GOP governor hopeful Rick Scott released another attack ad slamming Democrat opponent Alex Sink, continuing his negative ad campaign against the chief financial officer.

Scott’s same strategy helped him defeat Attorney General Bill McCollum in the August GOP primary. Scott spent $50 million of his own money in the primary campaign, most of it on ads attacking McCollum.

In Scott’s latest ad, he goes after Sink for spending $400,000 on travel using the state plane, holds her responsible for the state pension fund’s multi-billion dollar drop in value during the 2008 financial crisis and signing off on a $770,000 no-bid contract to her former bank.

Sink and the other Florida Cabinet members signed off on the contract based on the recommendations of the state Division of Bond Finance, she said, her investments are in a blind trust so she did not have a conflict of interest on the vote.

UPDATE: Alex Sink’s campaign spokeswoman Kyra Jennings calls Scott’s ad a lie.

“This is just one more deceptive ad from Rick Scott. The facts are that this is a company Alex Sink flat-out did not run and even the lawyer from the suit mentioned in Scott’s ad said today that Alex Sink was not involved in any way. But obviously Rick Scott has a very hard time telling the truth and can’t be trusted,” Jennings said in an e-mail.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott released a new attack ad today slamming Democrat opponent Alex Sink for $6.75 million in fines her former bank was forced to pay the federal government for selling risky investments, mostly to seniors.

NationsBank and its securities division was also forced to repay $30 million to customers duped into buying the investments. Sink was head of NationsBank’s Florida operations.

Scott’s ad comes after Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, and Democrats have run ads for weeks raising questions about Scott’s role in $1.7 billion fines levied by the federal government against his hospital chain for fraud.

UPDATE: A spokesman for Rick Scott’s campaign responded to Alex Sink’s rant about her GOP opponent Scott’s attack ads, paid for by the Republican Party of Florida.

As far as her accusation that Scott is scaring pensioners, Kildea wrote: “She is trying to draw attention away from the facts (as reported in the St Pete. Times)”

Chief Financial Officer and Democrat governor hopeful Alex Sink went on a rant in response to questions about her GOP opponent Rick Scott’s attack ads accusing her of benefiting from a no-bid contract that went to her former employer and being responsible for the state pension fund’s $23 billion loss three years ago.

“You know that’s ridiculous,” Sink, a trustee along with Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum of Florida’s State Board of Administration, which handles pension funds for state and municipal workers.

“The whole market almost collapsed. Everybody’s 401K took a dive. And the good news is that independent authorities call the Florida pension fund one of the strongest investment pension funds in the country.
We are one of the strongest public pension funds in the country. He is out there scaring our retirees into thinking that their pensions are at risk. He’s irresponsible and shouldn’t be doing it.”

Sink was even more incensed over an ad accusing her of voting to give former employer Bank of America a no-bid contract when she may have held stock in the company. The Republican Party of Florida paid for both of the television ads.

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A new Rasmussen poll shows GOP gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott with a six point lead over Democrat opponent Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

The telephone poll found that 50 percent of likely voters said they will cast their ballot for Scott with Sink getting 44 percent.

Rasmussen Reports now shifted the race from a toss-up to leaning Republican in its latest Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard.

Earlier this month, Sink had a slight edge over Scott, with a 48 to 47 percent lead.

Both polls included “leaners,” likely voters who initially respond that they have no preference for either candidate but when asked again say they prefer a particular candidate.

A Mason Dixon poll released yesterday showed Sink with a 7 point lead over Scott. That poll of likely voters gave Sink 47 percent of the vote compared to 40 percent for Scott, with 11 percent undecided.

The Democratic Governors Association gave Florida Democrats a $2 million cash infusion to aid Alex Sink in her race against Rick Scott, Politico is reporting this morning.

According to Politico, the DGA wired the cash into the Florida Democratic Party’s account and will be spent on television ads.

Democrats nationally are eying the Florida race with the hope that Chief Financial Officer Sink can score a coup for Democrats, who’ve been out of the governor’s mansion since former Lt. Gov. Buddy McKay lost to Jeb Bush in 1998. Sink’s husband Bill McBride made a losing against Bush four years later.

Scott spent more than $50 million of his own money – much of it on advertising – to defeat Attorney General Bill McCollum in the GOP primary last month.

The state’s top two law enforcement groups – the Fraternal Order of Police and the Police Benevolent Association – have thrown their support behind Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the Democrat in the governor’s race.

According to Sink’s campaign, it’s the first time the FOP has endorsed a Democrat for governor in 16 years. Their last pick? The late Gov. Lawton Chiles in his 1994 re-election campaign. Sink’s campaign also says it’s been two decades since both law enforcement organizations a Democrat for governor.

Sink’s duties as the state’s chief financial officer include acting as Florida’s fire marshal.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink will release her and husband Bill McBride’s tax returns for the past five years next week.

Sink, the Democrat’s nominee for governor, is challenging GOP opponent Rick Scott, the self-made billionaire who made his fortune in the health care industry, to do the same.

Scott, who self-funded his primary campaign against Attorney General Bill McCollum, refused to release his tax returns when McCollum challenged him to do so earlier this summer.

Meanwhile, Scott has agreed to two debates next month with Sink, who asked for five debates before the Nov. 2 election.

Scott agreed to a debate Oct. 20 in Davie sponsored by Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association and another on Oct. 25 in St. Petersburg sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times and CNN and moderated by CNN host John King.