Scott, Crist Keep The Campaign Cash Flowing

June 11, 2014

The arms race continues between Rick Scott and Charlie Crist.

Crist, trying to win back the governor’s mansion as a Democrat after a mid-life political conversion, raised more than $2 million in cash in May for his campaign and a closely aligned political committee, newly filed records show.

Scott, trying to win a second term and keep Republicans in total control of state government, brought in about $1.16 million in cash for his campaign and the sister “Let’s Get to Work” committee. But the state Republican Party, which is expected to play a huge role in Scott’s campaign, said it collected $3.54 million during the month.

The money will help fuel what is expected to be an expensive — and nasty — race filled with negative ads. As a sign of what’s to come, the Let’s Get to Work committee reported spending about $3.1 million on advertising in May, after spending about $5.1 million on ads in April.

With updated finance reports due Tuesday, Scott’s campaign reported raising $1,116,038 in May, bringing the overall total to nearly $4.7 million. The campaign had also received about $1.5 million in in-kind contributions through May, with the state party covering expenses such as staff and consulting.

Let’s Get to Work reported raising an overall total of slightly less than $28.1 million through May, though it also has spent about $12.9 million. The committee has dramatically ratcheted back its fund-raising during the past two months, collecting $46,100 in May and $257,000 in April. But the significance of that drop-off remains to be seen, as, for example, harder-to-track money can flow through the state GOP.

Crist’s campaign reported raising $410,787 in cash in May, bringing its overall total to nearly $3.7 million. Also, the committee has collected a total of $836,310 in in-kind contributions. Meanwhile, the committee, known as “Charlie Crist for Florida,” collected $1,627,500 in cash during the month, bringing its total to $8,234,580, records show.

by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida

Comments

3 Responses to “Scott, Crist Keep The Campaign Cash Flowing”

  1. Gene on June 12th, 2014 1:54 pm

    I voted for Crist once and said I NEVER make that mistake again – i almost went broke under his administration – people are not stupid-

  2. jesse on June 12th, 2014 7:23 am

    Rick Scott’s ads are not only misleading, but completely fabricated. He congratulates himself on creating jobs. The reality of that is, his policies have caused jobs with benefits to be lost. Replacing jobs with a decent salary and benefits with part time minimum wage jobs is not job creation. I hope the good people of Florida ask him to leave Tallahassee in November.

  3. northend reesident on June 11th, 2014 9:55 pm

    What has happenened past year is not working. You can’t go around right right before elections and tell people things they want to hear or beat down the other canidate. We are not stupid!
    It is time for change and rick scott needs to move on. I’m sure there are plenty of rich people that will give him a job. We need someone who cares about all the people of florida.