On July 14, a U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, Florida, upheld part of Florida public funding for gubernatorial candidates.  Specifically, the ruling upholds the part of the program that gives extra public funding to candidates who have privately-funded opponents with a great amount of private contrributions.  See this story.  The Florida case is Scott v Roberts, 4:10-cv-283.  A quick appeal will be made to the 11th circuit.

The Florida law this year gives extra public funding to Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is running in the Republican primary against multi-millionaire Rick Scott.  The law triggers extra public funding when the privately funded candidate spends as much as $24,900,000.

These provisions for extra public funding have recently now been upheld in the 9th circuit (in an Arizona case) and in this Florida case, but ruled unconstitutional in the recent Connecticut 2nd circuit decision.  The U.S. Supreme Court has indicated an interest in the Arizona case, and will probably decide the issue for the whole nation.