GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott campaign staff were buzzing all day following news reports, tweets and Internet blog posts about Democratic opponent Alex Sink’s cell phone gaffe during last night’s debate.
Scott supporters used Sink’s flub to rev up the crowds at campaign appearances from New Port Richey to Okeechobee on Tuesday.
“Did you watch the debate last night?” Dick Windle, Citrus County Republican Executive Committee Chairman, asked a crowd of about 100 supporters at a barbecue in Inverness. “We caught her playing a little hanky-panky there.”
About an hour later, The Villages public relations executive Gary Lester again asked a gathering of about the same size about the debate.
“Rick’s opponent got caught cheating in the debate last night. Did you hear?” he said.
Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform who traveled with Scott throughout the day, got the biggest laugh.
“I’ve watched western movies so I knew, I knew that you could cheat at cards. But until last night I didn’t know you could cheat in a debate. But evidently Alex Sink has figured out how to do that,” Norquist quipped.
In a too-close-to-call governor’s race that has featured the candidates bashing each other’s honesty and integrity, even a two-sentence message on a smart phone turned into something akin to Debategate. Rick Scott labeled it ”iCheat.”
Debate rules barred candidates from receiving notes during Monday night’s live event on CNN. But during a commercial break, Sink spent eight seconds looking at a message from one of her advisers. Scott, sitting a few feet away, called over a debate organizer to point out the infraction.
In a tight race, the gaffe could prove costly, said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida.
“It has the potential to affect some people’s vote, and in a close election, every vote matters,” MacManus said.
Scott’s mention of accounting improprieties at Sykes Enterprises, a call center firm where Sink sat on the board of directors, spurred Sink adviser Brian May to send the message. During a break in the debate, Sink’s makeup artist touched up Sink’s face, then showed Sink a phone with a message from May.
“The attorney who [w]on the Sykes suit said alex sink did nothing wrong,” the message read. “Tell not to let him keep talking about her.”
Scott, who was being worked on by another makeup artist, saw Sink read the message and summoned a debate organizer, according to video of the exchange posted by CNN.
“So we can get notes, we can have people who work for us come and give us messages?” Scott asked.
“No,” the organizer replied.
After the break, Scott told viewers that Sink had broken the rules, and while campaigning today, he used the incident to paint Sink as ethically challenged.
Rick Scott’s campaign took a far different tack with a videographer on GOP gubernatorial candidate’s trail than Republican Congressional hopeful Allen West.
But Scott and running-mate Jennifer Carroll were unfazed by the young man with a video camera who shadowed the candidates throughout the first day of a week-long bus tour and apparently has been a constant presence on the campaign trail.
Carroll pointed out the man in the crowd at a barbecue lunch stop in Inverness where she and Scott handed out pulled pork sandwiches to dozens of supporters.
Carroll identified him to the crowd as a campaign worker for Scott’s Democratic opponent Alex Sink and invited him to join in the festivities. One of the GOP candidates’ staffers even offered him a bottle of water and a sandwich.
“Hopefully, you’ll be able to take some information back so she can run a government,” Carroll quipped.
At the next stop in The Villages, Carroll recognized him again and asked him to raise his hand. The videographer obliged.
“Show Alex Sink how government should be run,” Carroll advised.
Sink’s campaign referred questions about Scott’s tracker to the Florida Democratic Party.
“We as a policy don’t release his name – but I can tell you he works for the Florida Democratic Party not the Sink Campaign,” FDP spokesman Eric Jotkoff said in an e-mail.
Allen West, GOP Congressional candidate in District 22, issued a new 30-second television ad Tuesay called “The American Spirit,” taking to task his Democratic opponent U.S. Rep Ron Klein and calling on the American entrepreneurial spirit to lift the country out of its economic doldrums.
The ad features West superimposed next to the dome of the Capitol Building in Washington. Soon a photo of his opponent floats into view.
“This election comes down to a very simple choice,” says West. ”Ron Klein is for raising taxes, government bailouts, failed stimulus gimmicks. (more…)
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink today won the support of one of Miami-Dade County’s most influential blacks, a week after Bishop Victor Curry blasted her for taking the African-American vote for granted because she blew off an NAACP candidate forum.
