Although states’ rights is a key part of the challenge raised by Florida and 25 other states to the federal health care overhaul, a similar argument failed to sway a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices ruling Monday in a Montana campaign finance case.

The argument already failed to move Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who declined a request  to have Florida join 22 states and the District of Columbia siding with Montana in urging  justices to allow it to structure its own unique finance law.

Florida, however, is a lead plaintiff in the effort to overturn the federal health care law, on similar states’ rights grounds.

Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, was among those urging Bondi to intercede in the Montana case, especially given Florida’s aggressive defense of states’ rights in health care.

“I was surprised Florida isn’t on that list,” Clemens wrote Bondi in a letter last month. “If corporate interests are allowed to use the Citizens United decision to encourage corporate corruption and patronage at the state level, the likely outcome is that average, everyday citizens will lose their voice.”

 Bondi’s own website says the state’s motive for challenging the federal health care law as unconstitutional is because the measure exceeds federal authority and infringes on individual liberty and states’ rights. Her office has said it did not see a need for Florida to intervene in the Montana case. 

Justices ruled 5-4 Monday that Montana could not ignore the 2010 Citizens United decision, which ruled that the First Amendment bars limiting independent political spending by corporations and unions. The court ruled such expenditures “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”

A new report from a nationwide campaign watchdog shows spending by shadowy independent political organizations has spiked in Florida, with one Tampa address serving as home for many of these cash machines.

The National Institute on Money in State Politics found that political spending by electioneering communications organizations (ECOs), sometimes dubbed 527 committees, has climbed 53 percent from 2006 to 2010 in Florida.

During last year’s elections, $48.2 million was spent by groups, with the largest being Gov. Rick Scott’s own Let’s Get to Work ECO, which poured $17.5 million into helping him defeat Democrat Alex Sink.

In federal races, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in the Citizens United case helped kick the door open for corporate spending. Florida already allowed business interests to contribute in state races, so the ruling hasn’t directly affected elections for the Legislature, governor or Cabinet posts.

But Florida corporations are increasingly anteing up big bets in state races — behind the cover of vaguely named organizations, the institute report shows.

“Nearly 300 independent spending committees have been created since 2005, with innocuous names like ‘Let’s Get To Work,’ ‘Florida’s Working Families,’ and ‘Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government,’ with little or no identifying information,” according to the report. “Yet many of these committees are registered to a small group of people. Of the $96.8 million of total independent spending during the study period, $38.8 million, 40 percent of the overall total, was routed through ECOs controlled by just four individuals.”

Nancy Watkins is one of those guiding the cash. The Tampa accountant’s office at 610 South Boulevard is the address for 88 different political committees.

The institute’s report is here: http://bit.ly/sjK3Gj