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Mystery behind robocall easily explained by politics of power

 
Published Sept. 4, 2014

People who received robocalls targeting Hernando School Board candidate Jay Rowden last month might have wondered who was behind them.

The answer, apparently, is David Ramba, a veteran Tallahassee lobbyist and chairman of Voter Interest Group, the electioneering organization identified as paying for the calls.

Which raises more questions:

Why would Ramba be interested in a nonpartisan Hernando County School Board race?

Why would he want to support Rowden's opponent, the eventual winner of last week's primary, Beth Narverud?

We can't say for sure because Ramba didn't return my calls. But we know one person who is well-positioned to interest Ramba in this race: Blaise Ingoglia, who didn't call me back either.

Ingoglia combines the jobs of party official and candidate in a big way, serving as chairman of the Hernando County Republican Executive Committee and vice chairman of the state party, while he also is a candidate for the District 35 seat in the state House of Representatives.

If there's any wonder why he would want to hold all of these positions at once, look at the campaign finance reports. Three jobs mean three opportunities to raise and/or distribute money, three ways to exercise influence.

"As the vice chairman of the (state) party, he has contacts that the average candidate would not have," said Pasco County Tax Collector and former legislator Mike Fasano, a Republican. "He's met many contributors, and that will help him greatly."

Traditionally, local parties haven't pulled in much more cash than local candidates. But REC fundraising took off after Ingoglia was elected chairman in April 2009, and in the past four years the local party has collected $332,000 in donations.

Not only is that far more than the party has ever raised; it's more than the REC has raised in much larger, much richer Pasco County. It's also more than five times as much as the overwhelmed Hernando County Democratic Executive Committee.

This all started before Ingoglia acquired his statewide connections, and these are not the only reason for his success as a fundraiser. He's a great salesman, who as a builder was able to convince big-city buyers that houses on lime rock roads in Hernando were a can't-miss investment.

By comparison, one disenchanted Republican told me, selling tickets to Lincoln Day dinners is a snap.

Speaking of that fundraiser, making money requires spending money on, for example, banquet hall rentals, so expenditures have also been high. But the party should still have plenty of cash to help its candidates in the general election, just as it was able to put out a flier supporting Narverud in the de facto partisan election last week — she's a registered Republican, and Rowden is a well-known Democrat.

So back to why Ramba might have wanted to help out Narverud. Last year, the Republican Party of Florida gave his group $50,000, nearly one-third of the amount Voter Interest Group has collected in its four-year history. And if the vice chairman of the state party isn't the one deciding where its money goes, he has the ear of the people who do.

There's another obvious reason lobbyists such as Ramba might want to give a hand to Ingoglia: He's very likely to become a state representative.

This combined role, in turn, can be leveraged to raise money back home. With Ingoglia as a pipeline to money in Tallahassee, local donations are like priming the pump.

The motivation to contribute may be especially strong for candidates who can expect some of that state money to be spent on their behalf. Narverud, whose campaign was boosted by Ramba's group and two others in Tallahassee, spent $990 to sponsor a table at last spring's Lincoln Day dinner.

Local contributions have also poured into Ingoglia's state House campaign account, which, including loans and in-kind donations, contains $244,000, or a whopping 57 times as much as that of his Democratic opponent, Rose Rocco.

Huge fundraising advantages not only for Ingoglia, but for his party. No wonder most Republicans seem perfectly fine with Ingoglia's dual role.

Why wouldn't they be?

Maybe because it leaves him with the power to pick the candidates he wants to run and discourage, or intimidate, the ones he doesn't.

Also, Ingoglia made his fortune in the speculative real estate market that brought down our economy. He is contemptuous enough of government that he repeatedly failed to pay his home's property taxes on time. Even before arriving in Tallahassee, he's fully immersed in its pay-to-play political culture.

And if you're a local Republican who is uncomfortable with him as the face of your party?

Well, tough.