It was called “Boca envy.” It used to be quite a thing.

Boca Raton was the envy of neighboring cities, such as Plantation and Coral Springs, as an elite place to live, including strict design standards that set it apart from the commercial blight you see everywhere else in South Florida.

McDonald’s had to shrink those golden arches. KFC had to ditch its familiar spinning bucket of fried chicken. In Margate, sure — but not in Boca, Colonel Sanders.

Steve Bousquet, Sun Sentinel Opinion Editor.

You don’t hear talk about Boca envy anymore, and you may never hear it again after the city’s upcoming municipal election. Politically speaking, at least, Boca looks and acts more and more like its bigger neighbors — and that’s definitely not a good thing.

This is the year than big money — especially big developer money — hijacked city elections like never before. It’s the first time that contributions for mayor alone will top $1 million for a part-time job paying less than $40,000 a year, as Boca Magazine first noted.

More and more hard-to-trace checks are laundered among political committees, with their murky-sounding names and Tallahassee addresses, frustrating attempts by voters or the media to figure out exactly who’s giving to whom.

By law, the maximum contribution directly to a city candidate’s campaign is $1,000, which looks more and more like a petty cash account compared to the unlimited donations PCs can accept.

The website BocaFirst tried valiantly to trace what it called “the pinball machine of PAC money” in the mayor’s race, where big money flows to council members Fran Nachlas and Andy Thomson. The third mayoral candidate, Mike Liebelson, is largely self-funded, and attacks both rivals for accepting money from developers and other special interests.

Thomson’s political committee, Running with Andy Thomson, has raised $478,000, with nearly half the money from one committee, Citizens for Law, Order and Ethics. Both committees are chaired by a Democratic political strategist, Rick Asnani of Cornerstone Solutions, who drew criticism in 2024 after he steered $1 million to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to defeat two ballot initiatives.

Just who is behind Law, Order and Ethics? The answer: Even more committees, such as Floridians for Economic Leadership, and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Friends of (Sheriff) Ric Bradshaw, police unions, law firms, restaurants and many others.

“All of the campaign contributions that go to a PC are all disclosed,” said Thomson, who cited examples in which he voted against contributors’ interests.

In a testy group candidate interview with the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Thomson called  Liebelson’s broad vote-buying accusations “dead wrong and libelous.”

“Contributions don’t buy votes,” Nachlas said in the same interview. “I think we’ve wasted a lot of time speaking about this.”

I respectfully disagree. This is important, and in my experience, candidates who feel compelled to publicly deny that contributions make no difference have already lost the argument with voters.

Boca Raton fell into the same high-dollar trap as Fort Lauderdale did two years ago, when Mayor Dean Trantalis and Commissioner Steve Glassman each raised in the range of $1 million to win re-election. (The election ended 15 months ago, but Glassman is still receiving developer money through his committee, Back to Basics. It never ends.)

If enough Boca Raton voters are fed up with this ugly trend — and strong signs show an anti-incumbent backlash in the city — the insurgent Liebelson could win.

He also has a political committee, Friends of Mike Liebelson, that by law does not have to disclose contributors until April 10 — a month after the election. PCs report money quarterly. That timetable seemingly did not anticipate soft money checks of $20,000 each flooding March city elections.

But the people of Boca Raton don’t have to accept this outrageous invasion of laundered money. They should demand that the new city council pass an ordinance imposing strict new disclosure requirements, and banning political committees from city elections.

That’s not likely, which means the next city election will be vastly more expensive. That’s bad for democracy — and it makes Boca Raton the envy of no one.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or at (850) 567-2240.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/02/21/bocas-big-money-is-a-troubling-sign-steve-bousquet/