Former state Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Miami Democrat, is getting in the race for Chief Financial Officer she formally announced Monday.
She’ll take on incumbent Republican Blaise Ingoglia, who was appointed to the role last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, replacing Jimmy Patronis, who left the seat for a successful U.S. House seat race.
The Cabinet position has oversight of insurance and financial regulation agencies and manages the state government’s checkbook. The CFO is also the state Fire Marshal. Taddeo said she’ll focus on lowering property insurance rates and other costs hitting residents by taking a more aggressive oversight approach to the industry.
“The job of the CFO is to be the watchdog, not the lapdog for the governor,” Taddeo told the News Service of Florida.
Taddeo, 59, is no stranger to campaigning in Florida. She was Charlie Crist’s pick as lieutenant governor during his unsuccessful bid for governor in 2014. She first ran for Congress for a South Florida U.S. House seat in 2008 but lost. In 2017 she won a state Senate special election and served in the chamber until 2022, when she ran for Congress again but lost to U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Miami. In 2024 she ran for Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts but lost to Juan Fernandez-Barquin, a Republican former state House member.
The Colombian-born Taddeo moved to the U.S. in the 1980s and founded a Spanish-language translation business before getting involved with Democratic politics in Miami.
The campaigns for CFO and the other Cabinet positions, attorney general and agriculture commissioner, can often fly under the radar as the governor’s race garners most of the attention of media and voters, but Taddeo believes she has momentum at the start of the race.
She pointed to a poll commissioned by Ruth’s List, a group that backs female candidates in support of abortion rights, showing her ahead of Ingoglia 39.2 percent to 37.6 percent. The poll of 1,828 likely voters, conducted April 23-30 and released last month, also showed her 18 points ahead among no party affiliation voters (NPAs).
“NPAs will decide this race, and they’ve been breaking our way,” Taddeo said.
But before taking on Ingoglia in the general election, Taddeo will first have to win the Democratic primary. Earle Ford dropped out of the race for Congressional District 13 last month to enter the CFO race and will compete with Taddeo for the Democratic nomination.
Meanwhile, Ingoglia, a former state senator himself who also served in the state House, picked up the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Tampa, on Monday.
“CFO Blaise Ingoglia doesn’t just talk, he delivers. He is exposing waste, enhancing transparency, and fighting for the taxpayers to make Florida affordable,” Lee said in a released statement.
Since taking office last July, Ingoglia has toured the state slamming select local governments for “overspending,” based on tax collections they received compared to what they received in 2019.
Ingoglia has slammed city and county officials for overtaxing property owners as inflation and other costs have pinched residents. He’s backing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to boost the homestead exemption to $250,000 over two years. The measure will appear before voters on the November ballot.
Taddeo said she backs auditing local governments and rooting out wasteful spending, but took issue with Ingoglia’s approach and the property tax cut ballot measure, suggesting cities and counties will make up the cuts through fees and other taxes.
“They’re not being truthful in the sense, you still may be out of pocket in other ways to be able to pay for the schools, the library, the firefighters, the police – all the things that are necessary to run a government,” Taddeo said.
–Gary Roher, News Service of Florida
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