McCollum Lands On Wayne’s World
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Wayne’s World is a very small planet. And very, very green.
Green as in the color of money.
Wayne Huizenga
Bill McCollum is scheduled to stop at Wayne’s World this week.
McCollum’s GOP campaign for governor will tap into the font of Republican fortunes in Broward entrepreneur Wayne Huizenga and the business types he helped become multi-millionaires.
These are folks you’ll never see at an Obama rally or sitting in the cheap seats anywhere. These are not your common working stiffs.
Wednesday’s fund raiser for McCollum will be at the sprawling Fort Lauderdale waterfront estate of auto sales tycoon Michael Maroone and his wife Monica.
The house is one of the most unique and picturesque in Fort Lauderdale, at the mouth of the New River on the Intracoastal. It is appraised for taxes at $6.2 million, but is surely worth much, much more.
Democrats probably don’t get in the door unless they are maids.
Maroone is a director of AutoNation, which was founded by Huizenga.
One of the hosts at the McCollum fund raising host is AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson, another Wayne bud.
Jackson is best-known nationally as the go-to guy on auto sales for CNBC’s extremely influential Squawk Box show. He appears on the show often.
Others hosting the event include lawyer/lobbyist Jim Blosser, advertising exec and Florida Panthers’ partner Jordan Zimmerman and Jon Ferrando.
Zimmerman does advertising for AutoNation, which was founded by Huizenga. Blosser is a long-time Huizenga adviser. Ferrando is AutoNation’s general counsel.
What would GOP candidates do to raise money in Broward if Wayne and his crew suddenly moved away?
Sure there are more high rollers on the host committee:
Real estate investor and developer Terry Stiles, City Furniture’s Keith Koenig, Carlos Castresana, who is part of the insurance company Edify, which had ties to scamster Scott Rothstein; anethstesiologist Dr. Richard Meli, Akerman Senterfitt law partner Bill Spenser; yachting company executive Steve Hudson; developer Jim Ellis, among others.
But Huizenga is the glue that binds them all.
January 19th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Wayne Huizenga is a Great person and has done a lot for the people of Broward and Miami-Dade.
Who cares where people have their fund raisers.
Just remember, Wayne and his wife Marti are wonderful individuals who need the recognition much more then some of the people who delight themselves in the public’s eye.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Too bad … Paula Dockery is clearly the better candidate. I,as a republican, hate to say it but this is all about the good ole boys club again. If the goal is to keep a Republican in the Governor’s office some of these guys better take a look at Paula Dockery. She was called one of the most powerful people in Orlando and she doesn’t live there and — Bill Mccullom does and he wasn’t even mentioned in the article.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
The governor’s mansion belongs to the people of the State of Florida. Not to any one person. We had better start remembering that or this place is going to suffer for it.
Things are not well in Florida. We are suffering as a state. A good amount of that suffering is self-imposed by terrible policy choices made in Tallahassee.
We are overdue for a change in philosophy up there. Bill McCullom offers us no new approaches to dealing with today’s problems. What use Wayne would have for him is unclear, but I agree with Buddy, the reasons must be related to Wayne’s World, not necessarily ours.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Wayne Huizenga is smart. Bill McCollum is our next governor because voters will reject every Democrat on the ballot after the mess Obama got us in.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
First Mass. Next Florida. The Republicans will sweep everything in November and the Democrats will be an afterthought in Florida.
January 20th, 2010 at 5:51 am
McCollum will try to sell himself to Floridians in touch with the average person. In reality he will be the errand boy for Wayne and his buddies.
If McCollum convinces the tea party gang to vote for him, it will prove they are even dumber than we imagined.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Tea Party is not a legitimate political movement. It is a personality disorder. Mostly, they are angry white people lashing out at the world with other angry white people. They generate some heat but very little light. Groups like that burn out rather fast and we’re already seeing that.
FROM BUDDY: Tell that to the Democrats in Massachusetts.
January 20th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Synonyms, it is the divisive identity politics of the left which, hopefully, will burn out quickly. It is such a tiresome, dishonest way of separating us all, one from the other. Enough, already.