Scott Sends Out Rekers Flyer Attacking McCollum, Fails to Properly Credit New Times

With some polls showing Rick Scott now more than ten points behind Bill McCollum in the Republican primary, the billionaire candidate has decided to pull out all the stops in the final days before the election. He has sent out an ad attacking McCollum for hiring now-disgraced George Rekers to testify for Florida’s gay adoption ban in court. Oddly, he quotes Judge Cindy Lederman (a “liberal activist” judge) and uses information from New Times (a “liberal activist” paper) but fails to credit either.

You can view the flyer, hosted by the Buzz, here.

If you don’t remember, McCollum hired George Alan Rekers to represent the state in court to defend the Florida’s gay adoption ban. Rekers was paid $120,000. This past May, New Times happened to catch Rekers at the airport returning from a vacation for which he hired a young gay prostitute from RentBoy.com to carry his bags and perform sensual massages.

It’s a weird flyer, considering it’s one of the first attacks on McCollum coming from another Republican, and it’s paid for by Scott’s committee Let’s Get to Work. It leaves Scott’s position on gay adoption unclear and hits McCollum for his “judgment and his values.”

The flyer quotes Judge Lederman’s characterization of Rekers’s testimony as “not credible.” What it doesn’t mention is that Lederman was more or less criticizing the so-called facts and evidence supported by most of the right wing in many anti-gay defenses. So, does Scott think most anti-gay adoption supporters aren’t credible? He also doesn’t directly name Lederman, referring only to a Florida court.

The flyer also includes footnotes, which credit the Rekers scoop to a Miami Herald story. Come on, Scotty boy, everyone knows that was a New Times story.