Reports filed late Friday show that Gov. Rick Scott and his wife, Ann, used their family fortunes to help finance his campaign by writing a series of checks for $12.8 million in the last month of the bitterly fought race for his re-election.
The money comes a year after the governor, a multi-millionaire former hospital executive, promised he would not have to tap into this fortunes to win a second term. Scott's campaign for governor four years ago was his first attempt at elected office and he self-financed the $85 million campaign with $75 million of his own money.
The governor's contributions came in two spurts: checks of $5 million each from Richard L. Scott's "qualified blind trust" and Frances A. Scott, his wife, on Oct. 6 and two more checks of $1.4 million each, from same sources.
Unlike in 2010, the race against Democrat Charlie Crist has been more negative and even more expensive as the governor has nearly matched his spending of four years ago and is expected to top $100 million in expenses this cycle.
According to fourth quarter reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections, the Republican Party of Florida raised a whopping $65.8 million in the last quarter while the Florida Democratic Party raised $31 million.
The largest contributor to Scott's campaign has been the Republican Governor's Association, whose contributors include many of the corporate and millionaire donors who have also written lucrative checks to Scott's political committee or the Republican Party. The organization sent Scott $18.5 million in contributions.
Among the largest contributors to the Republicans between Aug. 23 and Oct. 30 was $1.5 million spent by Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino operator who has also financed much of the opposition to the Amendment 2 medical marijuana efforts.
U.S. Sugar was another major donor to the RPOF, writing a check fo $562,000 this quarter, bringing their total spend this cycle to at least $3.3 million.
The biggest checks to the Democrats came from million investor George Soros -- $1 million, the Moystyn law firm $1.1 million and AFSCME $1.3 million. Some special interests hedged their investments in the Republicans by also contributing -- albeit in smaller amounts -- to the Democrats.
Everglades Foundation chairman Paul Tudor Jones gave the Republican Party $250,000, for example. Meanwhile, oil and gas billionaire David Koch gave 250,000 to Republicans.
Disney, a strong opponent of allowing the expansion of gambling, gave a total of $350,000 to Democrats, The Seminole Tribe, which wants limited expansion, offset that investment by writing checks that tottaled $350,000. By contrast, the Tribe gave RPOF $700,000 for the quarter.
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