Will Special Interest Money & Old Line Republican Party of Florida Power Compromise Rick Scott?

As the Republican Unity Tour makes it's way across Florida, it might be a good time to raise questions about the future of Mr. Scott's campaign. His ascent to nominee was both costly ($50 million out of his pocket) and shocking to the state GOP establishment.

But even billionaires have self-imposed limits to which they'll gamble their fortunes. It appears now that Mr. Scott has reached his.

He's quoted in media as saying that 'I spent more than I would have liked to' on defeating McCollum. In the next breath he says, "I'm ready to start fund raising for the Republican Party of Florida," with the understanding that lots of that money will be funneled back to his campaign.

To accomplish this the, the traditional establishment of RPOF must be brought in. Which is what happened today in Orlando.

The Unity Tour brought together not only Rick Scott, but Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, and Florida State House Speaker Dean Cannon. Each congratulated the other without a hint of the rancor that marked the Republican governor's primary.

But here's the rub. If Mr. Scott has indeed reached his limit to self-financing his own campaign, are these show's of 'unity' coming at a price?

Mr. Scott has said publicly that he welcomes lobbyist money as long as they are supportive of his agenda. Fair enough, and we'll have to take him at his word. But hundreds of our Republican state legislators say that they are not influenced at all by lavish spending of corporate special interests that fund their campaigns, yet vote for boondoggles like SunRail, the US Sugar land deal, and others. These same entities make sure to reward helpful incumbents with millions at election time.

And still we have Mr. Scott who says that he is beholden to no one and will use the special interest money for his campaign with no strings attached. Let's hope so. But the biggest reason Scott beat McCollum was the desire by rank and file Republicans to stop the whole circus up in Tallahassee.

Remember this. When Bill McCollum got into trouble RPOF was able to funnel millions in corporate donations to prop up his campaign. Will Scott follow in the footsteps of others that have accepted special interest money? Wait and see!

Hope the old saying that 'he who pays the piper calls the tune,' does not apply here.