Steve Leary and Kelly Semrad in final fundraising stretch for District 5 Orange County race

The two are on the Nov. 5 ballot in the only open seat this year for the Orange County Commission

Oct. 18, 2024

By Beth Kassab

Former Winter Park Mayor Steve Leary remains the fundraising leader in the District 5 Orange County Commission race against UCF Professor Kelly Semrad with donors from the tourism and development industries continuing to drive his total.

Leary raised $322,000 and spent $218,000 through his campaign account and a political committee he also controls, according to the most recent filings. The bulk of that came in before the August primary, when Leary trailed Semrad to a second place finish by 2,800 votes.

Recent Leary campaign donations include $12,000 from hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen and his companies plus another $1,000 from Frank Santos, a member of Rosen’s executive team.

On Thursday, Leary posted an endorsement from Rosen on his campaign Facebook page in which Rosen says Leary is “the ONLY candidate qualified to serve.” Leary wrote that he is proud to have Rosen’s support and called him a “TRUE tourism expert” — an apparent dig at Semrad, who is known as an expert in tourism economies and conducts research and teaches at UCF’s college of hospitality management named for Rosen.

Neither Leary nor his campaign responded to a request for an interview for this story.

The Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association’s political committees recently gave Leary $2,000.

Another $2,000 came came from a company affiliated with the developers behind the proposed Sustanee project that includes nearly 2,000 homes on ranchlands in east Orange County. The developers sued the county over the commission’s rejection of the project earlier this year.

Kelly Cohen, a lobbyist for Lake Nona developer Tavistock, which is also attempting to develop additional rural lands, gave $500. Developer Alan Ginsburg and BusinessForce, the political committee for the Orlando Chamber of Commerce, each gave $1,000.

Development of rural lands and how the county should divvy up the dollars collected from the Tourism Development Tax are key issues in the District 5 contest as well as the races for Districts 1 and 3. 

The Nov. 5 ballot also includes two questions for voters related to development. The first asks voters to designate a rural boundary in the county and the second would give the County Commission the power to stop potential developers from voluntarily annexing their land into other jurisdictions such as the city of Orlando.

Leary has said he supports establishing the rural boundary, but has not answered a question that would give the rural boundary measure its teeth: Whether he supports the move to allow the county commission to block annexations by the cities.

Semrad is a vocal advocate of both ballot questions and is also pushing for more tourist tax money to be spent on local projects such as transportation vs needs exclusive to the tourism industry.

She has trailed in fundraising with a total of $86,000 so far, according to the available filings. She does not have a political action committee.

Her contributions include $1,000 from Orlando Democrat Rep. Maxwell Frost’s political committee, $500 from Ruth’s List and $1,000 from the Orange County Firefighter’s Association. Her supporters also include local names such as political pundit and advocate Dick Batchelor ($250); retired Judge Cynthia McKinnon ($100) and others.

Semrad said she knows she won’t make up the fundraising gap between her and Leary, but is focusing on talking with as many voters as possible.

“We’ve got more than 100 volunteers who knock on doors every weekend and waive signs,” she said.

While few voters open to door to talk with canvassers face-to-face, she’s noticed many speak to her or the volunteers via phone through their doorbell camera apps — either from inside their homes or wherever they happen to be.

“Those interactions have been way more informative,” she said. “They’ll say, ‘I love your platform,’ … Our numbers are coming in really strong.”

While Leary has a significant fundraising lead over Semrad, he is behind the top fundraisers in Districts 1 and 3 where  Austin Arthur raised about $500,000 through his campaign account and political committee and and Mayra Uribe has raised nearly $500,000 through her campaign and committees that have supported her.

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