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.

Click here to read PPP’s press release and survey results.

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.

Ken Feinberg, who’s’ taking over BP’s troubled claims system at midnight, rejects Attorney General Bill McCollum’s contention that the new claims czar’s expedited emergency payment system is worse than BP’s.

“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.

Three weeks after a Quinnipiac University poll showed outsiders Jeff Greene and Rick Scott holding double-digit leads in their Democratic Senate and Republican governor’s primaries, a new Quinnipiac survey shows their establishment-backed rivals are back on top as next Tuesday’s elections approach.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek now holds a 35-to-28 percent edge over Palm Beach investor Greene in the Democratic Senate primary — reversing Greene’s 33-to-23 percent lead in late July.

In the GOP governor’s primary, Attorney General Bill McCollum has opened a 44-to-35 percent lead over Naples businessman Scott. Scott had a 43-to-32 percent lead over McCollum in the July poll.

The latest poll was taken Aug. 11 through Monday. The sample of 807 likely Republican voters has a margin of error of 3.5 percent while the 814-voter Democratic sample has a 3.4 percent margin of error.

Rick Scott didn’t attend an Aug. 11 debate with Republican primary rival Bill McCollum, but he ended up making a joint appearance of sorts with another gubernatorial candidate, no-partyite Michael E. Arth. Arth attended a Scott event and posed for a picture with the GOP candidate.

“Despite campaigning since June 2009, Arth was able to mingle unnoticed at the Scott event,” says an Arth press release that describes the encounter.

President Obama’s Friday night Ramadan dinner declaration of support for the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero had Florida’s leading statewide candidates issuing a variety of reactions today.

In the midst of it all came a Panhandle clarification by Obama, who said he wasn’t commenting on the “wisdom” of putting an Islamic center blocks away from the site where Islamists killed more than 2,700 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

See what candidates for Senator and governor have to say about the mosque and the president’s position after the jump….

(more…)

By Aaron Deslatte, Orlando Sentinel Tallahassee Bureau

Florida’s barroom brawl of a Republican gubernatorial race is turning voters off and helping Attorney General Bill McCollum overcome a once double-digit lead held by Naples millionaire Rick Scott, a new poll shows.

The Mason-Dixon survey commissioned by news organizations, including the Orlando Sentinel, found McCollum with a slight 34-percent to 30-percent edge over Scott, with 33 percent of GOP voters still undecided. But just a week ago, McCollum trailed Scott by 6 points – 31 percent to 37 percent — in a Mason-Dixon poll taken for Leadership Florida.

Read the full story here.

BOCA RATON — Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio, who spoke to a chamber of commerce group here this morning, said fixing Social Security needs to be part of any long-term deficit-reduction plan.

Rubio favors no changes in the system for people who are now 55 or older, but says “proposals that have to be talked about” include eventually raising the retirement age and changing the formula for determining yearly benefit increases. He accused Gov. Charlie Crist and both leading Democratic Senate candidates of refusing to confront the issue and predicted they’ll try to misrepresent his stance.

“I guarantee you right now that in this campaign, one or both of my opponents will run a commercial that says Marco Rubio wants to take away your Social Security,” Rubio told the group of about 25 Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce trustees.

(more…)

UPDATED with quote from Tea Party in Action leader….

Republican governor candidate Rick Scott announced late Wednesday that he’ll be outside the South Florida Water Management District headquarters in West Palm Beach this morning with a group called Tea Party in Action to protest the proposed U.S. Sugar buyout.

That prompted an e-mail blast in the wee hours of this morning from South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson questioning the Tea Party in Action group and Scott’s involvement.

Wilkinson, it should be noted, is personally supporting Bill McCollum in the GOP governor primary, though he says his endorsement has nothing to do with the South Florida Tea Party.

Says Tea Party in Action leader Marianne Moran: “Everett Wilkinson spends a lot of time telling reporters who he says are ‘real’ tea party members as if he’s the sole authority. He spends the rest of his time endorsing career politician Bill McCollum. Tea Party in Action wants to kill this corporate bailout of US Sugar. We welcome Rick Scott and any political candidates willing to join this cause.”

Read Scott’s announcement and Wilkinson’s statement after the jump…..

(more…)

A week after a Quinnipiac University poll showed outsiders Rick Scott and Jeff Greene with double-digit leads in their respective primaries for governor and U.S. Senate, a Mason-Dixon poll today suggests both races are tighter.

The poll, commissioned by Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association, shows Naples businessman Scott with a 37-to-31 percent lead over Attorney General Bill McCollum in the Republican primary for governor.

