Florida GOPer warns Duke power over slow storm response: 'I'm done taking money from them... in this cycle'

A Florida state senator who is running for governor said this week that he would punish Duke Energy for its slow response after Hurricane Irma by refusing their donations for one campaign cycle.

The Tampa Bay Timesreported that Sen. Jack Latvala was one of several Republicans to lash out at utility providers.

"In this cycle," Latvala told the Times, "I'm done taking money from them."

Rep. Chris Sprowls (R) also promised to "ask a lot of difficult questions."

Hurricane Irma reportedly caused 1.3 million outages in Florida. To make matters worse, Duke Energy said that its automated tracking system broke down, forcing workers to triage the damage manually.

"We understood that people are frustrated," Duke Energy Florida President Harry Sideris admitted. "Power is such a vital piece of everybody's life, and when it's 93 degrees and you have no air conditioning, everybody gets frustrated."

Read the entire report here.