UPDATE: Alex Sink campaign spokesman Dan McLaughlin slams Scott for new TV ad.

“The ad’s a fraud. Rick Scott is a fraud. All of his attack ads in this campaign have been judged to be false,” McLaughlin said. “If it wasn’t this debate flap it would be something else because he makes these up. They are fabrications just like his entire Medicare fraud scheme was against the government and the taxpayers.”

GOP governor hopeful Rick Scott released a new television ad hammering Democratic opponent Alex Sink for breaking the rules during Monday night’s debate.

The ad begins with a clip of Sink featured in one of her own TV ads saying: “And if someone lies or cheats, I hold them accountable.”

“Cheating. Roll the tape,” a voiceover says then launches into a series of television news clips discussing Sink’s breach.

Scott, who dropped another $1.5 million into his campaign this week, began running the ad statewide today, just five days before Tuesday’s election.

Sink set off a firestorm after apparently reading a cell phone message during a commercial break at the debate Monday night. Scott went after her during the debate for breaking the rules, and Sink quickly fired her campaign aide who sent it. Both candidates had agreed not to have any communications with their staff during the hour-long face-off.

Sink went on the left-leaning MSNBC show Hardball Tuesday night to defend herself, saying she thought the call may have been from her 18-year-old daughter who is out of the country.

CNN later reported that an examination of the audio showed that Sink was told by the hairdresser who handed her a cell phone that the message was from staff before Sink read it. Sink’s campaign did their own audio analysis that found CNN’s conclusions were wrong.

The release of the statewide ad Thursday came as a surprise.

Scott, on the third day of a week-long sweep of the state, has said repeatedly that his campaign had already purchased all of its television air time and did not intend to ad any new advertisements and has instead been releasing web-based ads as well as radio.

Rick Scott frequently says “I’ve never done this before” when asked to weigh in about voting, polls and other political goings-on.

But Scott’s staff made a quintessential campaign stop to get a haircut at the Bent Pole barber shop in Titusville with a busload of reporters – and their cameras – in tow Thursday morning.

Dee Moreland, who’s been cutting hair for 42 years, gave Scott a “1/2-all-over” cut he maintains with a weekly visit to the barber at home in Naples.

Moreland said she was voting for Scott “and not just because I’m cutting your hair today.”

The buzz set Scott back $10.

“That’s fair,” Scott, a multi-millionaire who’s spent more than $60 million of his own fortune on his campaign so far, said.

Moreland wouldn’t say how much he gave her but that “he tipped very well.”

The Tallahassee barber who cuts Gov. Charlie Crist’s hair might welcome a Scott win.

The notoriously tight-fisted Crist always tipped $1 on a $10 haircut. Even with reporters watching.

A heckler interrupted Rick Scott’s stump speech in Melbourne this morning for the first time since the GOP gubernatorial candidate kicked off a week-long sweep of the state leading up to Tuesday’s election.

Joseph Concannon didn’t have far to go to voice his dissatisfaction with Scott. Concannon works at Buz’s Automotive repair shop next door to That Little Restaurant where Scott’s caravan made a brief stop.

Scott ignored the interruption as he introduced one of his two daughters to a small gathering of supporters.

“Does she know you’re a crook? We do,” Concannon yelled.

Concannon said he was referring to the $1.7 billion fine Columbia/HCA paid to the federal government for Medicare and Medicaid fraud shortly after Scott was forced out as CEO of the hospital chain he founded.

Concannon was on a cell phone talking to his wife, Stephanie Hosala, a member of the local Democratic Executive Committee. He said she didn’t ask him to come to Scott’s event but he went over to voice his opinion when he saw Scott’s bus arrive.

Concannon conferred with his wife when asked who he backs in the U.S. Senate race.

“Charlie Crist,” he answered.

When asked why he wasn’t voting for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democrat vying with independent Crist for his party’s votes, Concannon repeated the answer his spouse apparently gave him.

“Meek is so far behind he doesn’t have a chance,” the Palm Bay resident said.

A Quinnipiac University poll released this morning showing Democratic candidate Alex Sink pulling ahead in the neck-and-neck race governor’s race for governor didn’t faze her GOP opponent Rick Scott.

At a campaign stop this morning in Vero Beach, Scott dismissed the poll results that showed a flip-flop from just two weeks ago when he was ahead of Sink.

