The Truth Behind GOP Attack Ads

Bill McCollum and Rick Scott are trading shots in the battle for Florida's governor

Costly and nasty sums up the race to be Florida’s next governor, as Republican candidates Rick Scott and Bill McCollum are swiping at each other, hard and fast.

Together, they have spent some $50 million on their campaigns. But are their attack commercials to be believed?

"There's nothing Republican about profiting from porn," is what the announcer says in one of McCollum’s ads attacking Scott.

Ads like this start with the truth, says St. Pete Times political writer Aaron Sharockman, but devolve from there. His Politifact.com/Florida website breaks down candidates' ads, then posts the truth on-line.

"[Scott]'s worth $218 million and he's invested in a ton of companies,” said Sharockman. “¿Qué Pasa? is a social networking website that has a partnership with Playboy Mexico, so that's the connection, Scott is invested in a company that has a partnership with Playboy Mexico."

Another claim from that ad says "there's nothing Republican about criminal acts." Scott was CEO of hospital giant Columbia/HCA. Back in the 1990s, the company pleaded guilty to 14 felonies related to Medicare fraud.

“He wasn't there when the pleadings took place, Scott himself was never questioned by authorities, was never charged with a crime,” said Sharockman. “Maybe there's truth to it but also they're not telling the whole story.”

Scott's ads also leave out important facts, says Sharockman. One of his commercials links Mccollum, a conservative pro-life candidate, to abortion providers.

“As a lobbyist, McCollum's firm pulled in $100,000 from abortion providers,” says the ad.

That’s a stretch says Sharockman. “There's no direct tie that Mccollum is tied to these abortion provider firms,” he said.

In another commercial, Scott hammers McCollum on flip-flopping his support for an Arizona-style illegal immigration law in Florida. The commercial shows McCollum saying he supports the law, then in another setting, McCollum is on video saying the opposite.

Sharockman says the ad is true. “Bill Mccollum's position has kind of waffled and gone all over the map on this while Rick Scott has been consistent.”

Sharockman says the commercials are not totally fiction, rather based in facts that are often twisted, distorted and manipulated. Watch them, he says, with a grain of salt.

Contact Us