In the Democratic Senate primary, the Mason-Dixon poll shows U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek ahead of Palm Beach billionaire Greene by a 33-to-29 percent margin.

Meek’s campaign, meanwhile, says it’s latest internal gives Meek a 1-point lead over Greene.

The Mason-Dixon poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday and has a 4 percent margin for error.

Republican-turned-independent Gov. Charlie Crist leads the general election race for U.S. Senate with 37 percent to 32 percent for Republican Marco Rubio and 17 percent for leading Democrat Jeff Greene, a new Quinnipiac University poll finds.

If U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is the Democratic nominee, he gets only 13 percent of the vote, with Crist at 39 percent and Rubio at 33 percent, the poll says. Crist was also the leader in an early-June Quinnipiac poll.

Quinnipiac finds a tight November governor’s race. In a poll that has a 3.2 percent margin of error, GOP frontrunner Rick Scott would get 29 percent to Democrat Alex Sink’s 27 percent, with independent Bud Chiles pulling 14 percent.

If Attorney General Bill McCollum is the Republican nominee, he tops Sink by a 27-to-26 percent margin, with Chiles at 14 percent.

Quinnipiac released polls Thursday showing wealthy self-financed outsiders Greene and Scott holding double-digit leads in their respective primaries.

(more…)

After spending millions of dollars of their own money on TV ads and mailers over the last three months, wealthy outsiders Jeff Greene and Rick Scott lead their respective primaries for the Democratic Senate nomination and Republican gubernatorial nomination, a new Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters says.

In the Democratic Senate race, Palm Beach billionaire Greene has surged ahead of of U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and holds a 33-to-23 percent lead, the poll says. The race was a virtual tie in June, with Meek up by a 29-to-27 percent margin.

Former health care executive Scott leads Attorney General Bill McCollum by a 43-to-32 percent margin in the GOP governor’s primary. Scott had a 44-to-31 percent edge in Quinnipiac’s June poll.

The primaries are Aug. 24, with early voting beginning Aug. 9.

Scott’s lead appears more solid than Greene’s, other numbers in the poll suggest.

(more…)

Republican governor hopeful Rick Scott, whose pledge to bring an Arizona-style crackdown on immigration to Florida is a key component of his campaign, criticized a federal judge’s granting of a preliminary injunction today to block the implementation of key parts of the law until a federal lawsuit is resolved.

Scott’s GOP primary rival, Attorney General Bill McCollum, who filed an amicus brief supporting the Arizona law, also slammed the ruling.

Read the Republican reactions after the jump…..

(more…)

FORT LAUDERDALE — For the second day in a row, members of the Florida Sheriffs Association spent part of their lunch listening to a veteran elected official complain about the wealthy outsider who has surged against him in a statewide primary.

On Monday it was Attorney General Bill McCollum, who has gone from party establishment favorite to underdog in the GOP governor’s primary against multimillionaire Rick Scott.

McCollum described his race as one in which “the other guy’s spending all these millions of dollars” and blasted Scott’s leadership of Columbia/HCA, which paid $1.7 billion in fines for Medicare fraud.

Today it was U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, whose easy path to the Democratic Senate nomination has been complicated by Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene.

“I think this race that I’m facing right now, as relates to this primary, running against a billionaire who just got here a few minutes ago and his depiction of who he is and who I am is going to be a real test for Floridians,” Meek said of Greene, who became a Florida resident in 2008.

(more…)

UPDATED with reaction from Scott’s campaign at the end….
FORT LAUDERDALE — Reacting to reports that spill-tarnished BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward is stepping down, Attorney General and GOP governor candidate Bill McCollum took a shot at Republican primary rival Rick Scott.

Scott took a severance package from Columbia/HCA after it came under a Medicare fraud investigation that ended with the hospital chain paying $1.7 billion in fines after Scott left.

Said McCollum on his way into a Florida Sheriff’s Association lunch:

“BP has caused this problem. Hayward did it under his watch. He’s responsible for it. And there’s some similarities here to, actually, to Rick Scott. You know, the CEO of a company has responsibility for what happens on their watch, just like the captain of a ship does. And I’m not surprised that Tony Hayward was basically forced to resign…

“Rick Scott was also forced to resign when his company got in trouble with over 50 of his hospitals being raided by the FBI. And we all know the results of that huge criminal thing that happened out there, whether he knew it or he didn’t know it. Very similar relationship between the two of them, ironically.”

The Scott campaign’s Jennifer Baker offered this response:

“Most people look at the oil spill and see a tragedy, Bill McCollum sees a political opportunity. Floridians are looking for someone like Rick Scott who will solve problems, not see what he can get out of them.”