“We’re going to win. We’re doing really well,” Scott told reporters at a rally outside Bono’s restaurant. “If you look at the likely voters and the absentee ballots and early voting, we’re doing really well. We’re doing well. We’re going to win.”

The poll of likely voters was completed on Oct. 24, the day before the final debate that set off a controversy over Sink looking at a text message on a cell phone during a commercial break, breaking the debate rules.

During the debate, Scott chastised Sink for smiling when he challenged her about a $6.75 million fine paid by her former bank for selling investors, many of them seniors, risky investments. Sink and the whistleblower who filed the lawsuit said Sink had nothing to do with the problem although she was head of NationsBank’s Florida operations at the time.

George Kopacz, in the crowd of about 300 supporters at the breakfast rally, said Sink’s demeanor during the debate pushed him to vote for Scott.

“It was the smile. It was dishonesty. She didn’t want to defend herself,” Kopacz, the Vero Beach retiree said.

Kopacz said he is an independent who voted for President Obama in the last election.

“I made a mistake. Like everyone else,” he said.

Scott’s week-long tour takes him to Melbourne, Titusville, Ocala and Gainesville later today. Sink will be in West Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Miami.

Day three on Rick Scott’s week-long sweep through Florida took the candidate and his entourage to Okeechobee, Lake Placid, Daytona Beach and Lakeland. Scott ended the night with some last-minute check-gathering in Miami before fundraising closes on Friday.

At Scott’s first stop at a pancake breakfast in Okeechobee, a state worker who wouldn’t give her name asked the Republican about his plans to shrink state government.

She’s concerned about who’s going to get downsized – managers or worker bees like herself.

Scott gave her his standard line about running government more like a business, which assured the Okeechobee resident enough to say she was leaning toward voting for him.

“You know you’re getting a crook. He’s not lying about it. He’s admitted it. So you know what you’re getting,” she said, referring to the $1.7 billion in fines Scott’s company Columbia/HCA paid to the federal government shortly after he was forced out as CEO.

Later in the day, Scott visited Lake Placid, the caladium capital of the world.

Scott visited his campaign HQ in Daytona Beach and the Republican headquarters in Lakeland where he was joined by possible 2012 presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.

As he has throughout the tour so far, Scott urged the party faithful to get themselves and their friends to the polls and vote.

Early voting, which ends this weekend, heightens the significance of the meet-and-greets, campaign advisor Chad Colby said, because voters can cast their ballots immediately after visiting with the candidates.

“It’s what you have to do that last week to really get your message out and really drive people to the polls,” Colby said on a private jet between Lake Placid and Daytona Beach.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink made two stops in St. Lucie County this afternoon. She spoke to about 60 supporters on Avenue D in Fort Pierce and to about 100 people at Tradition Town Hall in Port St. Lucie.

Among the Sink supporters in Port St. Lucie was Okeechobee County Sheriff Paul May, a Republican. Sink said May was “very brave” to buck his party and support her.

Sink’s stump speech included a description of her proposed tax breaks for small businesses. She also underscored her support for public schools and took swipes at Rick Scott’s business record.

Folks throughout the small towns GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott is visiting on a week-long sweep of the state before election day are lining up to have their picture taken with the celebrity.

Not Scott. His mother, Esther, who’s visage has become familiar to Floridians on a television ad in which she assures voters that her son is a good boy.

Scott’s usual introduction of his mother runs along the lines of what he told a crowd at a pancake breakfast at his first stop this morning in Okeechobee.

“On those commercials she seems really nice,” Scott said. “She wasn’t. There was a reason I joined the military so young.”

“I’m just really glad my mom didn’t get on the ballot. I don’t think I’d win. I think she’d win,” Scott joked with the crowd at his next stop in Lake Placid.

Esther Scott is greeted wherever she goes, including at a pit stop on the turnpike where travelers posed for pictures with the 82-year-old great-grandmother.

Scott’s schedule today includes visits to Lakeland and Daytona Beach, where he’ll be joined by U.S. Sen. John Thune, the Republican who defeated former Sen. Tom Daschle and who’s rumored to be a possible presidential candidate in 2012. Scott will also be fundraising in Miami this evening.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Alex Sink will attend early vote rallies in Ft. Myers, Ft. Pierce, Port St. Lucie and Orlando.

Former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo says he’s backing Alex Sink for governor and will campaign for her in the race’s final days. Carollo, a Republican known as “Crazy Joe,” says Sink is the first Democrat he has supported.

