Bill McCollum, Attorney General.
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An appeals court Friday barred Attorney General Bill McCollum from getting extra public funding when Rick Scott blows past the $24.9 million spending cap in their race for governor.
The decision was a huge victory for Scott, who leads in polls with less than four weeks remaining before the Aug. 24 primaries. But state Sen. John Thrasher, a St. Augustine lawyer who chairs the Florida Republican Party, said "it doesn't do irreparable damage" to McCollum's hopes.
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McCollum has run through all but half a million of the $5.7 million he's raised through July 23. Scott has outspent McCollum nearly four times over, the vast majority of the $22.7 million spent from his own fortune. McCollum, behind in the polls, could have used the extra public money to counter Scott's heavy-rotation TV advertising.
"The bottom line is, Bill is going to have to work much harder to keep up with Rick Scott," said Thrasher, who is officially neutral in the race as GOP chairman. "It means you've got to go find the money somewhere else."
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Scott's free-speech rights would be violated by the "poison pill" provision of Florida's public-financing law. The judges overruled U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle of Tallahassee, who rejected Scott's request for an injunction.
Opting out of the state's public-finance program, Scott's lawyers argued the state's spending cap limited his protected political speech.
McCollum agreed to abide by spending limits and has received more than $1.2 million in public funds this year. Candidates in both parties for all three Cabinet seats have also accepted the matching money.
The law provides that once a non-participating candidate like Scott exceeds the limit of $2 per voter — currently $24.9 million — all candidates who qualify for public financing will get dollar-for-dollar matching money for what the wealthy candidate spends above the cap. That's in addition to the regular matching money they would get anyway, for agreeing to limit spending.
"Career politician Bill McCollum and his insider friends have spent $16 million funding his negative campaign and yet Bill McCollum continues to take 'welfare for politicians,'" said Scott spokeswoman Jen Baker. "The court limited Bill McCollum's pickpocketing of taxpayers to millions of dollars, instead of tens of millions of dollars."
McCollum campaign manager Matt Williams expressed disappointment and said McCollum is reviewing his options, possibly appealing the ruling. He said Scott knew the finance system when he got into the race but "keeps trying to change the rules" to his advantage.
"Regardless of the outcome of this case, we remain very confident we will have the resources necessary to communicate Bill McCollum's solid conservative record," said Williams. "We are also confident Floridians are becoming increasingly leery of a greedy corporate insider whose only record is consistently putting profit over principle."
The 44-page ruling by Circuit Judges Joel Dubina, William Pryor and Beverly Martin said Scott had a good chance of prevailing on the merits of his case at trial.
"That is, the system levels the electoral playing field and that purpose is constitutionally problematic," said the ruling, written by Pryor.
The court said there is no danger of disrupting the looming election. It said the state interest in capping campaign costs did not justify the infringement on Scott's right to spend his wealth on political speech.
"On this record, we think that each candidate will speak less if he loses this appeal," said the court. "Scott will avoid aiding his opponent and McCollum will have less money to support his campaign. We cannot say that the public has an interest in hearing more or less from either party."
