Gov. Rick Scott is holding fast to his support for an Arizona-style immigration reform for Florida despite recent comments from state GOP leaders, including Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, that it could be bad for business.

Scott, who campaigned on the issue, said this morning that law enforcement officers should be able to ask for immigration documentation, including during routine traffic stops.

“The federal government needs to secure our borders. We need to have an overall immigration policy that is logical and that works and is fair to Americans and fair to people that want to come to our country that we invite to come to our country,” Scott told reporters this morning.

“At the same time, I also believe that if you’re in our country and you do something illegally, you should be able to be asked just like I get asked for my ID if I ever get a traffic ticket, they should be asked if they’re legal or not. I clearly don’t believe in racial profiling,” Scott said.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said yesterday he does not favor an Arizona-style law.

And Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, fresh from a decade in Congress trying to address the immigration issue, said he believes an Arizona-style law would be bad for tourism and finance in Florida.

Rick Scott’s TV campaign in the Republican gubernatorial primary focused heavily on making Bill McCollum appear indecisive on immigration issues.

But now Scott’s own running mate doesn’t seem to be up to speed on the topic. Asked whether she supports one of Scott’s top priorities — bringing an Arizona-style immigration law to Florida — Carroll said the two haven’t talked about the “nit-picky” details. It’s also unclear whether she knew what an “Arizona-style” law entails.

Carroll also says she hasn’t read the immigration bill from state Rep. Will Snyder, R-Stuart, who based his proposal on the Arizona law and the immigration debate that dominated the GOP gubernatorial primary and could tilt the November general election.

Republican candidate Rick Scott took a shot this morning at his primary opponent, Bill McCollum, during a service at the El Rey Jesus mega-church in Miami. Ironically, it was over McCollum’s illegal immigration bill, a proposal that Scott says he would largely implement as governor.

Arizona-style immigration reform is unpopular among Florida Hispanics and Scott says McCollum misled Miami Republicans about the bill. (See end of this previous post.)

“My opponent came here two or three weeks ago and was very disrespectful in my mind. He was not honest with your leadership about his beliefs,” Scott said to thousands of people packed into the church.

“My commitment to you is that I will always be respectful of the diversity of this state and this country,” Scott said. “And I will always make sure that I have leadership from this community involved in anything I do as governor.”

But in the audience was Anthony Verdugo, head of the Florida Christian Family Coalition, a group that has endorsed McCollum. Verdugo said Scott committed to his group’s forum in Boca Raton earlier this month and then skipped it without reason.

Verdugo said Scott’s speech was “highly inappropriate in a house of worship”

“If you’re going to run for office and you’re going to talk about honesty, you gotta put yourself out there first,” Verdugo said. “There’s stuff that is out there that people don’t know about him that he refuses to address. And I think it’s a little ironic.”

UPDATE: The church has pulled the voter guides after Scott’s campaign complained.

That’s the note in the voter’s guide the Florida Family Policy Council and other Christian groups are disseminating at the 10,000-member El Rey Jesus church in Miami today.

The guide runs through candidates positions in seven races. But the only “note” is included in the GOP governor’s race between Rick Scott and Bill McCollum. The note happens to be a talking point for McCollum, who has been endorsed by the family policy group’s director, John Stemberger.

Note: Mr. Scott was the CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare hospitals while they performed elective abortions.

We should note that a tiny fraction of elective abortions happen in hospitals. And we should also note that several GOP operatives have said this is a low blow againt Scott.. Remember Florida GOP icon Jeb Bush is a board member of a hospital where abortions happen, too. (Even McCollum has stopped repeating it in his stump speeches.)

One of the positions not included in voters guide: illegal immigration.

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Just moments after former Gov. Jeb Bush said Florida needs a governor who won’t vacillate on important issues, Bill McCollum, Bush’s choice for the office, highlighted the nuance in his support for an Arizona-style immigration law in the state.

“We won’t bring exactly Arizona’s law to Florida,” Republican Bill McCollum said. “We’re two different states.”

About 11 percent of the state’s 4 million Republican voters are Hispanic and many pollsters and operatives are watching to see how the immigration issue will sit with them this year. A Wall Street Journal/NBC national poll in May showed 70 percent of Hispanics opposed Arizona’s law.

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“It depends on what you emphasize,” Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio said in an interview this afternoon.

Rubio, who does not support an Arizona-type law for Florida, said the Republican Party should be the party of “pro-legal immigration.”

“We don’t need 49 other states to pass that law,” Rubio said. “What we need is for the federal government to do its job. That ruling is a reminder of why we’re even here to begin with. The federal government has refused to enforce our existing immigration laws. There’s no one out there more pro-legal immigration law than I am, but America cannot be the only country in the world that does not enforce its immigration laws.”

One of Rubio’s opponents, independent Gov. Charlie Crist, said he had “no reaction” to the judge’s ruling on Wednesday to temporarily suspend the most severe parts of the law.

“I’m a guy who believes in respecting the courts and I respect the decision of the judge,” Crist said.

After about 24 hours with the Rick Scott for Florida gubernatorial campaign bus tour, there clearly are a few questions the Republican keeps getting from voters: What’s with the Medicare fraud? Can you stop the negative ads? What are you going to about illegal immigration.

At a stop at the Colombia Restaurant in Ybor City, Scott was asked if he would pull business licenses for companies that hire illegal workers. Here’s his answer:

“If employers have a process to do the right thing, I think we have to be fair to the citizens of the state and we have to be fair to companies. So the way I would do it is I would require companies to use E-Verify. And if they use E-Verify and something falls through the crack, they shouldn’t be penalized. If they don’t, and they have illegal immigrants they are paying, then absolutely. They absolutely they should lose their license.”

Later, Scott would not say his mandate to use E-Verify contradicts his call for less regulation of Florida businesses.

“There’s already a regulation about hiring illegal immigrants,” Scott told reporters. “This will make it easier for employers because they have a set process instead of wondering. Here’s what happens in business: If you have to wonder about something, you slow down.”

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that illegal immigrants should not count in the census, a position that would cost the state federal money and one that puts him at odds with Gov. Charlie Crist — his primary opponent — as well as the Republican-controlled legislature.

Rubio’s spokesman told the paper that his position was based on “rightful representation in Congress and ensuring that every voter has an equal voice.”

Today, Crist, trailing Rubio in recent polls, called the former state House speaker’s position “absurd.”

“Florida deserves to have her fair share. And I think making sure that we count every single Floridian is vitally important. That’s why I went to the school yesterday in North Miami,” Crist said.

“It is important. It’s important to our state, it’s important to our people. And the notion that you would not want to accept federal funding to make a political statement is absurd.”

During his “telephone town hall” meeting on health insurance reform Wednesday night, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, fielded questions on abortion, illegal immigrants, whether there should be a government-run “public option” and whether the proposed overhaul would constitute a drift toward Marxism or socialism.

Klein’s office said about 6,460 people listened in. Seventeen people asked questions during the 70-minute teleconference.

Click here to read an article on the event.

More detailed excerpts are available after the jump….

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