The increasingly negative battle for the Republican gubernatorial
nomination is turning to the topic of immigration with Bill McCollum
and Rick Scott leveling attacks that make each other look
hypocritical.
The attack on Scott came first, courtesy of opposition researched
(presumably from those close to McCollum) shopped to the Orlando
Sentinel. But Scott's attack on McCollum came straight from the
Scott campaign Wednesday in a media
release.
It's messy but the gist is this: McCollum, as a lobbyist, represented
banks that profited from illegal immigrants' remittances and Scott, as a
businessman, invested in companies that made money from illegal
immigrants' remittances.
The connections are tenuous (expect PolitiFact Florida to help sort
it out soon) and the substance appears thin at this point. But the
lingering effect is just a nastiness that could hurt both candidates,
regardless of who is more connected to remittance transactions, which
aren't illegal but just politically intolerable if they come from
immigrants who entered the United States against the law.
The issue of illegal immigration is a major focal point for GOP
primary voters. And to date, it's an issue Scott owns. He was first to
support an Arizona-styled law that allows officers at stops to check an
individual's immigration status. And the move forced McCollum to also
support the Arizona effort, after initially
suggesting otherwise.
On the campaign trail, this stance is Scott's biggest, most
consistence applause line. So he likely has the most to loose if voters
determine his tough-on-immigration position is hypocritical.
In 2004, his firm, Richard L. Scott Investments, LLC, invested
in Emida Technologies, a global transaction company that does
remittances, among other things. (The firm's website no
longer posts its investments and Emida no longer lists Scott's
company as an investor.)
"EMIDA Technologies is deploying a growing transactional network
which enables
electronic prepaid service distribution, money transfer and stored value
card
processing targeting the Global Hispanic market," a company biography
states. "The company has contracted
networks in 15 countries including the U.S., Latin America and Europe."
McCollum was a lobbyist for Citigroup in 2002 when the financial
giant merged with Golden State Bancorp to capitalize on the Hispanic
market that used remittance services. He also represented AmeriDream
Charity, Inc., which pitched its mortgages to illegal immigrants.
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