Despite having made his fortune in part due to his investment in coal, Steyer is now backing alternative energy and using his money to defeat candidates who have questioned global warming. Steyer has publicly mulled spending around $10 million to defeat Scott this year.
The new ad from the PAC claims Scott took campaign donations from Duke Energy, giving that company contracts despite poor performance. The ad claims Scott took $500,000 from Duke Energy.
With the stroke of a pen, Rick Scott failed to protect Florida consumers. letting Duke Energy charge customers billions for two power plants that dont generate a single watt of energy, the narrator says in the ad.
But Scotts team fired back on the new ad and one last week that claimed the governor had accepted $200,000 from the Collier family who own land for oil exploration near the Everglades, insisting the new ads actually should be directed at former Gov. Charlie Crist. Despite having spent most of his political life as a Republican, Crist is the favorite to win the Democratic primary on Tuesday and challenge Scott in November.
Scotts camp noted that Crist had steered more than $500,000 from the Colliers to the GOP when he was a Republican. Scotts team also pointed out that Crist approved building the nuclear power plants.
Matt Moon, a spokesman for the Scott campaign, fired back on Monday, trying to connect both Steyer and Crist to Obama.
Steyer's new ads take a swipe at his Obama ally Charlie Crist by attacking contributions from the Collier family, who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Crist, and attacking Rick Scott for protecting consumers after Crist left taxpayers on the hook, Moon said on Monday. Oops. While Rick Scott has fought to stop illegal drilling in Collier County and rein in utilities, Charlie Crist was busy flying to an environmental press conference on the plane of a serial polluter. More swings and misses by Obama's special-interest force Tom Steyer in Florida.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.comor follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
