Rick Scott pounding war chest in run up to 2014

Gov. Rick Scott reminds the world he's a rich asshole. Florida's Republican Gov. Rick Scott is letting it be known far and wide that he's got money to burn to try to keep his seat in 2014, particularly if he's challenged by former governor and former Republican Charlie Crist. Specifically, he's budgeted $100 million for that match-up.

Scott is no stranger to heavy spending; the former hospital care executive put some $73 million of his own money into an insurgent 2010 primary campaign and a narrow general election win. His TV ads saturated the Florida airwaves for months.

But Scott's 2014 campaign'possibly pitting him against party-switching former GOP Gov. Charlie Crist as the Democratic candidate ' won't just be a jacked-up version of the 2010 version, knowledgeable Republicans said. In addition to darkening the sky with paid media, Scott's team is looking at the possibility of creating a state-specific data and analytics division, either within the campaign or at the Republican Party of Florida. [...]

Scott is also looking to raise more money from sources other than his own checkbook and hopes to bank tens of millions of dollars with the state party this year. Unlike 2010, when Scott faced a costly primary, this money is all budgeted for the general election.

Scott is reportedly intending to sink much of that money into a voter identification, targeting, and get-out-the-vote system much like the one created by the Obama campaign. That's on the campaign side. On the governing side, there will surely be more voter suppression efforts, because that's what Florida Republicans do.

The thrust of this article is that Scott is amassing the millions specifically for Crist, which is his main worry. A recent poll from Public Policy Polling has Crist leading him 53-39, with 29 percent of Republicans lining up against Scott. But it also suggests that the highly unpopular governor (he's got an underwater approval, 33-57) might be taking the added precaution of warning off potential primary challengers, like Allen West, who's crazy enough to do anything. PPP finds that only 50 percent of Republican primary voters want Scott to run again, and he narrowly trails West, 38-37.