The district doesn't exist yet, but Karen Diebel has already raised $97,044 to run for a new congressional seat in Central Florida. Among her early donors: U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.
Diebel was barely edged by Sandy Adams in a crowded Republican primary in Congressional District 24 last year. Adams went on to oust Democratic incumbent Suzanne Kosmas. Now Diebel figures to have the inside track in a new district for 2012.
Florida is adding two congressional seats for the next election -- bringing the state's total to 27 -- and most observers predict that Central Florida will land one of the new districts.
Diebel, in her campaign-finance filing with the Federal Election Commission this month, lists the new district as CD 26. Among her early financial backers:
- Wayne and Fonda Huizenga: $2,500 each.
- U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Prosperity PAC: $1,000.
- U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee: $7,000 (including $5,000 from his People for Enterprise, Trade and Economic Growth PAC, which raised and spent $1 million in 2010).
- Anita Staver: $1,000 (wife of Liberty Council leader Matt Staver).
- Cathy Gillespie: $1,000 (wife of former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie).
So far, no other candidate has filed a financial report for CD 26. Craig Miller, the third-place finisher in the CD 24 GOP primary, last week declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate.
Diebel, a former Winter Park commissioner and telecommunications executive, raised $464,535 for her 2010 race. She lost by less than a percentage point to Adams, who raked in $1.093 million.
Diebel appears to be on track to surpass her 2010 fundraising effort. And being the first to declare for a district that has not yet been established, she figures to get a jump on, or freeze out, potential GOP opponents.
"I'm very pleased with the result and, more importantly, am encouraged that people want a conservative voice for Central Florida," Diebel told Sunshine State News.
As for the Democrats, former Rep. Alan Grayson has said he may be interested in returning to Capitol Hill. The controversial Orlando-area congressman, defeated by Republican Daniel Webster in CD 8 last year, is a prodigious fundraiser who could make a run at CD 26, wherever its lines are drawn.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 559-4719.
