After his successful court battle to prevent his primary opponent Bill McCollum from getting access to public campaign finance money, Republican governor candidate Rick Scott now plans to try and do the same to Democratic rival Alex Sink. The Palm Beach Post reports that the Scott campaign filed a motion to convert a ruling in the McCollum case into a standing order, which means it would apply to Sink as well.
The Sink campaign said it won’t be taking any action right now. “We have not yet decided if we will be taking public funds,” spokesperson Kyra Jennings wrote via email.
Florida’s campaign finance law gives a participating candidate funds after a non-participating candidate exceeds a spending limit (in the primary it was $24.9 million). Back in July, Scott successfully argued that candidates have a First Amendment right to spend money on political speech, and that Florida’s campaign finance law infringes upon that speech by penalizing one candidate for spending his own money during a campaign. A federal district court judge ruled against Scott, but an appeals court in Atlanta reversed the decision and prevented McCollum from accessing the funds.
