A federal appeals court dealt a severe blow on Friday to Republican gubernatorial contender Bill McCollum – blocking a key portion of the state’s public campaign finance law which has already steered $1.7 million in taxpayer cash to his underfinanced campaign.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals sided with McCollum’s GOP primary opponent, Rick Scott, in reversing Tallahassee-area U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, who earlier this month upheld the $24.9 million spending cap in this year’s governor’s race. Scott argued the limit restricted his constitutional right to free speech and equal protection under the law.
In barring the state from enforcing the spending cap on the multimillionaire Scott, the court also cast doubt on Florida’s 23-year-old public finance system, which is slated to go before voters in November for possible repeal.
“At bottom, the Florida public campaign financing system appears primarily to advantage candidates with little money or who exercise restraint in fundraising,” U.S. Circuit Judge William H. Pryor, Jr., wrote for the panel, which included the district’s Chief Judge Joel Dubina.
“That is, the system levels the electoral playing field, and that purpose is constitutionally problematic,” the court said.
Judges conceded that while the Florida law may serve a purpose in blunting the potentially corrupting influence of big money campaign contributions, the use of the spending cap is “not the least restrictive means of encouraging,” that goal.
In issuing an injunction barring the state from enforcing the spending limit, judges concluded that, “Scott is likely to prevail on the merits of his claim,” when courts consider the broader issues he raises in the case.
The appellate judges Friday also took a swipe at the McCollum campaign, which had argued before Judge Hinkle that it did much of its campaign budgeting with the understanding that it would begin receiving dollar-for-dollar public funds once Scott topped the $24.9 million limit. Scott had acknowledged spending at least $21 million on his campaign by mid-July, the most recent finance reports available.
Scott has personally outspent the McCollum campaign by roughly $4-to-$1, records show.
“McCollum should have known that the excess spending subsidy was vulnerable to legal challenge,” the court wrote.
Public finance laws across the country are under sharp legal scrutiny, with the U.S. Supreme Court last month blocking Arizona’s use of public matching funds for candidates outspent by privately funded rivals or targeted by spending from independent groups.
A federal appeals court in Connecticut earlier this month further clouded the future of public financing by throwing out part of that state’s law.
In upholding the Florida law, Hinkle said that the spending cap interlocked with the state’s $500 contribution limits to help combat corruption or the appearance of corruption in politics. He also found areas of distinction between the Florida law and those in Arizona and Connecticut.
At the time, however, Hinkle acknowledged that his ruling might not stand. “I’m not at all sure whether the statute will be upheld, given the way the wind is blowing in campaign finance,” he warned.
McCollum campaign manager Matt Williams blistered Scott for bringing his lawsuit that led to Friday’s ruling.
“It is disappointing Rick Scott keeps trying to change the rules in the middle of an election despite pledging to abide by them,” Williams said. “Floridians should not be surprised someone responsible for overseeing the most massive taxpayer fraud case in history once again believes the rules do not apply to him.”
Scott, who has a reported net worth of $218 million, is a former health care executive whose former company, Columbia/HCA, paid a record $1.7 billion in fines and settlements to end a federal investigation that accused the firm of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Scott left the company in 1997 – three years before the fines and settlements.
“Today’s ruling protecting Rick Scott’s constitutional rights is a huge victory for Florida taxpayers,” Scott spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said Friday. “Career politician Bill McCollum and his insider friends have spent $16 million funding his negative campaign and yet Bill McCollum continues to take welfare for politicians.
“In fact, today the court limited Bill McCollum’s pick-pocketing of taxpayers to millions of dollars instead of tens of millions of dollars,” she concluded.
Along with the millions spent by Scott, his wife, Ann, has given $8 million to a political committee, Let’s Get to Work, that the candidate formed to sidestep the spending cap. McCollum is being helped similarly by 527 committees, with the Florida First Initiative proving the most prominent – having received $727,000 last month from a committee controlled by House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, and $190,000 from incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.
Haridopolos also has steered $403,000 into another 527 organization, the Citizens Speaking out Committee, which has been advancing McCollum’s campaign.
By John Kennedy
The News Service of Florida