Appearing on Curry’s morning radio show, Sink apologized for missing last Monday’s forum. She said her duties as the state’s CFO kept her away. The explanation differed from one she gave last week when she said she and her running mate Rod Smith had to attend a “big, huge rally in North Florida.”
But, Curry, who is president of the Miami-Dade County NAACP, owner of WMBM-AM 1490 and pastor of a megachurch, didn’t dwell on her excuses. He wanted to know what she would do if elected, particularly for blacks who have been hard hit by the recession and some of the policies of 16 years of Republican rule in Tallahassee.
Here’s Republican Senate frontrunner Marco Rubio’s closing argument, a two-minute synopsis of his American exceptionalism theme and perspective as the son of hard-working Cuban exiles. There’s no mention of his rivals aside from a reference to “typical politicians who will say or do anything” and little specifics on the issues aside from his opposition to “this road Washington has us on right now.”
The ad is slated to air this weekend, with the size of the ad buy uncertain. Says Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos: “We are relying on our supporters to make one last statement about the alternative we need in Washington to ensure it is broadcast widely.”
SPRING HILL – A beaming Rick Scott kicked off a seven-day sweep of Florida leading up to Election Day assuring supporters in Pasco and Hernando counties of the Republican’s victory over Democratic gubernatorial opponent Alex Sink and taking the high road over Sink’s cell phone faux pas during last night’s debate.
Scott’s bus tour began with an unexpected boost – the “iCheat” scandal that cast a cloud over Sink’s campaign. Sink broke the rules by taking an electronic message on a cell phone during a commercial break during the last of two live televised debates. Sink later fired the aide who sent her the message.
“I was shocked. I mean, I was shocked. You know the rules. You follow the rules,” Scott said with a look of disbelief when questioned by reporters early Tuesday morning. “She knew the rules. If somebody came in and tried to show me an e-mail I’d have said look, those aren’t the rules.”
Sink took the message after hammering Scott for a lack of integrity evidenced by his former hospital chain’s $1.7 billion fine for Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
Scott quickly used Sink’s cell phone incident to strike back at his opponent for ducking questions about her own business transgressions, including a $1.65 million fine paid by her former bank for selling risky securities to investors, many of whom were seniors.
“It’s pretty consistent. She knew the rules. She didn’t have to read the e-mail. She did. That’s what she does. She never takes responsibility personally for what she does…She just fires people,” he said.
When asked if he would have fired his aide as Sink did, Scott didn’t miss a beat.
“I wouldn’t have read the e-mail,” he said. (more…)
TAMPA — Democrat Alex Sink fired a campaign aide after tonight’s CNN gubernatorial debate, admitting her campaign broke the rules by passing her a message during a commercial break.
Republican rival Rick Scott called Sink out on national television.
“First, Alex, you say you always follow the rules,” Scott said when the debate resumed after the second commercial break of the night. “The rule was no one was supposed to give us messages during the break and your campaign did with an iPad, or iPod…”
Sink released this statement afterward:
“After the debate tonight, one of my campaign advisors admitted he tried to communicate with me during one of the breaks. While he told me it was out of anger with Rick Scott’s repeated distortion of facts, it was a foolish thing to do. It violated a debate agreement and I immediately removed him from the campaign.”
The latest Zogby poll released today brings good news for Republican Marco Rubio, whose voter support in the U.S. Senate race grew slightly from 39.2 percent in September to 39.6 percent.
Poll numbers have even better news for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink, who now has a nearly 5-point lead over her Republican opponent, Rick Scott, according to the poll conducted Oct. 18-21.
In the U.S. Senate race, no-party governor Charlie Crist still trails Rubio by 6.3 percent; he had 33 percent voter support in Zobgy’s September poll. Miami’s Democratic congressman Kendrick Meek remains in third place with 18.1, a slight increase from 17.6 percent in September. (more…)
With barely more than a week until Election Day, GOP attorney general candidate Pam Bondi took time out from campaigning in the Sunshine State for quick trip to Washington DC to rake in some dough for ad time.
Bondi flew into DC briefly for a fundraiser hosted by former Virginia attorney general Jerry Kilgore, Bondi spokeswoman Sandi Copes said in an e-mail.
Bondi surely hopes she fares better than Kilgore did in his last election.
The Republican resigned as Virginia’s attorney general in 2005 to run for governor of the then-red state.
