Kevin Derby alerts us that, to no one’s surprise, the Florida Medical Association endorsed Bill McCollum for governor.
An FMA endorsement of Rick Scott would have been as strange as Barack Obama tapping Tony Hayward to be secretary of energy. There’s been tension — if not outright bad blood — between physicians and Scott since he was the boss at Columbia/HCA.
The health-care endorsement to watch will be the upcoming choice of the Florida Hospital Association. McCollum can really claim bragging rights if he grabs that, too.
Meantime, Marco Rubio scored a strategic victory over Gov. Charlie Crist by winning the FMA endorsement in the U.S. Senate race.
Despite Crist’s efforts to extend health care to indigent Floridians, the the 20,000-member FMA recommended Rubio. In a not-so-thinly-veiled slap at the shifty Crist, FMA President-elect Madelyn Butler said:
“We know where Marco stands on the issues that affect the medical community and patients across the state, and we can trust that he will maintain those positions.”