Dick Morris: Only McCollum Can Win Fla. Governor for GOP

Fox News analyst and best-selling author Dick Morris wrote a letter to Floridians today pressing the need to elect state Attorney General Bill McCollum as the Republican candidate for governor in the state’s primary election.

Morris sent the letter, on the first day of early voting in the run-up to the Aug. 24 primary, saying that McCollum can deliver a GOP victory on Election Day in November, in contrast to his opponent, Rick Scott.

“It is critically important that Bill McCollum win the Florida Republican primary for governor,” Morris’ letter says. “Rick Scott's record of constant and continuing involvement with the worst kind of Medicaid fraud makes it almost impossible for him to win the governorship should he win the primary.

“And, if the Florida governorship goes to the Democrats, it means a decade of Democratic congressmen from Florida when the state's new congressional lines are drawn in 2011.”

McCollum and Scott are embroiled in a heated battle, with much of the controversy focusing on the fact that Scott founded healthcare giant Columbia/HCA and was CEO in the mid-1990s when the FBI launched a massive probe of its billing practices. Scott resigned in 1997 and never was charged himself, but Columbia/HCA was fined $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud.

“Scott has, literally, made $300 million from his company's golden parachute and is now using this money to pay for his campaign ads trying to induce us to trust him as our governor,” says Morris, who endorsed McCollum in June. “And, ongoing court records indicate that he is at it again in his new company. I have personally examined these records and can tell you that Scott's conduct is horrific.”

Electing McCollum would ensure a candidate who “will be a true Republican governor, unlike [Gov. Charlie] Crist, and can win in November. He is a straight-out fiscal conservative who won't raise taxes and who is determined to bring the Arizona anti-immigration law to Florida.”