Former RPOF Chairman Tom Slade Takes Aim at McCollum, Cannon and Haridopolos

The campaign team for Rick Scott, currently ahead of Attorney General Bill McCollum for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, is forwarding a letter to the Florida Times-Union from former RPOF chairman Tom Slade taking shots at the GOP leadership in Tallahassee, including McCollum and his key allies.

It has been a rough go for the Republican Party of Florida of late, wrote Slade. With former Chairman Jim Greer thrown out after charges of fraud and money laundering, and threatening to call Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum, Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon to the witness stand, it could get even uglier.

Slade took aim at 527s set up by Republican leaders in the Legislature, namely Haridopolos and Cannon, which are backing McCollum and running ads for the cash-strapped attorney general who cannot keep up with Scott flooding the airwaves with ads paid for from his own personal accounts.

There are rumblings now of concern that the insiders in Tallahassee are considering using their already diminished resources to play favorites in the upcoming primary for governor, continued Slade. This would be very unwise and would create a backlash from Republican voters.

Many of the Republican donors who have given money to the Republican legislative leaders intended that money to be spent electing Republicans to the Legislature. I doubt that many donors intended their contributions to be funneled to front groups for use against one of the candidates in the primary for governor.

Slade even hinted Haridopolos and Cannon could lose support from their own caucuses.

"I would further hazard a guess that Republican candidates for the Legislature are none too happy to see these resources being spent on matters other than their elections, wrote Slade.