“I have been a registered Republican since I was 21 years old and have never crossed party lines to endorse a Democrat, but this election isn’t  about a party or partisanship,” Carollo writes in a letter supporting Sink. “It is about who has the integrity and  real leadership to get our Florida economy back on track and restore  Floridians’ faith in government.”

It didn’t take long for Republican Rick Scott’s campaign to make political hay out of Democrat Alex Sink’s “Debate-gate” gaffe at Monday night’s debate.

His campaign released a new radio ad poking fun at Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, for breaking the rules by taking a message from campaign aide Brian May, an insurance industry lobbyist who left his business to work for Sink.

Listen to Scott’s “She Cheated” ad.

Here’s part of the transcript:

“Did you see Alex Sink get caught cheating?”

“You mean when CNN caught her breaking the debate rules and getting a note from her coach?”

“Cheating. Hilarious.”

“Here’s what’s not funny. Alex Sink’s debate coach…is a lobbyist.”

“The same guy who gave her the note in the debate?”

“Yep. He’s a lobbyist for the insurance industry that Sink is supposed to be regulating.”

Alex Sink appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball today to defend herself about breaking the rules during last night’s CNN debate by reading a cell phone message during a break.

But Sink’s explanation conflicts with an audio analysis of what transpired between the Democratic candidate for governor and the makeup artist who handed her a cell phone with a text message. Sink read the message, violating the debate rules she and opponent Rick Scott agreed to barring any contact with staff during the hour-long debate.

“Well, what happened was, Chris, last night that the makeup artist held up her phone and said I just got this message, I don’t know who it’s from. I looked at it because, you know, I’m a mom. My instinct is my daughter’s in Europe. I don’t know who this mefor governor’s message is from. I glanced at it. I didn’t understand even what it was, and I just ignored it,” Sink told the news show host Chris Matthews.

But CNN’s John King, who moderated Monday’s debate in Tampa, gave a different account of what happened.

On CNN on Tuesday, King said that the network analyzed the video of what Scott’s camp is calling “iCheat.”
“We listened to the audio very carefully and the makeup artist when she approached Alex Sink said she had a message from the staff, and it was two sentences and advice saying that if that question comes up, say this, and be more aggressive when Rick Scott questions you and it is clear she looked down to read it and candidate Scott called her out, and it is clear that she cheated in the final exam,” King said.

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 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.

West, who’s challenging incumbent Rep. Ron Klein, supporters were videotaped pressuring a Democratic operative to leave a rally.

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.

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.”

Moderator Adam C. Smith of The St. Petersburg Times witnessed the incident and blogged about it and the contents of the message shortly after the debate ended.

Here’s CNN’s account — including video — of the incident.

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…)

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.

PERRY – Gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink will spend the day wooing small-town Floridians in an effort to get crossover voters to cast their ballot for the Democrat with early voting already underway for a race considered a toss-up.

Sink began her day in the Big Bend by appealing to a few dozen supporters at downtown Joyce’s Main Street Cafe.

There, she pleaded with Taylor County voters to give her the same 56 percent win she earned there four years ago in her bid to become the state’s chief financial officer.

“I expect and hope that we’ll get about that much again,” Sink said.

Sink spoke broadly about her plans to jumpstart the state’s economy on the same day Florida’s latest unemployment figures showed a slight increase – 11.9 percent – from the previous month.

Sink said she supports giving tax credits to businesses that hire Floridians and wants to defer business taxes for start-up companies for up to three years.

Accompanied by her son Bert McBride, Sink boasted that she would be the only governor in 12 years whose two children graduated from Florida public schools.

Sink said it is her dream that her children, who both attend out-of-state universities, will one day, “They call me up and say, ”Mom, I’m coming back to Florida because I’ve got a great job lined up.”

(more…)

Yet another high-profile Democrat will be visiting Florida during the next couple days to help struggling candidates in what is considered a battleground election state.

Democratic National Committee chair Tim Kaine will make a couple campaign stops in Broward and Miami-Dade counties with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek today and Saturday.

The tour begins today with a 2:30 p.m. visit to the Lauderhill Mall to promote early voting. Meek and Kaine will then join Congressional candidate Joe Garcia at a Moving American Forward rally at 6:45 p.m. at the Miami-Dade College Homestead Campus. Kaine is also expected to visit a phone bank on Saturday.

Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton visited Tampa and Orlando, where he encouraged students to spread the word about Meek through Facebook and YouTube. Clinton was also campaigning for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink on Thursday in Miami.