What else are you hiding, Nikki?

Photo credit: John Raoux, AP

When she announced on Tuesday, I said Nikki Fried will spend this campaign dodging questions about her personal and financial ties to industries she regulates.

Like clockwork, yesterday we learned Fried has been misreporting income from her lobbying work on behalf of said industries. The alleged mistake happened in both 2017 and 2018, and had even been corrected once before.

“Once again, Nikki Fried’s questionable ties to an industry she regulates are front and center, but this time it’s because she’s an incompetent mess who can’t even keep track of how much they were paying her,” said RGA spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez. “If Fried can’t keep track of the hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing into her own bank account, she certainly can’t handle Florida’s finances as the state’s chief executive.”

Read an excerpt from The Miami Herald‘s report below and the full story here:

“Four days before she filed her paperwork to run for governor, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried amended two forms to disclose she made a substantial amount more as a marijuana lobbyist than previously reported.

“The first change, a last-minute amendment to her 2018 financial disclosure forms first reported by blog Tallahassee Reports, shows that Fried, 43, changed the amount of annual income she made from her consulting firm Igniting Florida from $72,000 to $351,480 on Friday, May 28, days before she announced that she will seek the Democratic nomination to run for governor against incumbent Ron DeSantis. The form was first amended in January 2020 to reflect the $72,000 income for the first time.

“A 2020 form says the major source of the firm’s income was Fried’s client San Felasco Nurseries, a medical marijuana license holder that sold in 2018 to Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. Harvest was recently acquired by Quincy-based marijuana giant Trulieve, and Fried listed about $200,000 invested in the company on her 2019 financial disclosure forms.

“She also amended her 2017 disclosure forms Friday, which were filed with the Florida Division of Elections, raising her recorded consulting income from $84,000 to $165,761.

“In total, the amendments filed Friday added $361,241 to her previously reported income from before she was elected in 2018.”