Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander launched another assault on multi-million dollar no-bid contracts issued and approved by Gov. Charlie Crist’s agencies, this time objecting to an agreement with a Texas corporation to advertise the state’s citrus industry.

Alexander’s contract watchdog radar seems to have kicked into overdrive since Crist vetoed a bill he sponsored that would have given the legislature more oversight of high-dollar contracts with private vendors.

Alexander, a citrus baron himself, wrote Crist a letter asking for a re-bid on the $20 million contract with The Richards Group, based in Dallas, Tex., that the Department of Citrus was ready to renew for three years without any public oversight.

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