But Kilgore lost to Democrat Tim Kaine, now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
The Gelber camp blasted Bondi, who’s never run for office before, for the fundraising trip, setting off a typical finger-pointing volley in the contentious race to succeed Attorney General Bill McCollum. (more…)
Loranne Ausley, Democratic candidate for chief financial officer, will take a page out of the campaign book of former Governor Lawton Chiles starting Tuesday.
Ausley will embark on a four-day marathon bicycle ride from Tallahassee to West Palm Beach and along the way will explain to voters her plans for cleaning up corruption in state government.
Chiles was known as “Walkin Lawton” for his long campaign hikes around the state. Ausley,is a former state representative and a senior adviser to the Lawton Chiles Foundation, a charitable organization.
Ausley’s calls her voyage the “Cycle to end the Cycle” and plans to end it in Palm Beach County, where her GOP opponent Jeff Atwater lives. Ausley has accused Atwater, the president of the Florida Senate, of helping foster unnecessary spending by the GOP controlled legislature, including $48 million spent to build a new courthouse for the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee.
Atwater has countered by accusing Ausley of trying to create loopholes in statutes aimed at controlling lobbyists wining and dining of lawmakers.
Ausley’s route will take her close to Tampa and Orlando her campaign said.
The Sierra Club has pumped $800, 000 into last minute television ads for three Democratic Party Congressional campaigns around the country and one of them is the District 22 race in South Florida.
“With ‘Big Oil’ doing everything they can to try to buy back Congress, today the Sierra Club launched three new television ads in key congressional races – Michigan’s 7th District, Arizona’s 8th District, and Florida’s 22nd District,” said a press release by the environmental group.
In District 22, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein,D-BocaRaton, is locked in a tight race with GOP contender Allen West.
The ad being screened in South Florida pictures smoke spewing from British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20 and was finally plugged Sept. 9, not before dumping millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The ad also shows a pelican covered in oil and then superimposes West next to an offshore oil rig.
“For five months BP spewed oil into the gulf – polluting Florida beaches and devastating our economy,” says the narrator. “ But Allen West still supports drilling for oil off the Florida coast. And West says he ‘sees nothing about the situation in the Gulf that will change his mind’”
“No wonder West received thousands in contributions from oil companies,” continues the ad. “Ron Klein has a better way – protect our beaches and develop alternative energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Ron Klein for Congress.”
The Klein/West race is believed to be the most heavily financed Congressional contest in the nation. (more…)
After being blasted for ignoring black voters, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink on Tuesday is to expected to perform a mea culpa on a radio station owned by one of Miami-Dade County’s most influential African-Americans.
Bishop Victor Curry, who is head of the roughly 10,000-member New Birth Cathedral of Faith International, president of the Miami-Dade County NAACP and owner of WMBM-AM 1490, tore into Sink after she skipped an NAACP candidate forum last Monday and didn’t even send a surrogate.
The next day, Curry devoted much of his weekly Tuesday Talk radio show to Sink’s no-show. Compounding the political trouble for Sink was that black Florida Rep. Jennifer Carroll, GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott’s running mate, attended the forum and wowed the crowd with her answers to tough questions.
“Rick Scott is a right-wing extremist … but I will not vote for Alex Sink just because I don’t like Rick Scott. If I keep seeing this disrespect from these people, I will hold my nose and vote for Jennifer Carroll – that will be my rationale for voting for Rick Scott,” Curry said, according to a partial transcript printed by Florida Courier, a Tampa-based black-owned publication.
The three U.S. Senate candidates began the last month of their campaigns exactly like their standings in the polls: GOP candidate Marco Rubio had $5.5 million left in the bank; independent Charlie Crist had $1.39 million and Democrat Kendrick Meek had $415,042.
Reports of fundraising activity in September were due Oct. 15, but there is always a lag in the posting by the Federal Election Commission. While Rubio’s has been available online for awhile, Crist’s just turned up over the weekend and Meek’s still hasn’t. His campaign provided a copy today of his latest campaign finance report.
Overall, Rubio has raised $16.9 million, Crist $13.3 million and Meek $7.8 million.
In a fundraising appeal over the weekend, Crist emphasized Rubio’s Saturday appearance in Orlando with tea party darling Sarah Palin. “Contribute now to stop Sarah Palin and Marco Rubio from handing Florida over to the radical right,” he wrote in an email to ‘concerned citizens.”
