BILL McCOLLUM AND SOUR GRAPES

I've long held that if you're going to roll the dice on a candidate for office, you roll them for the House or Senate. Why? Because if you choose wrong they are just one in one hundred or one in 435. If you look at Governor's races however, traditionally, myself included people vote safe. Because if you elect the wrong governor (or President for that matter) they are in a position that can obstruct real change.

For that reason, I voted for State Attorney General Bill McCollum in the Florida Republican Gubernatorial primary. He lost. To Rick Scott. An unknown outsider who spent 50 million dollars. It paid off. At about 10:45 my candidate, Mr. McCollum came out. Not to concede, but to inform his supporters that it was going to be a long night and there were still many votes to count. That might've made me feel good if I hadn't had the website for Miami Dade Supervisor of Elections in front of me as he was speaking. I could see that he couldn't make up the difference, so he had to know. I was watching my candidate refuse to concede defeat when all who were watching and crunching numbers knew it was over.


To date, Mr. McCollum will not endorse Mr. Scott. Ok. He questions his integrity and character and ethics. Fair enough. If he feels that strongly, there is no law that says he must endorse or support the man who ended his political career. But then again, by losing he ought to let the General Electorate decide the fate in November of the nominee Mr. Scott. Criticizing him and refusing to endorse clearly smacks of sour grapes and any effort to undermine him publicly will discredit Mr. McCollum.

If Mr. Scott's ethics are as poor as Mr. McCollum says they are does he think Alex Sink won't notice or seek to exploit? For that matter as a McCollum voter myself does he think I won't notice? Barring an earth shattering revelation I will likely vote for Mr. Scott without regret and I do not regret voting for Mr. McCollum. I would still prefer he'd won the primary. If on the other hand Mr. McCollum having choked on his sour grapes publicly undermines the nominee in November, I will rue the day I reflexively vote for the "safe" choice".