Chair of dark-money group in Florida’s ‘ghost’ candidate scandal has ties to other secretive groups

The chairman of the dark-money group that provided more than half a million dollars in support of “ghost” candidates in last year’s Florida Senate races is also involved with other nonprofits that have raised millions from undisclosed donors — and distributed money to both Democrats and Republicans around Florida.

Two political committees spent a combined $550,000 promoting little-known independent candidates in three key state Senate elections, including one in Central Florida, all of which were won by Republicans. Those committees initially said they got their money from Proclivity Inc., a nonprofit based out of a UPS store in Atlanta, but later changed their reports to say the money actually came from Grow United Inc., a nonprofit based out of a UPS store in Denver.

Investigators in Miami-Dade County — who are prosecuting a former Republican state senator accused of bribing one of the independent candidates to run — obtained records showing that the chairman of both Proclivity and Grow United is Richard S. Alexander Jr. of Cullman, Ala.

They are apparently not the only nonprofits that Alexander leads. Tax records and other connections indicate that Alexander is also the chairman of “Florida Promise Inc.,” which is based out of a UPS store in Tampa, and “The Center for Popular Progressive Values and Democracy Inc.,” which is based out of a UPS store in New York.

Though the Internal Revenue Service has yet to post online 2019 or 2020 tax returns for any of the Alexander nonprofits, data compiled by the agency shows the groups are handling significant money: Center for Popular Progressive Values and Democracy raised more than $27 million in 2019, while Florida Promise raised more than $2.6 million in 2019.

In addition, Florida and federal campaign-finance records show that Florida Promise has spent more than $1.2 million on campaign contributions in the past year. Grow United has spent more than $1.5 million.

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