Rick Receives Editorial Endorsement

On Sunday, The Longboat Observer threw their support behind Rick and issued the following endorsement:

“If you cut through all of the Bill McCollum and Alex Sink character-assassination attack ads; if you discard the standard operating procedure of the daily newspapers and their editorialists — which is to discredit anyone who has been a success in business; and if you judge Florida’s gubernatorial candidates on their professional accomplishments, the choice for governor is overwhelmingly clear. Pick the candidate who has proven his competence far above the other candidates. That would be Rick Scott.” Read the full endorsement.

Taking the Lead on Immigration

Today, on the campaign trail, Rick called for legislators to pass an Arizona-style immiration law here in Florida. Rick believes that if taxpayers are on the hook to pay for the special session, then Floridians should at least get some return on their investment with the passage of meaningful legislation and that is why I am urging the legislature to pass an Arizona style immigration law during this special session.

Here is a news story analyzing the debate on immigration between Rick and Bill McCollum.

Today we learned that Bill McCollum’s campaign is broke and now amidst economic crisis and budget shortfalls Bill McCollum wants the taxpayers to bail him out and fund his negative campaign attacks! Only a career politician like Bill McCollum would employ a risky strategy to spend all his money and then demand that taxpayers bail him out when his failing campaign is broke and needs more money to fund his negative attacks. Sounds like the same strategy AIG and Goldman Sachs employed. Is that really the type of money manager we need running our state?

Here are a couple of articles that ran this week on McCollum’s attempt to take money from taxpayers to fund his campaign:

“Conservative Florida Republicans have long opposed the state’s public campaign financing program, calling it ‘welfare for politicians,’ in the words of its leading opponent, former Gov. Jeb Bush. But some of those same people are now helping their favored candidate for governor, Bill McCollum, collect as much public financing money as possible… the result is a potential tax-funded bonanza for McCollum’s campaign – and possibly also for Democrat Alex Sink, if Scott wins the primary and she becomes his opponent.” (March, William, “Public financing foes now helping McCollum reap its benefits,” The Tampa Tribune, 7/12/10) Click here to read the full story.

“Before you get too irritated by the political ads from statewide candidates looping on television or squeezed into mailboxes this year, keep this in mind: You’re probably paying for part of it. In 2006, Florida taxpayers doled out $11.1 million to 10 candidates running for governor or Cabinet-level offices. This year, with the state budget hole widening and the number of jobs in Florida shrinking, 17 statewide candidates agreed to limit campaign spending in exchange for matching dollars from the state treasury…. Neither Bush nor Scott participated in the public financing program. Bush ridiculed it as ‘welfare for politicians.’ The traditional use of the public finance program is a state match of contributions of $250 or less from Florida residents. But like Bush, Scott’s spending will trigger a wave of additional taxpayer money for his opponents, including GOP primary rival Bill McCollum, Democratic front-runner Alex Sink and potentially five other independent candidates. As long as McCollum, Sink and other gubernatorial candidates participating in the taxpayer program raise $150,000 on their own, they will be eligible for a dollar-for- dollar match from the state of anything Scott spends beyond their cap. And that money will not count toward their spending caps.” (Bender, Michael, “State hopefuls capitalize on spending cap loophole,” Palm Beach Post, 7/11/10) Click here to read the full story.

Stay tuned for another exciting week of news from the campaign trail!