McCollum's Wasting Taxpayer Dollars Fails Florida's Children

From the FDP:

n defending the no-bid contracts that Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum gave to his partisan political consultant to produce thinly-veiled, taxpayer-financed campaign ads, the Miami Herald reported today that McCollum didn't think it was convenient to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.

The Herald reported that, "McCollum said he hired his former campaign consultant, Chris Mottola, because the state's competitive bidding process was 'very slow, very complicated.'''

"As Florida's chief law enforcement officer, Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum has a responsibility to not only follow the letter, but also the spirit of the law. Unfortunately, Florida's laws that ensure taxpayers get the best deal possible weren't convenient for McCollum, so he sought out a loophole that allowed him to be fiscally irresponsible with the public's money. If McCollum had competitively bid the contract, one has to wonder if McCollum would have been able to funnel $136,000 in profit to his Republican political consultant," said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff.

In the same article, the Herald noted that McCollum starred in the ads because, as McCollum said, "This ad needed a message. It needed a messenger."

In reaction, Jotkoff added, "The vast majority of Floridians can't pick Bill McCollum out of a lineup. Wouldn't a police officer, a mother or even John Walsh - the noted child advocate from South Florida - be a better messenger to educate Floridians on cyber safety? The Attorney General has a solemn duty to protect Florida's children from predators, yet Bill McCollum failed Florida's children when he chose to run nearly $2 million in TV ads promoting himself instead of public safety."