By Steve Bousquet, Times Columnist
Friday, November 6, 2009

Bill McCollum is the anti-Crist. As in Charlie Crist.

The question is: Will people in Florida be ready for such a jarring transition of styles in the Governor's Office? Or is McCollum the perfect act to follow the tanned and rested one?

These two Republicans couldn't be more different. Where Crist exudes style, McCollum has substance.

Crist is half Greek. McCollum is a geek — no sense in finessing it. Crist is tanned. McCollum is bland.

Crist is a glad-hander. McCollum is glad to talk about the latest book he's reading. It's 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, about Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and the two Roosevelts.

Crist is tailor-made for TV with its seven-second attention span. McCollum has C-SPAN written all over him.

Crist is a populist. (Remember "good riddance" to State Farm?) McCollum is a policy wonk who gives long, nuanced answers.

At the last Cabinet meeting, in a discussion over whether online travel companies like Orbitz and Expedia are pocketing revenue that should go to the state in taxes, Crist lodged his opposition to what he characterized as a new tax (which it is not). McCollum, who has since filed suit against the companies, gave a detailed explanation that was excessively lawyerly, but showed his knowledge of both sides of the issue.

McCollum, 65, has the earnestness of a Boy Scout and the aw-shucks demeanor of a Rotary president. He grew up on a cattle ranch in Brooksville and is a Navy veteran.