Dear Friends,

In politics, “thank you” is a lot rarer than “dig deep.” The point of this letter is to say, very simply, thank you. Today marks one year since I formally announced my campaign to be Florida’s next Commissioner of Agriculture.

We are now less than seven months away from the Primary election and nine months from the General election in November. What a year it has been! For the past 12 months, I have crisscrossed the state touring farms and fairs, condos and high rises. I have given countless speeches to anyone who would listen about my passion and vision for Florida and its future.

Together, we have built an unprecedented statewide grassroots network. Consider this: with our 6,300 Facebook friends, we have the 4th highest number of all the statewide candidates, including Senator and Governor! Who says this office is archaic?

We continue to organize our volunteers and county leaders for the signs that will be going up and the get-out-the-vote efforts for this summer. I have been endorsed by all the major agriculture organizations who endorse, including 16 county Farm Bureaus and 27 Agricultural Hall of Fame members and Women of the Year in Florida Agriculture recipients. It is important that voters know which candidate shares the values of the men and women of the land as we carry our vision for all of Florida to every corner of the state. Even in the good economic times, agriculture is our second largest industry and the recent cold weather has highlighted for all Floridians just how important and resilient our farmers are.

Our fundraising work is going well, too. This campaign began 2010 with $1 million on hand. That is a record amount for this office and it is a great beginning. It says a lot about your generosity in these tough times as well as the frugality of our campaign. That amount is still less than half of our budgeted goal, though, as Florida is such an expensive state to campaign in with its seven TV markets and 18 million people.

As I said in the beginning of the campaign, we cannot take for granted that agriculture and consumers will always have a friend in the Commissioner’s office or that experience and qualifications alone will suffice in voters’ minds. It is important to every Floridian that strong leadership is representing us on the Cabinet when decisions about our future are made. It is crucial that we rebuild our economy, generate jobs by creating a business friendly atmosphere and compete aggressively with other states for new opportunities. We also cannot take for granted the powerful economic engines we already have, including agriculture, tourism and construction. Let’s not lose these jobs while chasing the next big thing.

So I say to you, thank you. Thank you for all you’ve done to build the team, host an event, contribute, volunteer and make this campaign successful. In the coming months, I will continue to call on you, and count on you, to be in places when I can’t make it, to tell your friends and neighbors about me and to spread the word to every voter. We never say thank you enough in this business so, one year on, I wanted to do just that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

You are invested in this great campaign along with me and my family. Now let’s redouble our efforts and make every day count this year. While we are paying attention, the average voter has yet to form an opinion on this race. We’ve a long way to go! Don’t hesitate to pass along your thoughts and ideas on ways we can improve.

Thanks again and God Bless our bountiful Land!

Sincerely,
Adam