It’s unclear who cast the first stone in the volatile Republican race for governor, but neither Bill McCollum nor Rick Scott was willing to set aside their differences Sunday as they brought their campaigns to mega-churches on opposite ends of the state.
In Miami, Scott stood at the pulpit of the 7,000-seat El Rey Jesus church and questioned McCollum’s honesty, a tactic he said church leaders encouraged him to use.
In Jacksonville, meanwhile, McCollum used the preacher’s sermon about “unwholesome words” at the 10,000-seat First Baptist Church to launch his own criticisms of Scott.
With neither candidate willing to turn the other cheek, it was clear the continued attacks have hurt both.
Surveys by the Democratic-oriented Public Policy Polling firm show Rick Scott with a 47-to-40 percent lead over Bill McCollum in Tuesday’s GOP primary for governor and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek holding a 51-to-27 advantage over Jeff Greene in the Democratic Senate primary.
The polls were taken Saturday and Sunday. The sample of 324 likely Democratic primary voters has a 5.4 percent margin of error and the GOP sample of 304 likely voters has a 5.6 percent margin of error.
“No good deed goes unpunished,” Feinberg said today on a conference call with reporters when asked about McCollum’s critique.
Feinberg said he expects a flood of applications when the Gulf Coast Claims Facility goes online at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
The lawyer, hired by BP and President Barack Obama, received high marks for his handling of the compensation fund for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks but is under fire for vague guidelines about how he will dole out the $20 billion BP has pledged for Gulf Coast individuals and businesses who’ve lost money and jobs since the April 20th Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
Feinberg has yet to reveal how much money he’s being paid to take over the claims system and won’t release internal documents detailing how BP’s adjusters have been retrained to handle claims.
Some Panhandle business owners waited for months without getting any payment from the oil giant for their losses and those who did receive checks had no idea how the amount was derived or what time period it covered.
Feinberg is using “proximity,” or how close claimants are in relation to where oil washed up on the beach, as one factor in deciding who gets paid. That’s more onerous than federal law, McCollum complained in a letter on Friday.
Feinberg says his system gives claimants a free review of how they would fare in court.
“It’s truly a free preview. Nobody is obligated to come into this program and accept the award unless they voluntarily reach a conclusion that it’s in their interest,” Feinberg said.
Republican candidate Rick Scott took a shot this morning at his primary opponent, Bill McCollum, during a service at the El Rey Jesus mega-church in Miami. Ironically, it was over McCollum’s illegal immigration bill, a proposal that Scott says he would largely implement as governor.
Arizona-style immigration reform is unpopular among Florida Hispanics and Scott says McCollum misled Miami Republicans about the bill. (See end of this previous post.)
“My opponent came here two or three weeks ago and was very disrespectful in my mind. He was not honest with your leadership about his beliefs,” Scott said to thousands of people packed into the church.
“My commitment to you is that I will always be respectful of the diversity of this state and this country,” Scott said. “And I will always make sure that I have leadership from this community involved in anything I do as governor.”
But in the audience was Anthony Verdugo, head of the Florida Christian Family Coalition, a group that has endorsed McCollum. Verdugo said Scott committed to his group’s forum in Boca Raton earlier this month and then skipped it without reason.
Verdugo said Scott’s speech was “highly inappropriate in a house of worship”
“If you’re going to run for office and you’re going to talk about honesty, you gotta put yourself out there first,” Verdugo said. “There’s stuff that is out there that people don’t know about him that he refuses to address. And I think it’s a little ironic.”
UPDATE:The church has pulled the voter guides after Scott’s campaign complained.
That’s the note in the voter’s guide the Florida Family Policy Council and other Christian groups are disseminating at the 10,000-member El Rey Jesus church in Miami today.
The guide runs through candidates positions in seven races. But the only “note” is included in the GOP governor’s race between Rick Scott and Bill McCollum. The note happens to be a talking point for McCollum, who has been endorsed by the family policy group’s director, John Stemberger.
