Regional advocate

Twenty years ago, a Tampa developer asked Tina McCain Matte if she could organize a political fundraiser for an upstart candidate.

“I actually said I don't think so,” she laughs. “I'd never heard of him.”

The candidate was Jeb Bush, who was preparing his first run for Florida governor. And the developer was Al Hoffman, the entrepreneur who would transform WCI Communities into one of the largest homebuilding firms in the state and become a leading fundraiser for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.