Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, once considered a shoe-in to become the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, now finds himself scrambling to regain the lead in the primary.  Perhaps predictably, McCollum now appears to be trying to rebuild his base by going after LGBT Floridians.

McCollum’s slide in the polls coincided with the discovery he had paid the now-disgraced George Rekers hundreds of thousands of dollars to act as an expert witness for the state in a trial over Florida’s ban on adoption by gays and lesbians.  The press learned of the expenditure only after Rekers was caught at a Miami airport returning from a European vacation with a male prostitute he met on Rentboy.com.

Now Equality Florida executive director Nadine Smith brings to our attention a new interview with McCollum, wherein he expresses regret for hiring Rekers and doubles down on his anti-LGBT agenda for Florida.

In a Q-and-A with the Florida Baptist Press, McCollum says he wants to take Florida’s adoption ban a step further:

Florida permits homosexuals to serve as foster parents. That has been used as an argument to undermine the ban on adoptions. Should homosexuals be permitted to serve as foster parents in Florida?

Well, I personally don’t think so, but that is the law.

Should the law be changed?

I think that it would be advisable. I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children. I think that it’s a lifestyle that I don’t agree with. I realize a lot of people do. It’s my personal faith, religious faith, that I don’t believe that the people who do this should be raising our children. It’s not a natural thing. You need a mother and a father. You need a man and a woman. That’s what God intended.

Victory-endorsed candidate Scott Galvin recently became the target of anti-gay vandalism in Florida.  According to the campaign, several Scott Galvin yard signs have been spray painted with the word “fag.”

The Washington Blade reports:

Derek Newton, Galvin’s campaign manager, said in past several days between six and ten signs have been found in North Miami spray-painted with the word “fag.”

“We’ve taken them down, obviously — had people calling in to report them and what-not,” Newton said. “It’s impossible to know who’s doing it, of course.”

Galvin, who serves on the North Miami City Council, is among nine contenders seeking the Democratic nomination to represent Florida’s 17th congressional district. The primary is set for Aug. 24.

Newton said the Galvin campaign informed the North Miami Police Department about the graffiti and is considering the next appropriate action.

To learn more about Scott Galvin’s race, or to help him fight back against the hate, go to victoryfund.org/scottgalvin

The Sunshine Republicans, a South Florida group for gay Republicans, has announced its endorsement of independent candidate Gov. Charlie Crist over likely GOP nominee Marco Rubio, a former Speaker of the Florida State House, in the race to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.

Crist, who has moderated some of his positions on LGBT issues since quitting the GOP, now leads the race, according to recent polls.

Rubio has been endorsed by the Family Research Council, a powerful, national anti-gay group.

Openly LGBT candidates are running for office at all levels of government in Florida this year, a sign that gay politics may be changing in a state that has lagged some of its neighbors in terms of political milestones for the LGBT community.  (Alabama and Georgia both have elected openly gay state legislators, but Florida still has not.)

“By Florida standards, there’s been an explosion of gay candidates and activity and openly gay elected officials,” said Eric Johnson, a Fort Lauderdale political consultant who is also a member of the Victory Fund’s Campaign Board, a national group of some 100 community leaders who help identify, endorse and raise money for openly LGBT candidates for public office.

“The likelihood of adding gay elected officials in 2010 is quite high. It seems to me that we’ve turned a little corner in Florida as it relates to openly gay candidates seeking office and being seen as legitimate candidates,” Johnson told the Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist now holds a lead of more than 10 points over Marco Rubio, the socially conservative Republican whose strong showing in GOP primary polling drove Crist to run as an independent.  Forty-two percent of voters now favor Crist, with 31 percent for Rubio.  Congressman Kendrick Meek trails Crist and Rubio at 14 percent.  The new poll was conducted by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Crist’s strong showing comes on the heels of several interviews in which he has expressed distinctly moderate views on issues ranging from the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court to adoptions by gays and lesbians.

On Thursday Crist said he thinks judges should decide on a case-by-case basis which adults are best prepared to raise children–a solution which would end the blanket ban now in place.  Crist also said he favors civil unions for same-sex couples.

As governor Crist has never pushed to drop Florida’s longstanding ban on gays adopting children, but now that he’s no longer a Republican trying to win favor with conservative primary voters, he’s presumably free to speak his mind on the issue.

The Associated Press reports Crist has also upset Republicans lately with a veto of a bill that would have required women to get an ultrasound before an abortion.  He’s also reached out to labor groups seeking their support.