Republican foes, lobbyists now flock to Scott

TALLAHASSEE — In the aftermath of a mean-spirited primary, supporters of vanquished Bill McCollum are eagerly boarding the Rick Scott bandwagon, especially those Tallahassee special interests Scott vilified in the primary.

When McCollum got money from special interests, Scott speculated about what they were getting in return. But now that he's taking their money, Scott says they won't get anything from him.

"Everybody knows that I've put up a lot of money, that I'll never be owned by somebody else," Scott said Friday after private meetings with a slew of lobbyists. "It's unlikely that anybody that is going to contribute has any belief that they're going to be controlling my decisions."

Scott has hired most of McCollum's fundraising team. And he went on a "unity tour" this week with career politicians in the Legislature who backed McCollum.

Republicans are focusing on their enemy: Democrat Alex Sink. With so much power and patronage at stake, they seem determined to keep the Governor's Mansion in their grip for four more years.

Suddenly, it's as if the Medicare fraud in Scott's past has been airbrushed out of his resume. The McCollum loyalists who called Scott a fraud and a liar who tried to buy the election now speak of him as a great leader.

Is this admirable discipline, or crass cynicism?

On the day before the primary, a McCollum grass-roots leader in Tampa Bay predicted it would be all but impossible to unify the party if Scott won.

"It will be very difficult," said Chris Hart, a former two-term Hillsborough County commissioner. "Scott has never done anything to support Republicans anywhere in the state, not even in his neighborhood."

Hart said all Scott accomplished is to whip a segment of the electorate into an anti-incumbent frenzy.

"This guy is (Scott) is like a Mussolini or a Hitler," Hart said at Five Guys in Tampa as McCollum worked the tables. "They excite a very upset crowd. … No different than those despots of years ago."

Hart acknowledged Friday that his "extreme" remarks were made in the heat of a nasty race. Now Hart is an enthusiastic foot soldier for Scott.

"We need a chief executive who can create jobs in this state, and he's the only one who can do that," Hart said.

U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow, the Republican nominee for agriculture commissioner and a McCollum supporter in the primary, abhorred Scott's free-spending ways and Johnny-Come-Lately biography.

"As a fifth-generation Floridian, I'm just fundamentally uncomfortable with someone spending the minimum amount of time in Florida before they're allowed to run for office, and then shelling out tens of millions of dollars to make that happen," Putnam said Aug. 23. "Other states have gone down that road, and I would hate to see Florida follow the lead of California and New Jersey."

In a campaign stop this week, Scott gave a pep talk for all Republican statewide candidates, including Putnam, who said of Scott last week: "He's a guy who's only been here for seven years. How do we know him?"

Putnam has endorsed Scott as his party's nominee, and he said Friday he stands by his previous remarks.

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263.