When Jeb Bush and Rick Scott meet this morning, will they compare records on helping special interests? Rick Scott launched wild attacks this week over Charlie Crist’s record protecting consumers, ignoring the fact that he’s been bought wholesale by the biggest special interests in Florida. 

Fact Check #1: It was Jeb Bush who signed into law the Advanced Cost Recovery Fee that lets Duke Energy raise rates on consumers for nuclear power plants that will never be built. 

Fact Check #2: Rick Scott has done everything he could to protect the Advanced Cost Recovery Fee, so it’s no surprise the special interests that benefit from it have given Rick Scott’s campaign over $1 million.

Fact Check #3: Back in 2006, Rick Scott’s own lieutenant governor, Carlos Lopez-Cantera, voted for the anti-consumer deal.  

Fact Check #4: On the stump in 2010, Candidate Rick Scott touted that as governor he would not be behold to special interests like Duke Energy, or political insiders like Jeb Bush and John Thrasher. 

“Just four short years ago, Rick Scott ran for office as an outsider who would not be beholden to special interests or political insiders like Jeb Bush. How times have changed. But the new Rick Scott has not quite given up on his old talking points, and that might make things a little awkward at today’s event,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Joshua Karp. 

“Earlier this week the Scott campaign launched a wild new attack that trashed big utilities and the Advanced Cost Recovery Free. The only problem? Jeb Bush signed it into law. The ad also conveniently fails to mention the $1 million big utilities have given to the Scott campaign.”

“But as Floridians know, blatant hypocrisy and major policy reversals are nothing new to Rick Scott. Just ask him about Common Core. Oh wait… that may make things even more awkward.”