Corporate Money in Florida Politics

Steve Bousquet writes today that McCollum taps corporate money to fight self-financed millionaire Scott - St. Petersburg Times.  The article says McCollum’s contributors include “Big Sugar, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Progress Energy, real estate developers, road builders, beer distributors, car dealers, nursing homes and wealthy individuals like Fort Lauderdale entrepreneur H. Wayne Huizenga and Dallas philanthropist Peter O'Donnell.”
People need to know what these people are up to. Big Sugar means US Sugar, which gave McCollum $1.1 million.  Sugar companies are using land just above the Everglades and release pollution into the park. It is an appalling situation with corporate profits trumping a national treasure. Not only that, but sugar is federally subsidized.
Progress Energy just finished a buy out of the Public Service Commission, which “regulates” utilities. Progress and its ally FPL used heavy legislative donations to dump commissioners that voted against rate increases. Only Gov. Charlie Crist got in their way and now they want to buy the last obstacle.
Wayne Huizenga, billionaire owner or former owner of Republic waste disposal, the Miami Dolphins, and Auto Nation comes out of an industry mired in unsavory political connections.  Now he seeks to clean off the muck by association with prominent Republicans. Yuck!
The courts have thrown out our campaign finance laws and now these corporate titans seek to consolidate their control of our governing institutions. Is anybody else out there upset by this?
At least you can try to vote for politicians that seem at a distance from these people and you can avoid patronizing their institutions. Congress is going to have to pass new laws on campaign finance reform, and possibly a constitutional amendment.
Your vote for President matters greatly because the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court recently decided that corporations were equal to people and that campaign contributions are equal to free speech. Hell no!  Only the very wealthy (Scott, Green) can equal the power of the corporations and that presents us with an ugly choice:  government by the rich or their corporations. 
Please vote wisely this year.  Don’t just vote against incumbents, because some of them do a good job. Do your research and be a good citizen. Every vote counts.

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