@MarcACaputo
In 2012, Gov. Rick Scott was clear about plowing his personal fortunes into his reelection campaign: “I won’t have to.”
But now that Democrat Charlie Crist outraised him 6:1 last week, Scott appears ready to open his personal piggy bank. He has spent $56.5 million on ads (at least two-thirds of them negative) to Crist’s $26.5 million (also heavily negative) yet he and Crist remain tied.
Rumors for weeks in Tallahassee were that Scott would commit $20 million to $22 million – a vast sum that still pales in comparison to the $75.1 million of his own money he dropped in 2010. The Crist campaign is trying to make that $20 million amount into gospel so it can scrounge for more cash. But that’s likely far too high.
“If I put in money, it will be nothing compared to what Tom Steyer – the radical, left wing billionaire from the West Coast – is helping Charlie with to bring these policies to Florida,” Scott said Monday in Miami at an early voting rally. “So if I end up putting money into the race, then it’s to make sure we have a strong finish.”
Steyer is on pace to spend more than $10 million in the race, as we first noted in August.
Asked if he might therefore put his own money into the race, Scott only said: "we’ll see.”
Question: “You haven’t yet though?”
Scott: “We’ll see.”
Scott could be plowing money into the Republican Party of Florida, which doesn’t have to report its finances until the end of the month. Scott signed an election bill that required more disclosure, but it omitted disclosing these types of transactions.
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