First Coast News is investigating whether funding for certain candidates in the St. Johns County commissioner race is actually coming from developers and homebuilders.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Johns County commissioner election is heated, with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by campaigns.
But where will the money for election campaigns come from?
It has long been said that homebuilders and developers have financial involvement in St. Johns County politics.
First Coast News spent days investigating campaign finances to see if that was indeed the case.
The incumbents are Christian Whitehurst, Roy Alaimo and Henry Dean, and all three actually advertise together in the same TV ad.

Each incumbent faces multiple opponents, but the main contenders are Ann Marie Evans, Clay Murphy and Ann Taylor, all of whom have anti-growth policies.
Evans and Taylor also advertise together on roadside billboards calling themselves “Ann’s.”
A closer look at each candidate’s individual direct campaign contributions reveals that incumbents have raised significantly more than their opponents.
As of Aug. 14, Whitehurst, Alaimo and Dean have raised between $200,000 and $264,000.
Their opponents had much smaller account balances: Evans with $22,000, Taylor with $25,000 and Murphy with $70,000.
For incumbent lawmakers, based on address and name matches, First Coast News determined that the majority of the incumbent’s donations came from home builders, developers and gate oil companies.
Major donors include The Park Group (which developed Nocatee), ICI Homes (which built homes in Silverleaf and Nocatee), Gate Petroleum, and The Hutson Companies, which developed Silverleaf and is also owned by the family of Senator Travis Hutson.
Evans and Taylor have said they have not accepted and will not accept any funds from developers. First Coast News has determined Murphy has received approximately $6,000 from one developer and two construction companies, a fraction of what the incumbent has received.
Then there are political action committees (PACs), which raise donations to help candidates win or lose elections. Various PACs have funded the negative advertising that has been rife in these elections.
It’s hard to tie one PAC to a specific candidate, but First Coast News has confirmed that the PACs that donated to incumbents all come from two addresses in Tallahassee or Gainesville and are led by the same person. The money flowing into these PACs, especially those tied to St. Johns County, comes from developers such as PARC Group, Dream Finders Homes, Valencourt Construction, Hutson Companies, ICI Homes and Gate Petroleum. In 2024 alone, that total exceeds $1 million.
The candidates facing their opponents are raising money from PACs, which have combined to give less than $35,000 to the campaign for the 2024 election.
All of the candidates running for St. Johns County Commission are Republicans, so the primary election on Aug. 20 will determine the winner.