Bronson backs McCollum for guv
by Dara Kam | June 9th, 2009
In a swift turnaround, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson today endorsed Attorney General Bill McCollum as the GOP candidate to replace Gov. Charlie Crist.
Just last week, Bronson succumbed to pressure from state GOP leaders, including RPOF Chairman Jim Greer, to stay out of the race against McCollum. Greer and others want to avoid an expensive and potentially politically divisive GOP primary while Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink presumably will not face an opponent in a Democratic battle for the post.
Dressed nearly identically in dark pin-striped suits, white dress shirts and red ties, McCollum and Bronson stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a press conference announcing the endorsement.
The duo acknowledged the influence that the state’s dismal economy and anticipated skimpy campaign resources will have over the election.
“The finances as we all know are going to be tight…extremely tight,” Bronson said.
All the concern about limited campaign funds comes as the candidates embark on the races more than 18 months before the November election next year. That’s because Crist unleashed the campaign floodgates when he announced he would not seek reelection to a second term as governor but would run to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez instead, McCollum said.
“It’s too bad we run these long races but that’s the way it is,” he said.
The announcement came the day that a Quinnipiac University poll showed McCollum, now in his fourth campaign for statewide office and who spent two decades in Congress, trailing Sink among likely Florida voters by 38-34 percent with nearly a three percent margin of error.
McCollum dismissed the poll results, citing three other recent polls showing him in the lead, including one in which he led Sink by nine percentage points.
“I think the poll’s fine,” he nonchalantly said of today’s Q-poll. “I think I’ll take the one that showed me ahead nine.”
Tags: Bill McCollum, Charlie Bronson, Charlie Crist, Republicans
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