Note: Mr. Scott was the CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare hospitals while they performed elective abortions.
We should note that a tiny fraction of elective abortions happen in hospitals. And we should also note that several GOP operatives have said this is a low blow againt Scott.. Remember Florida GOP icon Jeb Bush is a board member of a hospital where abortions happen, too. (Even McCollum has stopped repeating it in his stump speeches.)
One of the positions not included in voters guide: illegal immigration.
Mary Susan Pine, who regularly protests outside a West Palm Beach clinic where abortions are performed, is the target of a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit that seeks to bar her from any driveway leading to the clinic and could result in a $10,000 fine.
Pine, 58, is the first Florida person targeted under the 16-year-old federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
A National Abortion Federation lawyer applauds the suit as part of the crackdown Attorney General Eric Holder promised after the 2009 slaying of a Kansas abortion practitioner.
Marleine Bastien, one of nine Democrats running in Tuesday’s primary for the Miami-based seat of U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, was robbed at gunpoint this morning as she was leaving her car to enter a campaign event at a North Miami church.
Bastien’s sister, with her at the time, was also robbed.
Adds campaign manager Matt De Vlieger: “Marleine is just taking a little rest right now, and is looking forward to moving on in these final days of the campaign. It’s a tough race and each day brings something new–like today– but Marleine isn’t going to let that stop her. “
The Democratic candidates for attorney general spent the day in opposite parts of the state waving signs and knocking on doors in a last-ditch effort to win votes in Tuesday’s primary election.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg is spending the day in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. His opponent, Dan Gelber, is stumping in North Florida with stops in Tallahassee and Pensacola.
Gelber topped all of the attorney general candidates – including the three Republicans in a tight primary – in campaign contributions. He edged out opponent Aronberg, who led the raise in fundraising until this month, by just $11,000.
Like the Republican primary, the Aronberg and Gelber race is too close to call.
“With 43 percent undecided this is anyone’s game right now,” Aronberg said while going door-to-door in South Florida.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott poured $12 million into his campaign from Aug. 9-18, according to final primary campaign finance reports filed last night. That brings he and his wife’s total investment in the campaign effort to $49.9 million.
Scott’s primary rival, Bill McCollum, is not anywhere near that kind of money. But the state’s Attorney General hardly running a mom-and-pop operation. McCollum’s team expects they and their supports will spend more than $20 million.
While Scott writing checks to his own campaign, the electioneering committee directly tied to McCollum took $1.6 million from a host of special interests during the same time. The Florida First Initiative, has raised nearly $6 million this cycle. McCollum’s own campaign committee raised $7.7 million.
From Aug 9-18, McCollum’s 527 committee took money from insurers, real estate companies and health care interests, including $500,000 from the secretive League of American Voters, $256,000 from Florida Senate Republican Mike Haridopolos’ fund-raising committee, $250,000 from The Villages holding company $10,000 from the Gunster Yoakley law firm and $10,000 from Continental Motorcars of Merritt Island.
UPDATE:McCollum said he received a tip about the deposition from a “a rather prominent attorney in the central part of Florida” who heard about it from a law firm involved in the case. McCollum stressed that the document itself did not come from the firm. McCollum, however, said it was fair to make it a political issue.
“I’ve prosecuted cases. I’ve been around this a long time. And people don’t take the fifth amendment just because,” McCollum said.
“I’ve never taken the fifth amendment. People don’t take the fifth amendment unless they’re involved in a case that might involve their criminal, potential, criminal liability. That’s why you take the fifth. Otherwise you just answer the questions.”
Bill McCollum’s Republican gubernatorial campaign has unearthed what was supposed to be a destroyed deposition Rick Scott gave during a legal fight in 2000 between his former health care company, Columbia/HCA, and the Nevada Communications Corp.
