Sink, McCollum turn up early heat in governor’s race

TALLAHASSEE — With their political options widened, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum wasted no time Wednesday ramping up their 2010 rivalry for governor.

Sink became the first candidate to officially enter the race to replace Gov. Charlie Crist, who announced the day before that he would forgo a second term and instead run for the U.S. Senate.

Sink, a moderate Democrat and former banking executive from Central Florida, is widely viewed as the party’s strongest contender to win the governor’s mansion in a decade.

McCollum, a conservative Republican, said he will make his announcement for governor next week, but only after both he and Sink squared off publicly at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

In a series of testy exchanges, both forcefully pressed their positions on auto insurance and pension oversight as Crist sat between them, appearing to be the accidental referee.

Later, speaking separately to reporters, Sink and McCollum criticized each other’s handling of contracts by their offices.

Sink repeated her criticism of McCollum for spending $2.5 million on a no-bid deal with an out-of-state political consultant who has worked on his election campaigns to produce public service ads warning Floridians about child sexual predators.

“The bottom line is, this is the state’s money,” Sink said. “We should always endeavor to find the best deal possible at the best quality. How do you know if you don’t put it out to bid?”

McCollum defended the ads as an effective tool to help parents and grandparents protect children from predators.

“Before she points the finger at a no-bid contract, which is perfectly legal, she ought to look in-house,” McCollum said. “She’s got plenty of no-bid contracts there, before she should be criticizing a no-bid contract in our office. We have far less no-bid contracts than the CFO’s office does.”

Sink, 60, and McCollum, 64, were both elected to their current jobs in 2006. Sink spent 28 years in the banking industry, rising to the presidency of Bank of America’s Florida operations, a post she held for seven years.

Sink, who announced her candidacy in a low-key written statement, said she would put her “business experience and know-how to work restoring our economy, cut wasteful spending, crack down on financial fraud and reform state contracts.”

Soon after she announced her candidacy, the Republican Party of Florida unveiled a strategy of trying to hang Sink’s banking résumé around her neck, accusing her of playing ‘‘the leading role in tanking Florida’s economy,” and citing news reports that she collected $8.8 million in pay, stock options and deferred compensation in her three final years as a banker.

Sink is unlikely to face a serious challenger for the Democratic nomination. Her blend of business experience and moderate politics helped her handily defeat former Senate President Tom Lee for CFO in 2006, performing particularly well along the Interstate 4 corridor and in conservative North Florida. If Sink is elected, she would be Florida’s first female governor.