Meek’s campaign quickly responded, dubbing Crist’s criticism of Rubio’s association with Palin as another case of “political amnesia.” Two years ago, staffers pointed out, Crist campaigned with Palin and even deemed her fit to be the next U.S. president.
TAMPA — Democrat Kendrick Meek promised a “lights-out cage match” in Sunday’s Senate debate. But as has often been the case in this year’s three-way race, Meek was overshadowed by clashes between independent Charlie Crist and Republican nominee Marco Rubio, who called Crist a “heckler” after the governor repeatedly tried to talk over him to accuse Rubio of using his past position as a state House speaker to benefit himself.
Sunday’s debate was the fifth Senate candidate mash-up. A sixth and final Senate debate is Tuesday in Orlando.
TAMPA — Candidates usually try to lower expectations before a debate. Not Kendrick Meek. The Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, running third in polls, told Palm Beach County Democrats Saturday night to expect a “lights-out cage match” in this morning’s 9 a.m. debate on CNN.
Earlier Saturday, Meek was using football rather than wrestling as his choice of violent sports imagery. He told The Lakeland Ledger to expect a “verbally eventful” debate in which he goes after Republican frontrunner Marco Rubio like a linebacker going after a quarterback.
Palm Beach County wouldn’t seem to be Kendrick Meek’s favorite place.
It gave him Jeff Greene, a Palm Beacher who became his primary opponent in the U.S. Senate race. And then, after Meek in August handily dispatched the multimillionaire, it gave him a group of Democrats who asked him to get out of the race and/or endorsed one of his opponents, independent candidate Charlie Crist.
But, Meek said tonight, there are no hard feelings.
A little more than 12 hours before he is to face Crist and GOP candidate Marco Rubio in a 9 a.m debate in Tampa, Meek showed up at the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s annual party at the convention center in West Palm Beach.
“You’ve been the battleground of my entire candidacy for the United States Senate,” he told a cheering crowd of roughly 350 who gathered for the black tie event. “And we know that there are a number of folks amongst our ranks in this general election who decided to do something else, that they figured out that they had the right kind of math even though the person who they are looking to support is not a person who upholds the principles of our party or what we believe in.”
His not-so-veiled references to endorsements Crist received from leading county Democrats, including Palm Beach County Commissioners Burt Aaronson and Shelley Vana, former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler and state Senator-elect Maria Sachs spurred boos from the audience.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, on the stump with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink this afternoon, exuded confidence over the chief financial officer’s chances of defeating GOP opponent Rick Scott next month.
Although recent polls have showed the candidates neck-and-neck, Nelson insisted Sink would win.
“I think she is ahead now. She is ahead in the polls. And I think by the time all these ballots that have been counted on election night…She’ll win by seven points or more,” Nelson said.
After more than two months since GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott defeated him in a brutal primary election, Attorney General Bill McCollum finally came out in support of his one-time foe.
“Florida is facing a critical time. Our state needs conservative leaders who will grow our economy and create jobs. We need merit pay and an end to teacher tenure in our public schools, major litigation reform, smaller government, low taxes and a repeal of Obamacare. With this in mind, I will cast my vote for Rick Scott for Governor. It’s the better choice for Florida,” McCollum’s less-than-enthusiastic statement, released by the Republican Party of Sarasota, read.
McCollum, at one point a shoe-in for the nomination, lost the GOP primary after Scott spent $50 million of his own fortune on campaign ads attacking the former Congressman for being a Washington insider.
McCollum said recently he would not endorse Scott’s Democratic opponent Alex Sink, in part because she supports the federal health care law over which McCollum has sued the federal government.
A federal judge recently allowed McCollum’s lawsuit to proceed.
McCollum was the final holdout among state GOP leaders who at one point pilloried Scott, who was forced out of the hospital chain he founded shortly before Columbia/HCA was forced to pay $1.7 billion in fines to the federal government for Medicare fraud.
TAMPA — Candidates usually try to lower expectations before a debate. Not Kendrick Meek. The Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, running third in polls, 
Where's the money? Use The Post's interactive database of who wants and who's getting federal dollars.
Use these interactive graphics to find and contact Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast legislators.
