AG McCollum enters GOP governor race
ORLANDO (AP) – Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum announced Monday he is running for governor, telling a group of GOP leaders that he will work with all parties and all people to solve the state’s problems.
McCollum’s announcement comes less than a week after Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said he will run for U.S. Senate next year instead of seeking a second term.
“The hallmark of a McCollum administration will be access and inclusion. This administration will be one that doesn’t look at the partisan label, that brings the brightest minds together from all walks of life throughout our state, regardless of religion, race – any kind of background whatsoever,” McCollum said at an announcement event packed with state GOP leaders.
While Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson also is considering running, it is clear the party leadership wants McCollum as its candidate. Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer told the crowd he hopes the party will unite behind McCollum and that he would ask the party’s executive committee to endorse him at its July meeting. The primary is in August 2010.
Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, Senate President Jeff Atwater, House Speaker Larry Cretul and U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan were among party leaders at the announcement.
“If our party is unified – and I believe it will be – if we stand together, focusing on the issues that are important to Floridians, the issues that are talked about at the dinner table, we will be successful,” Greer said as he introduced McCollum.
McCollum was elected attorney general in 2006 and has focused much of his effort on cybercrime, expanding an Internet crime unit started by his predecessor, Crist, and speaking at schools about the dangers of online predators.