Dockery drops out of the governor's race

State Senator Paula Dockery dropped out of the governor's race this morning. Republican primary voters will now have to choose between Bill McCollum or Rick Scott. As always, the brilliant Scott Maxwell had something to say about it. 

They’ve got either Bill McCollum, a career politician and two-time statewide loser who’s on the front lines of discrimination in this country — and who was recently revealed for having spent $120k of taxpayer money on a quack of an anti-gay “doctor” found traveling with a gay hooker. Or Rick Scott, whose claim to fame is getting ousted from a company that was the focal point of the biggest case of Medicare fraud in U.S. history.

Quite the choice.

Now, none of that is to say that neither of those guys has a chance. Scott has managed to gain traction simply by criticizing Barack Obama and praising Arizona’s immigration law. Many Republicans seem to care more about his rhetoric than his proven track record. And McCollum has been enjoying a comfortable lead and will have the full strength of the GOP machine backing him – a formidable force.

Plus, Democrat Alex Sink’s campaign has been rocky. (And that’s a polite description at times.)

But Dockery represented something different from the status quo — an anti-big-spending conservative who cared more about fiscal conservatism than demagoguing the social issues. She was effective — practically a one-woman wrecking ball for Central Florida’s rail hopes. And, as a moderate on some social issues, she had the potential to pull some independents and moderate Dems away from Sink. But she lacked money and a willingness to parrot same old talk-radio talking points. So she was never really a factor.

So now we’ll get to watch McCollum and Scott battle for the next four months over who hates Obama, socialism and communism more..."

Read the whole post at the Orlando Sentinel.