TALLAHASSEE -- Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer got a strong vote of confidence Thursday, but the rebellion against him continued to fester, with a longtime party fundraiser calling for his resignation.

The 25-2 vote came at the party's quarterly executive board meeting in Tallahassee, considered friendly turf for Greer. He has spent months deflecting criticism of lavish spending, hardball political tactics and favoritism in statewide primaries for governor and U.S. Senate.

Republican National Committeeman Paul Senft called for the vote ``in the interest of party unity and for public clarification [that the board has] full confidence in our duly elected chairman, Jim Greer.'' The motion, quickly passed with no discussion, appeared to have been sprung on the board.

Greer said he's ``done everything'' to address concerns, including cutting up a batch of party-issued credit cards. ``Other than a few people having fantasies and dreams, I wasn't going anywhere,'' he said.

But fresh signs that Gov. Charlie Crist's hand-picked party chairman is under fire include a circulating petition calling for a meeting next month to recall him from office, and a letter from longtime GOP fundraiser Al Hoffman saying Greer should resign.

``It is time for you to resign in order to end the excessive, irresponsible, unethical, and perhaps illegal spending that has marked your administration and has moved the Republican Party from millions of dollars in surplus at the time you took office to millions of dollars in deficit by the end of this month,'' wrote Hoffman, a former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Greer said Hoffman is misinformed and out of touch.

At Thursday's meeting, the party treasurer said the state GOP has $1.4 million cash on hand, and Greer promised ``a very big number'' when the current fundraising quarter ends Dec. 31.

Pasco County Republican State Committeeman Bill Bunting, normally outspoken on all matters, would not directly say whether Thursday's vote reflected confidence in Greer. ``I just don't know if that's the case. I'll just leave it at that,'' Bunting said.

He said Greer faced some criticism about his performance at last month's closed-door executive board meeting. At that session, Broward state committeeman Ed Kennedy described Greer as ``very apologetic'' for some of his decisions, such as aggressively favoring Crist over former House Speaker Marco Rubio in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

One of the two board members who voted no Thursday, Charlotte County GOP Chairman Bob Starr, said he did so because the motion was out of order.

``I don't think that should have been done before everything is addressed that's been alleged, and it hasn't to me,'' Starr said.

Peter Feaman, a Palm Beach County GOP committeeman, said of his no vote: ``We didn't have a chance for discussion, so it wasn't appropriate.''

Herald/Times staff writers Adam C. Smith and John Frank contributed to this report. Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com.