The Rick Scott campaign’s suit to block the Bill McCollum campaign from receiving public money has been denied, according to a tweet posted by Gary Fineout moments ago:
Judge turns down Scott request to block $ to McCollum. But lays out problems he has w Fla law and how it fits with SC rulings
The Miami Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas also broke the news on Twitter:
Judge throws out Rick Scott’s request for injunction in money to McCollum, saying there is a compelling interest to avoid corruption.
The Florida Independent’s Tristram Korten reported details of the lawsuit last week:
McCollum has the support of most of the Republican leadership. The [current] law will give him public money in order to keep up with multi-millionaire Scott’s self-funded campaign, once Scott has spent more than $25 million. Scott, according to his lawsuit, has spent about $21 million of his own money on this race since April. The lawsuit claims that any public money offered to his competitor because of Scott’s spending infringes on his First Amendment right to political speech. Scott asserts that he needs to spend large amounts of money on political speech to educate voters about his candidacy because he has never held public office before. Aiding McCollum with public money offers an unfair and unconstitutional advantage, the lawsuit claims.
Update
That didn’t take long: “Scott’s lawyers vowed an immediate appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta,” according to Central Florida Political Pulse.
