Democratic candidate for Chief Financial Officer Annette Taddeo is criticizing opponent and current CFO Blaise Ingoglia's use of taxpayer money to fund a series of public service announcements ahead of the November election.
"Blaise Ingoglia, Florida’s interim chief financial officer, is spending more than $3 million on taxpayer-funded advertising as he runs for election to a full term in the powerful statewide post. The self-promotional ads began airing over the past month — about halfway through… pic.twitter.com/DthdSFozER
— Annette Taddeo (@Annette_Taddeo) September 29, 2026
Investigative journalist Jason Garcia uncovered the spending in his Substack Seeking Rents Tuesday.
"Altogether, Ingoglia’s agency has paid more than $3.7 million to three Tallahassee ad agencies to produce and place PSAs, according to a Seeking Rents review of payment records and purchase orders," the article states. "The payments began in July, but most of the money — more than $2.3 million — has been spent in just the past three weeks."
The service announcements urged Floridians to prepare for hurricane season, with the narrator "emphasizing" Ingoglia's name at the end, and linking directly to a website introducing Ingoglia to viewers.
According to the article, Ingoglia's agency also ordered service announcements related to abandoned property and senior citizen fraud.
Ingoglia was appointed to the position by Gov. DeSantis in July 2025, after the previous Florida Cabinet member stepped down to run for Congress.
In her response, Taddeo compared the situation to the Hope Foundation scandal.
"Unelected CFO Blaise Ingoglia is spending $3.7 million of your money on ‘public service announcements.’ The same playbook as the Hope Florida scandal,” Taddeo said in a press release Wednesday. "My opponent travels the state pretending to audit local governments. And now he’s spending millions of your tax dollars promoting himself in a race where the polls show us tied."
This comes just a few weeks after the Hope Foundation scandal came under renewed scrutiny when Attorney General James Uthmeier and former Attorney General Ashley Moody were found to have misappropriated the $10 million in taxpayer funds to a campaign against two constitutional amendments in 2024.