Four days out from the Tuesday primary, McCollum’s folks — who brazenly declared that Scott “barely escaped imprisonment” despite never being questioned as part of a historic Medicare fraud investigation settled in 2001 — say the deposition is important because Scott pled the fifth 75 times. Scott had resigned from Columbia in 1997 and the deposition shows Scott pled the fifth at the advice of his attorney, who cited the “number of criminal investigations” pending against Columbia around the country at the time.
Pleading the fifth, of course, is not an assertion of guilt. The U.S. Supreme Court has said the privilege serves to protect the innocent.
Scott’s campaign says it’s a flimsy argument from Florida’s attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement official.
“Just when you think Bill McCollum and the political insiders can’t get any sleazier they call on a campaign contributor to do their dirty work. It is disgusting and it is what people hate about politics,” Scott spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said.
Kendrick Meek is playing up his presidential connections while Jeff Greene is underscoring his outsider status as the Florida Democratic Senate primary rivals make their final pitches to voters this weekend before Tuesday’s election.
Former President Bill Clinton recorded an automated phone message calling four-term Miami U.S. Rep. Meek “my friend” and mentioning that President Obama is also backing Meek’s Senate bid. Both Clinton and Obama campaigned for Meek in South Florida this week.
While Meek stresses his Washington ties, Palm Beach billionaire Greene is taking the opposite tack in a new TV spot released today.
“If you want to send Washington a wake-up call, send me to the Senate. I’ll shake things up and never let you down,” Greene says in his new ad.
For the last full week before the primary Tuesday, Naples businessman Rick Scott has paid for a mind-blowing $5.1 million in TV ads for his Republican gubernatorial primary, according to a report from a competing campaign. Here’s what that means:
On average, Scott bought an average of 2,300 points across the state’s 10 broadcast TV markets this week, which generally means the average viewer in Florida saw 23 Scott ads during that time. Campaigns usually target their ads to a specific demographic, so if you’re a FOX News fan, for example, you’ve probably seen more.
Scott bought the most points in West Palm Beach, where the average viewer saw 34 ads from Scott this week. Since Scott jumped into the race in April, no one has watched more of his ads than the average Orlando TV viewer, who has watched nearly 200 spots since then.
Numbers from/for Bill McCollum’s campaign are a little more difficult to parse because he’s got several outside groups helping. McCollum’s own campaign paid for about $1.6 million in ads over the last three weeks, while the Florida First Initiative and Florida Chamber of Commerce combined to spend about $800,000 on behalf of McCollum in the final week.
Pam Bondi nailed down about $50,000 at a last-minute fundraiser in Jacksonville this evening hosted by business biggies Steve Halverson, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and Ericka Alba, head of Associated Industries of Florida. Both business groups are backing Bondi in the primary.
Bondi, in a tight GOP primary for attorney general against Holly Benson and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, made her last in-person pitch for campaign funds before the midnight deadline tonight after which candidates are barred from collecting cash until after the primary election on Tuesday.
The event took place at Halverson’s posh home overlooking the St. John’s River, a far cry from the tiny store front in downtown Lake City where she shook hands with about a dozen locals eager to meet the political neophyte in person.
At both events on Bondi’s four-day sweep of the state before Tuesday, Bondi spoke about comments she made during a radio call-in program this weekend that fired up Kottkamp’s campaign.
“With the unions, I am totally against the secret ballot. We cannot have the secret ballot. Everything has to be public. The votes have to be public. We have to have transparency to make sure that everything is on the up and up. We have to protect our businesses in this economy more than ever,” she said on Tico Perez’ WDBO radio show this weekend.
What she said meant she supports the union-backed card check included in the Employee Free Choice Act that would allow unions to organize if 50 percent of workers check a card in public. Under existing law, workers can vote for or against unionization in federally supervised, private-ballot elections.
“By forcing workers to sign a card in public–instead of vote in private–Card Check opens the door to intimidation and coercion,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, says on its website.
Kottkamp’s camp immediately jumped on Bondi, who since said she misunderstood the question and repeatedly insisted she opposes the unions’ card check program.
Here Bondi talks about her FOXNews pals Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren and her endorsement from conservative darling Sarah Palin before clarifying her position on card check.
