Lobbyist involved in Orlando airport controversy represents client linked to airport lawsuit

Originally published Sept. 17, 2019

About a month after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis installed a new majority on the board that runs Orlando International Airport, a lobbyist at a firm owned by one of the governor’s biggest fundraisers registered to represent a new client before the agency.

The lobbyist was Chris Dorworth, a former Republican state lawmaker from Seminole County who now works for the Tallahassee-based lobbying firm Ballard Partners. And the client Dorworth signed up to represent before the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority was called Generational Capital Partners LLC, a 2-year-old company based in Detroit that airport leaders say they had never heard of before.

But corporate records in Michigan show that company was set up by a senior executive at a much larger firm that airport officials know quite well -- Walbridge Co., a major construction contractor that is suing the agency over a baggage-handling project gone bad.

The litigation has dragged on for three years and mediation has so far proven fruitless. Walbridge wants approximately $10 million more than the airport authority has offered in settlement negotiations, according to airport records.

Dorworth, who withdrew as an airport lobbyist two weeks ago, described Generational Capital Partners as a “shared family office” that is separate from Walbridge. Walbridge is run by John Rakolta Jr. who is a major Republican Party donor nationally. Rakolta Jr. and Ballard Partners founder Brian Ballard have raised money together for President Donald Trump and former GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, among others; Rakolta Jr. was such a valuable supporter of Trump’s that the president has nominated him to be ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

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