Candidates for governor combined to spend more than $5 million in their respective bids last week as they saturated the airwaves and amped up efforts to finish strongly in a race set to end in less than two weeks, the state Division of Elections reported on Friday.
Campaign finance figures for the week ending Oct. 15, show that Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott spent $3.9 million in his bid to succeed Gov. Charlie Crist.The Naples businessman added another $3.6 million of his personal fortune to his campaign fund, increasing to more than $60 million the money he and his wife have pumped into his largely self-funded campaign.
Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Alex Sink spent $1.6 million for the week ending Oct. 15, during which time she raised more than $600,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to get her message across to voters who have already begun to vote and will finish doing so by Nov. 2.
Sink collected $363,946 in cash and $261,097 in in-kind contributions during the week, the latest period for which campaign totals are available.
Last weeks additions bring Sinks total cash collections to $10.5 million, with another $4.9 million in in-kind contributions.Sink has spent a total of $8.7 million so far, leaving her with $1.8 million in cash on hand going into the final weeks of the campaign.
Scott has so far spent more than $49.9 million of his own money, while collecting just $1.5 million in contributions and another $3 million in in-kind contributions, the bulk of which has come from the Republican Party of Florida.
The rest of Scotts considerable war chest has come from loans made by the candidate and from the electioneering committee Lets Get to Work, which has raised and spent an additional $14.5 million. Scotts wife is the groups largest contributor, having given $11.3 million.
Other large donors to Lets Get to Work include Florida Crystals Corp. ($100,000), Blue Cross Blue Shield ($100,000) Wayne Huizenga ($100,000) and the Liberty Fund ($250,000), a committee set up by expected incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon.
