Florida voters overwhelmingly rebuffed one mega-rich newcomer running for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, Jeff Greene, while another controversial self-funder, Rick Scott, pulled off a stunning upset to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination, according to an Associated Press projection late Tuesday.
A Scott win over Attorney General Bill McCollum -- in the face of aggressive and vocal opposition by the national and state Republican establishment -- sets up what is sure to be one of the most turbulent and unpredictable governor's races Florida has ever seen.
In Scott, Democratic nominee Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer, would face a controversial newcomer with limited knowledge of Florida issues who is capable of spending a record amount of money against her.
Tuesday had the potential to tell us whether you can buy an election in Florida.
Instead, it merely demonstrated the obvious: If you spend $50 million, as Scott did, you have a lot better chance than if you spend $25 million, as Greene did.
Both insurgent candidates lugged enormous baggage: Scott headed a healthcare company that paid a $1.7 billion fine for Medicare fraud; Greene made hundreds of millions betting that many Americans would default on their mortgages, palled around with B-list celebrities and earned a reputation as a tyrant among his employees. His yacht, which got almost as much media attention as he did, was infamous for wild parties and for at least one controversial stop in Cuba.
``It's very difficult to trust these guys,'' said Richard Irwin, 66, who was at a Broward County diner Saturday, when Greene stopped in. ``One is a multimillionaire tied to Medicare fraud, and the other one has problems with a 145-foot yacht docked in Cuba.''
The amount of money spent wasn't the only difference between the Scott and Greene campaigns, however.
Scott campaigned harder and smarter. Starting when he dropped $1.2 million on TV ads the first week he declared, he never let up on the TV advertising blitz.
In contrast, Greene spent a few million dollars on TV to move his poll numbers and then let up until the final month of the campaign. Some Democratic strategists contend Greene could have buried U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek if he had kept up the spending.
Scott avoided newspaper editorial boards and a debate televised statewide against a more seasoned candidate. But he also took a bus tour across the state.
Despite his often-rocky performance on the campaign trail, Scott managed to attract enthusiastic support from grass-roots conservatives who appreciated his outsider status and promise to shake up the status quo in Tallahassee.
Greene boasted of ``thousands of campaign volunteers,'' but in a stark sign of his lack of grass-roots support, only about 35 people came to hear his concession speech in West Palm Beach. Scott drew about 200 to his election night party.
Greene kept up a light campaign schedule throughout the primary, and by the closing days of the campaign was blaming the media for his lack of momentum.
``I expected all the negative campaigning, but I didn't expect the newspapers to be lying. I'm a married man with a baby at home and an elderly mother I look after, and some of the people they tried to tie me to, it was really unethical,'' Greene said.
Super rich, self-funding candidates are nothing new in places like California, but Florida had never seen anything like this before. Plenty of voters resented the big-spending rich guys, somehow more offended by people spending millions of their own money than candidates being bankrolled by lobbyists and special interests.
``When somebody spends $30 million or more, it's about power. And when somebody is seeking power that hard, that sends the wrong signal to me,'' said Republican Victor Castrillo of Valrico, who initially wanted to vote against every incumbent until he looked into Scott's background.
``Nobody is going to invest that kind of money in a race unless they expect something in return,'' agreed Nick Tinch, a St. Petersburg Democrat, who participated in a recent voter focus group with The St. Petersburg Times.
But as the outsider candidate, Scott had an ideal foil in McCollum, who personifies the dreaded epithet ``career politician.'' Elected during the Reagan revolution, he served in Congress for nearly two decades before doing a stint as a Washington lobbyist. He lost two previous bids for the U.S. Senate.
McCollum also may have been damaged by a long-running Republican party scandal that culminated in fraud charges against the former state party chairman, Jim Greer. In the final days of the campaign, Scott accused McCollum on television and in full-page ads of covering up Greer's wrongdoing. The charge drew angry retorts from state and national Republican party leaders, now in an awkward spot.
Why ‘Expendables’ Soared, ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Crashed At Box OfficeMcCollum says he’ll use taxpayer funds to compete with Scott
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