Halverson, who said Bondi collected about $50,000 in donations at his soiree, also backed up Bondi on where she stands on the issue that he said is ‘virtually a litmus test” for candidates.
“Obviously, card check is virtually a litmus test. I can absolutely assure you that what Pam said – that’s she’s been opposed to card check from the very beginning. If anybody heard that or heard comments from her desperate opponent to the contrary, rest assured that isn’t the case,” Halverson said.
Democratic state senator and attorney general hopeful Dan Gelber is kicking off a down-to-the wire bus tour beginning tomorrow in Miami.
Gelber, in a primary against Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres that’s too close to call, will make stops in Delray Beach and Boca Raton tomorrow afternoon with PBC tax collector Anne Gannon, who formerly served alongside Gelber in the state House.
Meanwhile, AG wannabe Pam Bondi launched the Republican version of the attorney general primary bus tour today. She’s visiting GOP strongholds like The Villages after a last-minute fundraiser tonight in Jacksonville hosted by Steve Halverson, chair of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and Ericka Alba, chairwoman of Associated Industries of Florida.
The fundraising deadline for the Tuesday’s primary election is midnight tonight, causing candidates like Bondi and Gelber to frantically dial for dollars and send e-mails seeking contributions.
Gelber didn’t have to launch a bus tour to get on Bondi’s radar screen, however.
At several speeches today, Bondi repeatedly referred to Gelber as the Democratic nominee who she’ll be facing off against in November.
“Looks like it’s going to be Dan Gelber in the general,” Bondi told supporters at the Florida Chamber of Commerce this morning. “The more we hear about Dan Gelber, the more we learn, the last thing we need is an Eliot Spitzer attorney general.”
Gelber’s sweep across the state includes stops in Tallahassee, Pensacola, the Tampa Bay area, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Gelber’s opponent, Sen. Dave Aronberg, is conducting his own RV tour this weekend in South Florida. He’ll make stops in Delray Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Coconut Grove on Saturday.
A few days after independent gubernatorial candidate Michael E. Arth snuck into a photo with Republican Rick Scott, one of Arth’s supporters was removed today from Democrat Alex Sink’s event in West Palm Beach.
Melinda Clark, 58, of West Palm Beach, attend the event after receiving an e-mail from the Palm Beach County Democratic Club. She said was wearing an Arth button but minding her own business when she was asked to leave by John Kazanjian, president of the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, which was hosting the event. She said she was slightly pushed while she was escorted out of the hall.
“I was asking to be noticed, for sure. But this just confirmed that the corporate monolith has taken over anything resembling a democracy. This is now about the wealthy and the well-connected,” said Clark, who compared the situation to former President George W. Bush packing his town hall events with supporters.
“It’s incredible to me that the police, as benevolent as they are, escorted a little 58-year-old grandmother out of the meeting instead of protecting my democratic rights to be there.”
The details of Clark’s story are disputed by Sink’s campaign and Kazanjian, who do a little finger-pointing of their own.
Pam Bondi is a fresh face on the campaign scene but she’s taking the old-fashioned approach to politicking with a four-day bus tour leading up to Tuesday’s primary election.
Bondi’s in a tight three-way race in the GOP attorney general primary against Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and Holly Benson, a former House member who also served as secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Bondi, a former prosecutor and frequent FOXNews contributor, kicked off the bus tour with a speech to the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which broke with tradition and endorsed the Tampa native, the first time the business group has backed a candidate in the attorney general primary.
Fresh on the heels of an endorsement from conservative icon Sarah Palin, Bondi – who was a registered Democrat for 16 years before switching to the GOP a decade ago – Bondi talked up her conservative creds in Tallahassee before heading to Lake City.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed Holly Benson in a tight three-way GOP primary for attorney general today.
“The next Attorney General of Florida will have to take the lead on the lawsuit challenging Obamacare,” said Gingrich said in a press release issued by Benson’s campaign. “In my opinion, there is no one more qualified to do this than Holly Benson. So today, I am proud to endorse Holly’s candidacy for Florida Attorney General.”
