Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, reeling from a late challenge from anti-public option crusader Rick Scott in the Republican gubernatorial primary, just got a big boost in his quest to retain the support of Florida conservatives. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey — the chair of tea party umbrella group FreedomWorks — endorsed McCollum today, calling him the right choice for frustrated conservatives.
“Bill McCollum was ‘tea party’ long before there were tea parties,” Armey said in a statement posted to the McCollum campaign website.
Armey praised McCollum’s lawsuit challenging the federal health care law, and his past membership in the House leadership when Armey was majority leader.
“In the Florida race for governor, no one has done more to further the cause of conservatism than Bill McCollum,” Armey said.
That last statement could be seen as a veiled swipe at Scott’s past as a health care town hall astroturfer. Scott, who has spent millions from the fortune he made as a hospital executive on TV ads this primary season, has often talked of his role in the health care town halls as evidence of his conservative bona fides.
For McCollum, the endorsement was a rare piece of good news in the gubernatorial fight. Once thought to be largely a formality for McCoullum, the primary has become a serious struggle due to Scott’s massive spending. Recent polls show McCollum is losing.
McCollum is widely perceived to have the vote of Florida’s Republican establishment. A key battle in the contest, then, is the frustrated tea party vote. Supporters of the movment in Florida played a central role in chasing Gov. Charlie Crist out of the Republican Senate primary, and some have suggested they could do the same thing to McCollum if he’s not careful.
The Armey endorsement could help McCollum shore up that vote, which as Sunshine State News reported recently, is still up for grabs in the contest. The website reported that though, “clearly, [Scott] has tapped into Tea Party angst,” some tea party groups in the state are “leery of Scott’s staying power” in a general election fight.
