Election bulletin: paper said Sink cheated during debate

The St. Petersburg Times has confirmed Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott's accusation against Democrat nominee Alex Sink is true. Scott said Sink cheated during the debate. The paper said, "He's correct."

The Times said Sink was shown a phone message by a makeup artist. The paper explains it all on the political blog The Buzz.

According to Real Clear Politics, Scott has a slight lead when all polls are averaged. However, that is based on lesser polls by TC Palm and Sunshine State News. Rasmussen Reports has Scott ahead by 6 and CNN has him up by 3.

Democrat voters commenting on The Buzz article defended Sink's cheating, citing Scott's issues with HCA. Apparently those voters aren't aware of the widespread practices of well-respected hospitals when it comes to government insurance programs. (Commentary by Kay B. Day/Oct. 25, 2010)

Update Oct. 26, 2010

Alex Sink has fired the staffer [involved in] revealing a cell phone message during the last gubernatorial debate. In the Politico story, note how Sink, in the vein of President Barack Obama's blame game, throws blame at GOP candidate Rick Scott: "

"While he told me it was out of anger with Rick Scott's repeated distortion of facts, it was a foolish thing to do. It violated a debate agreement and I immediately removed him from the campaign."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44183.html#ixzz13TSriAaG

See the video of the Sink cheating segment here; apparently CNN is limiting damage by prohibiting embedding of the video.

Ironically debate moderators didn't catch the cheating, Scott did.