Editor’s Note – Things are not looking good for Bill McCollum at the moment.  Already behind in the polls, and with this weeks court ruling, Scott is about to turn the money spigot back on.

Can McCollum pull this out?  Time is running out and he has yet to capture the imagination of the voters of Florida.  Adding to his troubles is a strong anti-incumbent feeling amongst voters.

Perhap’s, it’s time to start sizing up Rick Scott against Alex Sink, who’s seen a recent rise in the polls, largely due to all the mud slinging coming from the Republican side. 

Recent News Favors Scott over McCollum

The Buzz

The 11th District Court of Appeal in Atlanta reversed a Florida court Friday and agreed to Republican Rick Scott’s request for a preliminary injunction halting Florida’s public financing law, saying that the provision that allows his opponent to get an excess subsidy of taxpayer dollars violates his 1st Amendment rights.

Writing for the three-judge panel, Circuit Judge William H. Pryor said they agreed with Scott’s argument that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Federal Election Commission “requires us to subject the excess spending subsidy to strict scrutiny. We conclude that even if the subsidy encourages participation in the public financing system and indirectly prevents corruption or the appearance of corruption, the excess spending subsidy is not the least restrictive means of doing so.

“Like the district court, we think it is obvious that the subsidy imposes a burden on nonparticipating candidates, like Scott, who spend large sums of money in support of their candidacies.”

The decision will put an immediate halt to the matching money Attorney General Bill McCollum thought he was entitled to when his Republican opponent exceeds the state’s $24.9 million spending cap, as expected.

Meanwhile, according to Quinnipiac University’s latest poll of likely Florida voters, Rick Scott leads Bill McCollum by 11 percentage points — 43 to 32, the poll says.

McCollum suggested “polls vary a lot” and he is not worried about the latest Quinnipiac survey results.

“The fact of the matter is we know we are down a little bit to Mr. Scott,” McCollum said before Thursday’s state Cabinet meeting. “We are going to close strong and we have the resources to do it and we are going to win this election.”

Fresh off an endorsement from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, McCollum on Thursday night did win a straw poll conducted by the Tampa Chamber of Commerce at its 2010 Political Hob Nob. The event drew well over 350 people and more than 50 candidates. Nearly 250 voted in the straw poll, using ballots that included candidates from all parties. McCollum received 39.7 percent of the vote.

Read More – http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/

 

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Tom Tillison

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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.

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