In the five weeks before the August 18 primary, a network of 105 political committees sharing one phone number moved $766,000 into the Republican Party of Florida and $220,000 into a Jacksonville committee. Both then hired the same printer in St. Johns County.
All sources: Florida Division of Elections and the St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections, filings through August 14, 2026.
The Route to St. Johns County
The St. Johns County GOP did not endorse and did not send mailers or text messages for any candidate. What filled our mailboxes and voicemails was a network of committees run out of two addresses in Gainesville and Tallahassee. Between July 8 and August 13, that network pooled money in two clearing committees and pushed it out along three separate routes that all end in St. Johns County.
In Sum
| Clearing Committees | Sent to RPOF | RPOF Mail & Printing | Research & Surveys |
|---|---|---|---|
| $4.29 million pooled in single-day sweeps |
$766,000 from the network since June 1 |
$3.48 million between July 21 and August 12 |
$51,000 Florida Courage, July 15–August 4 |
You are about to read more than a dozen committee names. Do not try to keep them straight; nobody can, and nobody is meant to. Florida Trust, Florida Courage, Florida Prosper, True Conservatives, Serious Conservatives, Conservatism Counts: the names are interchangeable because the committees are.
William Stafford Jones is chair of 104 committees and treasurer of 107. Their registered addresses cluster at 1722 NW 80th Blvd. in Gainesville (51 committees) and 115 E. Park Ave. in Tallahassee (42). They all share the same phone number, 352-275-5004.
On July 8, two of Jones’ PACs, Greater Florida Foundation and Florida Courage, took in $4,290,000 from fourteen sibling committees and began paying it out the next day. Neither raises money from the public. Both exist to receive from, and send to, other committees in the network.
This is the step that makes the money hard to follow. A dollar that arrives at Florida Courage on July 8 leaves on July 9 carrying no trace of who put it in.
Into Florida Courage
July 8 total: $1,805,000
| Florida Trust | $600,000 |
| For A Conservative Florida | $335,000 |
| Serious Conservatives PC | $240,000 |
| Vote Differently | $235,000 |
| Values First | $200,000 |
| Putting Florida Values First | $195,000 |
Into Greater Florida Foundation
July 8 total: $2,485,000
| Freedom First Committee, Inc. | $860,000 |
| Growing Florida’s Economy | $300,000 |
| American Values PAC | $300,000 |
| Sunshine State First | $280,000 |
| Florida Business Leadership | $280,000 |
| Keep Florida Great | $200,000 |
| Florida Prosper | $170,000 |
| Conservatism Counts | $95,000 |
Every committee in both tables shares the same phone number as the committee it paid.
The Establishment Route to St. Johns County
Route A — Through the Republican Party of Florida
The Republican Party of Florida is a state committee. It can mail into any county in Florida without asking that county’s Republican committee, which has no veto.
Six Stafford Jones network committees put $766,000 into RPOF after June 1:
| Committee | Timing | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Florida Courage | 8 payments through August 13 | $496,000 |
| Vote Differently | August 11 | $100,000 |
| Serious Conservatives PC | July 6 | $80,000 |
| True Conservatives | 2 payments through August 13 | $75,000 |
| Building A Stronger Jacksonville | August 12 | $10,000 |
| For the Future We Want | August 5 | $5,000 |
| Total | $766,000 | |
RPOF then spent $3,479,448 on mail and printing between July 21 and August 12:
| Vendor | Filed As | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Majority Syndicate LLC | Direct Mail | $2,946,522 |
| High Ground Consulting | Printing | $368,344 |
| The Front Line Agency | Direct Mail | $164,582 |
| Total | $3,479,448 | |
One fair qualification: RPOF raised $12.1 million since June 1, so the network’s $766,000 is roughly six percent of its intake. The network did not fund RPOF’s mail program; it bought a seat on one that was already running.
Route B — Through First Coast Leadership
First Coast Leadership is registered to David Biddle of Jacksonville, who is both its chair and its treasurer. They distributed a series of misleading negative ads against incumbent Krista Keating-Jones. What is the connection to the PAC network? The same phone number and $290,000.
| Date | Transaction | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| July 28 | Greater Florida Foundation to First Coast Leadership | $150,000 |
| August 3 | First Coast Leadership to High Ground Consulting, advertising | $27,272 |
| August 12 | First Coast Leadership to High Ground Consulting, advertising | $118,112 |
| August 13 | Greater Florida Foundation to First Coast Leadership | $140,000 |
Greater Florida Foundation is its only funder this cycle — $290,000 out of $300,000, with the remaining $10,000 from another network committee in March 2025. And the printer it hired, High Ground Consulting of Ocala, is the same firm RPOF paid $368,344 in the same three weeks.
