Rick Scott’s 527 groups, Let’s Get to Work (also his campaign slogan), posted several big donations that are bound to help him solidify his already-sizable advantage in television advertising.
The main chunks of money came from two sources. The first being a revocable trust in his wife’s name which donated $3 million on July 23 to the group, raising the trust’s contribution to a total of $11 million since June 24.
The other main donor is Richard Rainwater, whose net worth Forbes.com estimated at $2.5 billion in 2008, making him the 163rd richest person in the U.S.
Rainwater has contributed $100,000 to Scott — worth around $218 million himself. Rainwater and Scott co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation together in 1988, each putting up $125,000 to buy two hospitals in El Paso, Texas. Columbia merged with Hospital Corporation of America in 1994, becoming Columbia/HCA; in 1997, the company paid $1.7 billion in fines to the U.S. government for Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
Let’s Get To Work has mainly run negative ads against Bill McCollum, which can be viewed on the group’s YouTube page.
