Insurance, audits and immigration spending divide Ingoglia and Taddeo in Tuesday's race for Florida CFO

The race for Florida chief financial officer, one of the three Cabinet seats on Tuesday's ballot, pits an appointed incumbent who has made local government spending his signature issue against a former state senator who wants to turn the office's focus to insurers and state contracts.

The CFO oversees state finances, insurance regulation and fire safety enforcement, among other duties, WUSF reported. The winner takes office next year.

The candidates

Republican Blaise Ingoglia was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in July 2025 after Jimmy Patronis resigned to serve in the U.S. House. He founded the homebuilder Hartland Homes, served in the Legislature and chaired the Republican Party of Florida from 2015 to 2019. This is his first statewide race.

Democrat Annette Taddeo founded the translation company LanguageSpeak. She won a state Senate seat in a 2017 special election, was reelected in 2018 and served until 2022, and was Charlie Crist's running mate in the 2014 governor's race.

Insurance

In an interview aired Friday on WLRN's The Florida Roundup, Ingoglia said the state's insurance reforms need to stay in place as the base of his plan to bring down homeowners' costs. He said his office has fined insurers $2.4 million and sued two companies during his tenure.

Taddeo said she would publish a report card on insurers within her first 100 days, grading how fast they respond to claims, how often they delay or deny them, how much premium flows to affiliated companies and how financially strong they are. "We need them to show us the case to raise the rates," she said.

She has also said she would appoint consumer advocates to the Citizens Property Insurance board.

Spending and audits

Ingoglia's office runs the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, which takes a local government's 2019-20 general fund, adjusts it for population growth and inflation, and labels spending above that line as excess. It put Broward County's figure near $190 million. Broward Commissioner Steve Geller told WLRN the numbers are "fictitious." Ingoglia said other states cap government growth at inflation and population in their constitutions.

Asked about the state's immigration enforcement, Ingoglia said more than $1 billion could have been spent more efficiently but that the state faced an emergency, and that the money helped the removal process.

Taddeo has said she would audit emergency spending, starting with $1.2 billion spent on the Alligator Alcatraz detention site, along with every no-bid deal in Tallahassee.

On Amendment 3, the property tax measure, Ingoglia supports it and Taddeo opposes it, saying it lacks enough guardrails, according to WUSF.

Money

Ingoglia had raised $1.5 million in his campaign account, and two committees supporting him held another $1.5 million, WLRN reported earlier this month, with more than $1 million in in-kind help, mostly from the state Republican Party. He did not seek state matching funds.

Taddeo had raised a little more than $175,000 through Oct. 2, with nearly $400,000 more in her political committee, and was receiving state matching money.

Sources

wlrn.org

wusf.org

wlrn.org