MIAMI — Republican governor candidate Rick Scott, star of more than $20 million worth of small-screen ads since April, is going out in public on a six-day bus tour that began this morning.

Scott’s wife and mother are on the bus. So is Donna Arduin, budget director for former Gov. Jeb Bush and a key architect of Scott’s “7 steps for 700,000 jobs in 7 years” plan. GOP primary rival Bill McCollum’s camp called some of the ideas borrowed and others “silly” or “unrealistic.”

Read about it here.

Here’s the Scott campaign’s presentation of the plan.

JUPITER — Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum is at The Scripps Research Institute this morning, where he’ll roll out an education plan that includes merit pay for teachers, phasing out teacher tenure, expanding “school choice” programs and supporting a constitutional amendment to modify the state’s class-size law.

Here’s the 11-page plan.

McCollum breakfasted with a business group in Palm Beach earlier this morning and is scheduled to speak to a GOP club in West Palm Beach around lunchtime.

Attorney General Bill McCollum stepped up his demands for more skimming vessels to be sent to Florida to combat black waves of oil as thick as two inches deep washing up on Panhandle beaches.

McCollum, a Republican running for governor, sent U.S. Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano a letter today again seeking more skimming boats for the Sunshine State.

McCollum’s staff located at least four skimming vessels operated by a Jacksonville-based company that helped in the Exxon-Valdez oil disaster and included information about Crowley Maritime in his letter to Napolitano.

There are 28 skimming vessels in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s shores but thousands more are available from other countries offering services that President Barack Obama’s administration has thus far refused to accept.

“I don’t get it. There’s some real disconnect. It’s either incompetence or somebody’s decided we don’t need them,” McCollum said in an interview. “Why should we leave a single American flag vessel available? Why aren’t we calling them? I don’t know for the life of me.”

Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson wants Bud Chiles to drop his no-party bid for governor, telling the son of the late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles in a letter that his candidacy could hurt Democrat Alex Sink and help elect Republican Bill McCollum or Rick Scott.

“Our job is to have a Democratic governor,” Aaronson said of the letter to Chiles that he co-signed with county Democratic Party Treasurer Bob Diffenderfer. “We love him (Bud Chiles) and his father was great, but this is not helping the Democrats elect a governor.”

Aaronson’s concern about a no-party candidate taking votes from a Democrat in a statewide race doesn’t necessarily extend to the U.S. Senate contest, where independent Gov. Charlie Crist so far is drawing considerable Democratic support at the expense of Dem Kendrick Meek or Jeff Greene.

“I look at that race slightly differently,” Aaronson said Tuesday. “I look at that race to make sure we don’t have (Republican Senate candidate) Marco Rubio.”

Aaronson said he won’t know the best way to block Rubio until after the Aug. 24 Democratic primary.

“We have three people in the primary (Meek, Greene and former Miami Mayor and health care “capitation” advocate Maurice Ferre). So I want to see what happens in the primary before we do anything.”

Mitt Romney will headline a Coral Gables fund-raiser for Attorney General and Republican governor candidate Bill McCollum tonight. McCollum, state chairman for Romney rival Rudy Giuliani during the 2008 presidential race, finds himself trailing his GOP primary race against millionaire Rick Scott.

Romney’s also endorsing 13 other Republican candidates around the state and his Free and Strong America PAC is contributing $5,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and Senate President and Chief Financial Officer candidate Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, are among the candidates getting Romney endorsements.

Romney will also be in Jacksonville Tuesday to raise money for state Sen. and state GOP Chairman John Thrasher.

Romney says he’ll decide after the 2010 elections whether he’s running for president in 2012. If he makes a White House bid, he’ll want to have Republican friends in Florida.

Attorney General Bill McCollum is asking BP to put $2.5 billion into an interest-earning escrow account to cover the state’s losses from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

McCollum’s requests is the latest in Florida candidates’ string of demands for cash from the oil giant.

A month ago, state Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat running to replace McCollum, asked BP to put at least $1 billion into escrow to cover possible damages.

McCollum and the other Florida Cabinet members were less than pleased with some of British Petroleum Vice President Robert Fryar’s Tuesday appearance before the panel.

Fryar told McCollum he did not know if BP has earmarks any funds to pay claims to Florida government, citizens or businesses resulting from the April 20 disaster.

University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith recently estimated the impact of the oil disaster on the state’s economy could range from $2.2 billion to nearly $11 billion.

McCollum’s wants BP to put $2.5 billion into a savings account and acknowledge that may not be enough.