With the reported significant wealth of Republican candidate, Rick Scott, in the race for Florida Governor one cannot be blamed for assuming he would have no money problems in his general election campaign. However, he is, as there seems to be no long line of Republican donors in the state willing to assist him to funds his campaign.

According to reports out of Tallahassee, Scott’s Democratic opponent, Alex Sink, is currently ahead of Scott, who she leads by 2 percentage points in the latest state polls, in the fundraising race. In the first 10 days of the campaign Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, announced her campaign raised $525,000, while Scott raised only $43,000. The reports also state that Sink currently has some $5 million dollar to spend on her campaign and Scott just $224,000. However Scott, a former executive in the healthcare industry, should not be concerned about finding funds to spend on his campaign after having spent an estimated $50 million on his primary election campaign.

During the primaries Scott, and Joe Greene who contested, and lost, the Democratic primary for the US Senate against Kendrick Meek, together spent a record of some $80 million of their personal funds on their campaigns. While Meek successfully withstood the financial blitz from Greene, Bill McCollum who was Scott’s opponent in the Republican primary for state governor, narrowly lost. It is the consensus among local political analyst that McCollum’s defeat was largely the result of being outspent by Scott.

After his primary victory, and in response to criticisms that he “bought” the elections Scott said that he did not intend to spend much more of his personal funds on his general election campaign. However, unless there is a sharp increase in he response to Scott’s fundraising efforts, he may well have to resort to his personal financial resources.

Republican Kathy Amiel, a South Miami resident, experienced in coordinating fundraising efforts for Republican candidates in local, state ad national elections, said, that she isn’t too optimistic that Scott s going to out do Sink in raising funds leading to the elections. “There is this strong perception that Scott is a very wealthy man, so I don’t expect people to be inclined to make contributions as if he was a less wealthy candidate, especially in these harsh economic times.”

Linton MaGann, a Republican activist in Lake Worth, said he expects the funds to begin “rolling in for Scott, pretty soon.” MaGann said, “There was huge surprise that Scott won the primary. Most seasoned Republicans anticipated a McCollum victory, and were ready to contribute to his general election campaign. When Scott won, they paused, wanting to know him better. Now that he is settled in, and leading state and national Republicans are supporting him, the money will follow.”

Scott has been holding fundraising functions across the state since the primary, but the response has been lukewarm. The reputation of his significant wealth may even be affecting donations he could get from the Republican Party of Florida, as it was reported he received a donation of $53,000 from the RPF compared to $3.8 million donated to McCollum’s primary campaign,

In the meantime, Sink has been steadily raising funds, as she put it, “from average Floridians.” She has embarked on an aggressive online fundraising and has to date raised funds from some 1,500 contributors online. She has also succeeded in raising funds from several interest groups, including lawyers and teachers.

Both Sink and Scott have begun their television advertising campaign, and so far, unlike the primary campaign, the ads appear more positive addressing key issues, rather than negative ads attacking each other.

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