Last month, I did a review of the Top 10 "Money Men," a list of who contributed the most to local county commission races in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties — and what they wanted for their investments.
The St. Petersburg Times has a good story today on another local Money Man who didn't quite crack my Top 10 — but only because I apparently missed some of his bundled contributions. Oil exec Tony Ferguson has been trying for years to get an approval to land a helicopter at his home north of Tampa. The four county commissioners who finally OK'ed the landing site received a total of $15,500 from Ferguson, his family, friends and associates, the Times reported.
That amount would put him at No. 6 on my Money Men list. Of course, the Times might have included some money from CL's Money Man No. 2, Bing Kearney, in Ferguson's totals, since Kearney lobbied on behalf of the helicopter approval in six meetings with county commissioners in 2005, according to county lobbying records. Kearney gave more than $23,000 to those commissioners in the 2006 elections.
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2006.