NEWS FROM THE FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY
For Immediate Release: June 18, 2010
Who’s Got the Longer Shadow? Scott Slams McCollum for Shady 527 Connection, While Starting One of His Own
Yesterday, disgraced executive Rick Scott charged career politician Bill McCollum with “illegally raising money for a secretive political group” according to the Tampa Tribune.  Scott’s staffer even said of McCollum, “He’s breaking the law.”  Yet the very same day Scott’s campaign launched this attack, Scott himself admitted to setting up an outside 527 organization of his own to help him stay under spending caps.
“Rick Scott attacking Bill McCollum over connections to shadowy groups while simultaneously forming one himself to get around campaign finance rules is just one more example of Scott’s failure to hold himself accountable,” said Eric Jotkoff, spokesperson for the Florida Democratic Party.  “This fact of the matter is both McCollum and Scott have used unethical tactics, legal loopholes, and blatant hypocrisy to try to win the Republican nomination with as little transparency as possible.”
Rick Scott admitted his connections to his shadow 527 group, called “Let’s Get to Work,” even going as far as to claim credit for “opening” the organization to get around spending caps.  “We opened a 527. That will help us stay within the cap, absolutely,” Scott said to the Times/Herald.  The records custodian for Scott’s shadow group is also a paid consultant to his campaign. 
Scott’s accusation against McCollum stems from emails sent by McCollum’s campaign consultant soliciting donations for the Florida First Initiative.  McCollum confirmed he is helping the group raise money, saying to the Times/Herald: “When somebody wants to know how they can help me in some way beyond my campaign, I’ve directed them to them recently, because I’ve seen that that’s a source where they can be helpful.”
“It’s surprising that someone whose former company pled guilty to 14 felonies would want to have his name and the phrase ‘breaking the law’ in the same sentence,” Jotkoff added. 
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