Jeff Kottkamp Takes Tea Pledge Against Big Sugar Deal; Bondi, Benson Don't

Score one for Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp by default.

Kottkamp was the lone Republican attorney general candidate to earn a perfect score from Tea Party in Action for signing a pledge to oppose an Everglades land purchase that the group dubs a "Big Sugar bailout."

Kottkamp's rivals in a closely fought attorney general primary -- Pam Bondi and Holly Benson -- declined to sign on.

In a statement to Sunshine State News, Bondi wrote:

"The requested pledge is on a very complex deal that has changed multiple times, involves multiple state government, federal government and water district jurisdictions and has two federal judges involved. I dont want to lock into a pledge based on a bad deal today that could keep me from publicly supporting a good deal for Florida in the future.

The controversial Everglades deal was engineering by Gov. Charlie Crist and U.S. Sugar Corp. three years ago. Since then, it has been repeatedly downsized in size and price. Last week, the South Florida Water Management District agreed to purchase 28,000 acres of U.S. Sugar land for $197 million.

Given Crist's involvement and the governor's subsequent departure from the Republican Party, Kottkamp has sought to distance himself from the man who chose him as his running mate. Last month, Kottkamp endorsed Republican Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate race in which Crist is running as an independent.

Kottkamp's pledge appears to carry the dual benefit of staking out his independence from Crist and warming the Tea Party crowd, which has been leaning toward Bondi.

Benson's campaign did not return e-mail and phone messages.