special interests showering elected officials with campaign cash. That’s because dirty money = dirty water. But clearly, we’re thinking too small. For what’s mere campaign cash when you can pay a…

Campaign cash at the root of Big Sugar’s political clout

December 6, 2022

Remember when we told you last week about the Dominican sugarcane operation — partly owned by the Florida-based Fanjul brothers — facing an federal import ban and allegations of forced labor? Similar allegations have dogged the company for years; the…

Our voter guides grade candidates on clean water and ‘dirty money’

November 2, 2022

Are you ready to Vote Water? With the Nov. 8 general election less than a week away, and early voting in full swing, Floridians are in the process of shaping our collective future. Will cleaner water be part of it?…

Voter guides: Who’s getting dirty money – and why it matters

October 24, 2022

We’ve got an election coming up in two weeks. Do you know which campaigns are keeping it clean — and which campaigns are powered by “dirty money?” “Dirty money” means political contributions from special interests to candidates, or to political…

While other issues dominate the headlines, we can’t take our eye off the ball – clean water

October 18, 2022

Environmental concerns haven’t been high on the campaign agenda this year. Particularly at the state level, abortion and inflation take up a lot of bandwidth. At the federal level cultural and pocketbook issues also predominate. Our foundational cause, clean water…

Our Voter Guides are out. Here’s how we decided to endorse Charlie Crist

October 12, 2022

On Tuesday VoteWater published our 2022 General Election Voter Guides, a definitive look at clean-water candidates (and not-so-clean-water candidates) in 15 key Florida counties. If you live in Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lee, Manatee, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe,…

Big Sugar spending big ahead of Nov. 8 election

September 23, 2022

Don’t look now, but the fall election is just around the corner. And Florida’s powerful sugar industry is doing everything it can to guarantee that on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 8, the winner will be: Big Sugar. Since Jan. 1,…

Un-endorsement: Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick said she wouldn’t take sugar money – then did

August 19, 2022

Our survey question to Congressional candidates this cycle was pretty simple: Special interests like Florida’s powerful sugar industry spend lavishly to influence elections, with “Big Sugar,” the phosphate mining industry and big utilities, among others, spending hundreds of millions of…

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