Route C — Candidate Committees
A St. Johns candidate’s campaign account may accept $1,000 per donor. A state political committee may accept any amount from anyone, including another committee. That gap is why network money never appears in a candidate’s campaign account — it goes into a separately registered committee carrying the candidate’s name, where no limit applies.
| Committee | Date | Source | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friends of Bev Slough, School Board District 1 | July 20 | Florida Courage | $25,500 |
| Friends of Bev Slough, School Board District 1 | August 13 | Leading For Our Future | $5,000 |
| Friends of Tammie McClafferty, School Board District 4 | July 15 | Florida Courage | $25,000 |
| Friends of Tammie McClafferty, School Board District 4 | August 13 | Greater Florida Foundation | $5,000 |
| Total into two school board races | $60,500 | ||
The two committees are built differently, and the difference matters. Friends of Bev Slough is a William Stafford Jones committee outright — PAC #93228, Gainesville. The candidate’s name is on the door; the Jones network is inside.
Friends of Tammie McClafferty is not. It is PAC #90816, Tallahassee, chaired by the candidate herself, with Noreen A. Fenner as treasurer and a different phone number — 850-404-1000. It took $30,000 from the network and spent $19,176 on direct mail.
Flooding St. Johns County
The strongest evidence that they are not three independent efforts is where they all end up: the same two production shops.
High Ground Consulting
3101 SW 34th Ave. #905-320, Ocala
Clients in 2026:
| Client | Invoices | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Republican Party of Florida | 50 | $444,312 |
| First Coast Leadership | 2 | $145,384 |
| Friends of Tammie McClafferty | 1 | $2,625 |
On Target Messaging
101 Marketside Ave., Ponte Vedra 32081 — inside St. Johns County.
Clients since May:
| Client | Relationship | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Florida Courage | Network | $51,750 |
| Friends of Tammie McClafferty | Network-funded | $19,176 |
| Building A Stronger Jacksonville | Network | $17,103 |
| A Safer Jacksonville For All | Network | $16,000 |
| Protect Jax | Network | $10,000 |
| Florida Freedom PAC | Network | $6,500 |
| JAX Good Government | Network | $6,500 |
| North Florida Patriots | Network | $4,000 |
| True Conservatives | Network | $2,500 |
The mail shop serving these races operates from a Ponte Vedra address inside the county being mailed, and nearly its entire client list is this one network.
Important limitation: We cannot yet follow every mailer to its payment. Some invoices are paid and reported after the mail drops, and the final pre-primary reports were not yet available when this was compiled.
The governor’s own committees are not in this
Florida Freedom Fund ($14.6 million) and Empower Parents PAC ($14.3 million) sent nothing into any committee in this chain. Whatever paid to put a DeSantis endorsement in front of St. Johns voters, it was not the governor’s own money.
Enter the Governor
An endorsement delivered to every household in a county is not a favor. It is a purchased product, and the filings show both the research that preceded it and the delivery that followed.
| Date | Transaction | Purpose | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 15 | Florida Courage to The Tyson Group | Research | $18,000 |
| July 21 | Florida Courage to Percipient Strategies | Survey research | $7,500 |
| July 23 | Florida Courage to Data Targeting | Research | $7,500 |
| August 4 | Florida Courage to The Tyson Group | Research | $18,000 |
| August 13 | RPOF to Election Connections.com | Text messages | $219,862 |
Florida Courage spent $51,000 on research and survey work in the four weeks before the endorsement broke. It is the same committee that sent RPOF $496,000.
Then on August 13, the day the texts started arriving, RPOF paid its texting vendor $219,862. Its two previous payments to that same firm were $22,139 on July 28 and $18,675 on July 31. RPOF is a statewide committee, so the money is not all St. Johns, but the date is not a coincidence.
Figures are as filed. Filings can be amended, and the final pre-primary reports were still outstanding when this was compiled.