Andrew Gillum was not included in the subpoenas, but they included some of his closest advisers. And the episode is all but guaranteed to come up on the campaign trail. | Daniel Ducassi/POLITICO Haunted by FBI investigation, Democratic gubernatorial nominee faces tough climb

TALLAHASSEE — Andrew Gillum’s choice of election party venues to celebrate his unexpected victory Tuesday night came with a degree of irony: the developer of the historic Hotel Duval was one of dozens of prominent businesspeople and companies named in subpoenas for an FBI investigation into their dealings with Tallahassee’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

Gillum, Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, was not included in the subpoenas, but they included some of his closest advisers. And the episode is all but guaranteed to come up on the campaign trail as Gillum heads into a November showdown with Republican nominee Rep. Ron DeSantis.


For now Gillum does not seem worried.

“I guess it’s ironic for us to be having this here, huh?” lobbyist and Gillum adviser Sean Pittman said before inviting Gillum to deliver his victory speech.

But as Pittman warmed up the crowd in Tallahassee, DeSantis told Fox News from his victory party in Orlando the FBI investigation and reports of Tallahassee's high crime showed Gillum isn’t fit for the state’s top executive office.

“He can’t even run a city, let alone a state,” DeSantis said.

Defying countless polls and expert predictions, Gillum earned more than 34 percent of the vote, beating former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, the favorite to win, by three percentage points. He now faces DeSantis, a Ponte Vedra congressman who won with help with two glowing endorsements from President Donald Trump.

In response to DeSantis’ criticism, Gillum campaign spokesman Geoff Burgan pointed to DeSantis’ alliance with Trump, whose former campaign chairman was convicted last week of financial fraud.

“Congressman DeSantis is marching in lockstep with the most ethically, legally, and morally questionable President in our history,” Burgan told POLITICO via email. “We’re not going to take lectures from him, and our voters aren’t going to be distracted by his sideshows.”

Two political strategists said the FBI investigation is just some of the weaponry DeSantis will use against Gillum, and his chances of survival depend on how he fights back. Fort Lauderdale pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio, a Republican, said Gillum should also expect heat for reports of Tallahassee’s high crime ranking and city overspending.

“Either of those three things could be a knockout punch for him,” Fabrizio said. “If I were them, I would ask how you go after DeSantis.”

Tallahassee pollster and Democrat strategist Steve Vancore said Gillum’s primary opponents did not use the FBI investigation, but choosing to ignore it could easily leave a powder keg left to explode.

“They’ve got hundreds of headlines and quotes from stories — there's no shortage of weaponry for DeSantis to choose from,” Vancore said. “It doesn’t matter if Gillum was never named, DeSantis is still going to weaponize it.”

The FBI investigation was uncovered by the Tallahassee Democrat in June 2017, about a month after Gillum announced his bid for governor, when authorities delivered a subpoena to Tallahassee City Hall. Gillum cooperated with the investigation, where a subpoena named lobbyist Adam Corey, who served as Gillum’s volunteer treasurer of his 2014 campaign for mayor.

The investigation began in 2015 when undercover FBI agents posed as investors who sought to make deals involving the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, a public-private partnership designed to support revitalization and redevelopment projects.

The investigation included a decision by the CRA — which includes Gillum and the rest of the Tallahassee City Commission — to give Corey $1.3 million to turn an abandoned utility building into a high-end restaurant.

A key piece of the investigation is a 2016 vote by the CRA to expand the boundary of the area of inner city it serves. Gillum did not attend that meeting, records show.

An official close to the probe, speaking anonymously to discuss the ongoing investigation, said Wednesday charges may be filed soon. But even if the FBI announced Gillum had no part, its connection to the City Commission and the countless news stories could hurt him, Vancore said.

“It all depends on how they come out ahead of this and how they fight back,” Vancore said. “DeSantis has Trump, who just saw his own campaign manager convicted of fraud and then there’s Trump’s lawyer.”

Fabrizio said any legal woes surrounding the White House won’t hurt DeSantis, and it’s important to focus on issues he can’t avoid.

“The point is you have to find something that will, no pun intended, trump the other issue,” Fabrizio said. “Maybe it’s his viewpoints or his voting record, those are the things [Gillum] will need to really stick to for an impact.”

Vancore noted DeSantis weakened his own argument against Gillum, the state's first black gubernatorial nominee in state history, during a Wednesday interview on Fox News.

“The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state,” DeSantis said. Critics called the comment racially motivated — a charge DeSantis' camp denied — and Gillum told Fox News the comment was indicative of Trump's administration.

"We're going to win this race and we're not going to go down there because we're going to stay high and show the people the spirit of what this state could become," Gillum said.