Benson, a former state House member who also served as secretary of both the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the Agency for Health Care Administration, received the endorsement of conservative biggie Gingrich the day after primary opponent Pam Bondi nailed down the support of Tea Party idol Sarah Palin.
“It is a true honor to have the former Speaker’s support of my campaign,” Benson said in a statement. “Newt has been at the cutting edge of conservative policies, leading not only a conservative banner but also leading our party to victory after decades of being the minority in Congress. He is a true conservative icon, and I am proud to have his endorsement.”
The GOP opponents are battling to prove their conservative stripes with their endorsements. Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp has the support of Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly, considered the matriarch of the modern conservative movement and conservative activist John Stemberger, head of the Florida Family Policy Council.
Democratic governor candidate Alex Sink formally introduced former state Sen. Rod Smith as her running mate today at a crowded Police Benevolent Association hall in West Palm Beach.
Smith, an attorney, said his oldest son, who’s also an attorney, was busy this morning “explaining to judges why I won’t be there for the next several weeks and months.”
“And years,” added Sink.
Smith pounded hard on the economy and on the fact that Republicans have effectively controlled the legislature since 1996 and the governor’s mansion since 1998 (except for the past four months, when Gov. Charlie Crist shed his GOP affiliation to go independent).
“It’s time Florida changes and it needs to be changed now,” Smith said.
Democrat Alex Sink has inched to a within-the-margin-of-error lead over either Republican Bill McCollum or Rick Scott in the November governor’s race, a new Quinnipiac University poll says.
Sink leads McCollum by a 31-to-29 percent margin and Scott by a 33-to-29 percent margin in the latest survey, with independent Bud Chiles polling 12 percent and 20 percent of voters undecided. In Quinnipiac’s poll three weeks ago, either Republican held a slim lead over Sink.
In Florida’s U.S. Senate race, no-party Gov. Charlie Crist has a 39-to-32 percent lead over Republican Marco Rubio in the general election, with Democrat Kendrick Meek languishing at 16 percent. If Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene beats Meek in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, the new poll says he’d get only 15 percent in the general election, with Crist moving up to 40 percent.
President Barack Obama is treading water with Florida voters. The poll shows his approval and disapproval scores at 47 percent. That’s an improvement from last month, when 46 percent of Floridians approved of Obama and 50 percent disapproved.
The latest poll of 1,096 voters was taken Aug. 11-16 and has a 3.3 percent margin of error.
Senate President Jeff Atwater called BP claims czar Ken Feinberg’s observation that things appear to be back to normal in the Panhandle premature and “dismissive of Floridians.”
Atwater, who’s running for chief financial officer against Democrat Loranne Ausley, issued a press release in response to a story today in The Palm Beach Post in which Feinberg said that Northwest Florida fishermen may not be eligible for the full six months of emergency payments other businesses may be entitled to when he takes over BP’s maligned claims system at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
“Despite incomplete data about the threats facing the people of our state, Ken Feinberg was quoted today saying that ‘I’m watching on TV. The beaches look fabulous.’ These remarks came as he seemed dismissive of Floridians who are seeking financial relief. Understanding the serious problems facing Floridians along the Gulf takes more than watching television, and our beaches are not the only place in Florida facing the threat,” Atwater said in a statement issued by his campaign.
Feinberg, appointed by BP and President Barack Obama to handle claims for individuals and businesses harmed by the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil blast, made his remarks at a meeting in Pensacola on Tuesday, the same day several academic institutions refuted federal officials’ contention that most of the oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico has disappeared.
“Our state has a unique and precious marine ecosystem, and scientists are still reporting that this ecosystem is in trouble. Just today, some of the best and brightest researchers at the University of South Florida said between 70 and 79 percent of all the oil that was spilled is under the surface and still causing ecological damage,” Atwater wrote. “For BP or the federal government to cut and run now would only create another catastrophe.”
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