America's Nastiest Primary? GOP's Florida Gov Race Takes It To The Next Level

Homophobia rages in governor's race. From TPM here.

You might not expect a race between the uber-boring Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and the uber-rich former hospital exec Rick Scott to be a barn-burner. But the Florida Republican gubernatorial primary -- a race no one really expected to happen in the first place -- is making a strong claim for the title of nastiest primary race of the year.

Here's a quick overview of the past couple weeks. McCollum, trailing in the polls to the self-funded Scott, turned it up to 11 with a mailer that says Scott, who made his millions as the CEO of Columbia HCA, "profited from abortion," thanks to the fact that the procedure was performed at some Columbia-run hospitals. In response, Scott fired off a press release attacking McCollum for supporting Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 presidential race. How does a tie to America's Mayor hurt McCollum in Scott's eyes, you might ask? Like this: Scott says McCollum isn't conservative enough because he "endorsed pro-abortion and pro-homosexual rights candidate" Giuliani.

Like I said, nasty. . . .

Republicans would probably rather not have Scott -- who brings with him a ton of baggage -- as their nominee. But Scott seems to have caught fire with some voters down in Florida, and that means McCollum has to get scrappy to fight him off. Expect this race to stay nasty all the way to the finish line.

From a commenter on the story:

Geez. And McCollum's the one who may have broken the law by funneling money to George "Rentboy" Rekers to bash gay adoption. Florida doesn't seem like a state where two candidates preparing for the general election by trying to out-homophobe each other makes a lot of sense.