The weirdest story of the day comes from Florida (where else?), where one of Gov. Charlie Crist’s biggest financial backers is trying to use his political pull to gain access to scores of the state’s sealed immunization records — records that include Social Security numbers and home addresses.

The guy who’s demanding these records is an anti-vaccination kook, notorious for promoting a very expensive quack treatment for autism that involves injections of Lupron, a “chemical castration” drug, and his reason for wanting the records is to conduct “research” to prove that vaccines cause autism.

Good grief.

Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp have the full whacked-out story at the Miami New Times: Crist backer Gary Kompothecras bullies Florida health officials.

“This madness has got to stop. No more double talk. This should be a fairly straightforward study. I feel that there are hidden agendas going on and I will not stand by [and] let it continue!! I will not wait any longer,” reads an email dated August 6 from Dr. Gary Kompothecras to Dr. Julia Gill, director of the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) Division of Disease Control.

Coming from anyone else, the blustery email threat might be easily dismissed. But “Dr. Gary,” as Kompothecras is known, is the self-styled “Rainmaker,” a Sarasota chiropractor who has raised more than $1 million over the years for Senate candidate and soon-to-be ex-governor Charlie Crist.

So it’s bound to turn heads when the man known to occasionally lend his private jet to the governor uses his political clout to try to bully Florida health officials into turning over scores of the state’s sealed immunization records. Especially when they’re for a father-son team, Dr. Mark and David Geier, infamous for injecting autistic children with Lupron, a drug used to chemically castrate prostate cancer patients and pedophiles.

“I will be speaking to the governor’s office next week,” Kompothecras, who has served on the Governor’s Task Force on Autism Spectrum Disorders since 2008, wrote in his email. “I will even fly up to Tallahassee to sit down with the governors’ chief of staff and explain in detail the railroad we have been on.” Then he signed off with a demand and a threat: “I want a clear, precise time line now!! Govern yourselves accordingly.”

Kompothecras — founder of the lawyer referral service 1-800-ASK-GARY and a leading light in the “anti-vax” movement, which promotes the long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism — copied Crist’s chief of staff, Shane Strum; the DOH’s chief of staff, Robert Siedlecki; and other DOH officials on the email.

A well-placed source within Florida government, who asked to remain anonymous, claims the governor’s office has been putting “political pressure” on the DOH to submit to the Geiers’ demands. Turning over the sealed immunization records, the source says, would be “reckless, careless, shortsighted, and politically motivated.”