Both sides are ramping up the attacks in the Florida gubernatorial race as Gov. Rick Scott's and former Gov. Charlie Crists teams exchanged fire in recent days.
Lets Get to Work, a group with ties to Gov. Rick Scott, released a new television ad on Monday which will hit airwaves across the Sunshine State on Thursday. The ad, which is being backed by a $2 million ad buy, hits former Gov. Charlie Crist -- the Democratic favorite to challenge Scott despite spending most of his political life in the GOP -- for supporting President Barack Obamas federal health-care law.
While Charlie Crist continues to talk about how great Obamacare is, the facts tell us that its been anything but great for Florida families, said Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Over 300,000 Floridians have lost insurance plans they like, seniors are losing their doctors due to Medicare Advantage cuts, and job creators are being hit with higher taxes and burdensome regulations. Obamacare seems to only be great for Charlie Crist and his political career.
Crists team quickly fired back at Scott after the video was released.
"When after four years, you have no record and no vision, you spend millions attacking your opponent," said Kevin Cate, a spokesman for Crist, on Monday. "It's the Rick Scott playbook and Floridians have had enough."
Lopez-Cantera spoke to the media on Monday and was bombarded with questions about Mike Fernandez, who had been Scotts campaign finance co-chair, who resigned his post on Thursday night. The Miami Herald is reporting that Fernandez resigned due to campaign aides doing an over-the-top Mexican accent around him. Lopez-Cantera insisted on Monday there was no basis to that report.
"We don't tolerate inappropriate comments and I don't believe they even happened," Lopez-Cantera said. There's no validity that we can find to any of those comments or what was written."
That also prompted the Democrats to fire back. Making racist jokes appears to be a major part of Rick Scott's Hispanic outreach plan, insisted Christian Ulvert, the political director of the Florida Democratic Party. How long will it take for Carlos Lopez-Cantera to denounce these tasteless jokes made by his campaign team?"
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com.
