Rick Scott’s multi-million dollar foray into electoral politics has broken the bank for the Republican Party’s choice in the Florida gubernatorial race. State Attorney General Bill McCollum has just $800,000 left in the bank, according to court documents filed by McCollum in response to a Scott lawsuit over campaign finance.
The St. Petersburg Times reports:
McCollum’s campaign manager, Matt Williams, disclosed that because of Rick Scott’s primary challenge, the campaign began advertising on TV weeks earlier than they had planned and that the campaign has $800,000 on hand as of Saturday.
Less than a million bucks in the bank puts McCollum at a severe disadvantage in the race against Scott, who has spent millions of his own money so far and shows no sign of stopping.
McCollum filed the information on his campaign funds in response to the Scott lawsuit, in which the former hospital executive is seeking to stop the state from giving McCollum a dollar-for-dollar match of all personal funds Scott spends over $24.9 million.
Polls and stories from the ground have already shown how hard Scott has made things for McCollum. The new report of his money woes will only add to speculation that McCollum is in serious trouble against Scott’s campaign.
McCollum has been forced to go up with ads earlier than he expected to protect himself from Scott’s onslaught. It’s not yet clear if McCollum’s super-negative spots attacking Scott have had an effect on slowing the millionaire’s momentum.
