Scott cancels NBC debate, making USF event likely

A statewide broadcast debate on NBC between Alex Sink and Rick Scott planned for Oct. 25 has been canceled because Scott declined, saying moderator Chris Matthews is "a known Obama liberal."

The two will have at least one other statewide telecast debate, hosted by Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association on Oct. 20, and possibly another at the University of South Florida televised by CNN on Oct 25.

They also will have a debate on the Spanish language network Univision on Oct. 8.

Sink has yet to agree to the USF debate, because the date conflicted with the NBC event.

Asked why Scott declined it, campaign spokeswoman Bettina Inclan said, "It is not surprising Alex Sink refuses to accept CNN's offer to debate and instead picks known Obama liberal Chris Matthews as her preferred debate moderator."

She called CNN's chief national correspondent John King, moderator of the USF event, a "respected journalist."

The USF event will be held in a campus theater and not open to the general public. All tickets available to USF will be distributed in a lottery for students, said USF spokeswoman Lara Wade.

There will be a debate watch party in a ballroom at USF's Marshall Center, with refreshments, open to the public, she said.

Sink said more debates, with greater statewide exposure, would be better.

William March

GOP flip-flops on audit

After voting Saturday at a meeting in Orlando not to release the report of an audit of its finances, the executive committee of the state Republican Party reversed course Wednesday, voting during a conference call to release the document.

GOP officials had said the report showed no "smoking gun" or unexpected wrongdoing, and that it provided evidence that the party's financial meltdown last year was the fault of Gov. Charlie Crist, who has now left the party, and the man Crist picked to be party chairman, Jim Greer. Even as they said that, the party officials also refused to release it publicly.

That drew accusations from Crist and Democrats that the GOP was playing politics with the report.

U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio on Wednesday said the audit would clear him of any allegation of misuse of his party credit card. "I want it to be released," Rubio said in an interview with The Tampa Tribune editorial board. "It found what I knew it would find, and that is that there was nothing inappropriate about our usage" of the party credit card.

Rubio denied a press report of an IRS investigation of his card use.

William March

Dems kick in $2m for Sink

Answering a move by the national Republican Party to boost Rick Scott's campaign for governor with a $2 million contribution to the state Republicans, the national Democratic Party has kicked in $2 million to the state party for Alex Sink.

Politico reported, and campaign insiders confirm, that the Democratic Governors Association, the arm of the national party that helps its candidates for state governor's offices, has transferred $2 million to the Florida party for TV advertising purchases.

The DGA's Republican counterpart, the Republican Governors Association, sent $2 million to the state GOP last week.

William March