The arms race continues between Rick Scott and Charlie Crist.
Crist, trying to win back the governor’s mansion as a Democrat after a mid-life political conversion, raised more than $2 million in cash in May for his campaign and a closely aligned political committee, newly filed records show.
Scott, trying to win a second term and keep Republicans in total control of state government, brought in about $1.16 million in cash for his campaign and the sister “Let’s Get to Work” committee. But the state Republican Party, which is expected to play a huge role in Scott’s campaign, said it collected $3.54 million during the month.
The money will help fuel what is expected to be an expensive — and nasty — race filled with negative ads. As a sign of what’s to come, the Let’s Get to Work committee reported spending about $3.1 million on advertising in May, after spending about $5.1 million on ads in April.
With updated finance reports due Tuesday, Scott’s campaign reported raising $1,116,038 in May, bringing the overall total to nearly $4.7 million. The campaign had also received about $1.5 million in in-kind contributions through May, with the state party covering expenses such as staff and consulting.
Let’s Get to Work reported raising an overall total of slightly less than $28.1 million through May, though it also has spent about $12.9 million. The committee has dramatically ratcheted back its fund-raising during the past two months, collecting $46,100 in May and $257,000 in April. But the significance of that drop-off remains to be seen, as, for example, harder-to-track money can flow through the state GOP.
Crist’s campaign reported raising $410,787 in cash in May, bringing its overall total to nearly $3.7 million. Also, the committee has collected a total of $836,310 in in-kind contributions. Meanwhile, the committee, known as “Charlie Crist for Florida,” collected $1,627,500 in cash during the month, bringing its total to $8,234,580, records show.
While Crist and Scott continued to rake in money in May, many lawmakers appeared to have a light fund-raising month.
Among the exceptions was Rep. Ronald “Doc” Renuart, a Ponte Vedra Beach Republican who raised $28,800 for his re-election bid in St. Johns County’s House District 17. Similarly, Rep. Steve Crisafulli, a Merritt Island Republican who is slated to become House speaker in November, raised $25,525 during the month, bringing his overall total to $416,668.
Other top legislative fund-raisers for the month included newcomers seeking open seats. For instance, Jacksonville Republican Paul Renner reported raising $22,245 in May and an overall total of $178,795 as he tries to succeed Rep. Daniel Davis, who is not seeking re-election in House District 15. An updated report for Renner’s opponent, Jacksonville Republican Jay Fant, had not been posted online late Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Lakeland Republican John Hugh Shannon reported raising $22,010 in May for his bid to replace term-limited Rep. Seth McKeel, R-Lakeland, in House District 40. Another Republican in the race, Colleen Burton, raised $7,850 in May but had an overall total of $106,100. Shannon, who got into the race after Burton, reported an overall total of $79,435.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
A Rick Scott Ad Lambasting Crist Without Naming Him:
A Florida Democratic Party Ad Lambasting Scott’s Education Cuts:
m&m says
Crist is a looser and always has been. He rolls with the flow and flip-flops for his own personal gain. He’s pushing to make this a drug state which will bring in even more undesireable then we already have.. If he becomes the new Gov. we will loose the state to thugs and drug dealers..
DJH says
I couldn’t agree with you more.Anyone that has flip sides and policies like MR Crist is not good for Florida.He left Florida a mess when he left.Mr Scott has now given us surplus.
El Geezer says
Charlie Crist isn’t perfect, but his blood runs warm, very unlike the beady-eyed reptile
he is looking to unseat.
To reply to a previous comment: Florida has already been lost to “thugs and drug dealers,”
and a slick swindler named “Rick Scott,” who was at the helm of Columbia/HCA, who were fined
1.7 billion dollars for Medicare fraud. That my friend is a gifted thief and a thug.
Voters like you elected him governor. I hope you never wind up in a nursing home while a creep
like Rick Scott is running the state.
Heaven forbid, I don’t wish that on anyone.
When you elect CROOKS to office, you tacitly endorse crime!
A.S.F. says
m&m says–Yes, it would be so much better to keep losing more and more of our state to corrupt medicare-thieves who pretend to be conscientious public servants and the closed-minded idiots who eagerly lap up their, um, manure.
Sherry Epley says
Let’s get rid of Rick Scott!
Because of him and his cronies in state legislature:
* Our working poor are without health care because he refused to accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid.
* Duke Energy is charging its electric customers billions for nuclear plants that were botched or never built.
* Homeowners are being pushed out of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and into private insurers with higher premiums and no track records.
*Federal flood insurance rates are soaring so high that many property owners cannot afford the premiums but also cannot sell their homes. The governor sides with the electric utilities and property insurers. He criticizes the president rather than fellow Republicans in Congress for failing to fix the flood insurance fiasco they helped create.
* In Scott’s Florida, it is much harder for citizens to vote and for the jobless to collect unemployment.
* It is easier for renters to be evicted and for borrowers to be charged high interest rates on short-term loans.
* It is harder for patients to win claims against doctors who hurt them and for consumers to get fair treatment from car dealers who deceive them.
* It is easier for businesses to avoid paying taxes. . . ETC! ETC! ETC!
SCOTT NEEDS TO GO!
NortonSmitty says
Well, there were always rumors around Tallahassee that ol’ Charlie was a little “Light in the Loafers” if you get my drift. And his short lived marriage just before the last election sure didn’t do much to dispel the whispers that he was the type of man who would rather hear a fat boy fart than a pretty girl sing.
But if you have first hand knowledge that he is and always has been “looser” than what yer’ used to, and he plans on loose-ing all the fine men in Florida at the hands of thugs and drug dealers if elected, why I say there is finally one reason to vote for Rick Scott. Thank you for your bravery in “coming out” with this important information for all of the informed Florida electorate at the risk of your own reputation.