WASHINGTON -- The tidal wave of controversy over ACORN swept rapidly through Florida on Thursday with dozens of angry people contacting Gov. Charlie Crist's office and his political rival questioning his ties to the organization.

A high-ranking Florida House Republican, meanwhile, said the Legislature could take its own action against the national community organizing group, whose reputation has been severely damaged by hidden-camera videos showing its workers giving tax advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp.

``The gig is up for ACORN,'' said state Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, a longtime critic of the group, which helped register hundreds of thousands of voters nationwide before the 2008 election.

Though ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been controversial over the years, the presidential election revealed incidents in Florida and other states where ACORN workers made up bogus voter-registration forms, including one for Mickey Mouse.

Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami, Crist's challenger for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010, invoked the storm Thursday in a letter to Crist that he released to reporters.

``Despite what now seems to be a prescient chorus of concerned parties asking for an investigation into ACORN's election-related activities, you insisted that you were unconcerned,'' Rubio wrote. ``In light of the recent allegations against ACORN, I suggest you reconsider your position . . .''

Rubio was alluding to comments Crist made in October saying that he did not think voter fraud and ACORN were a major problem in Florida. ``As we're coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos,'' Crist told reporters at the time, in an apparent rebuke to some fellow Republicans.

Asked Tuesday whether he had any concern with the legitimacy of ACORN's petition-gathering or voter registration efforts in Florida, Crist said: ``It's a precious right that we all should enjoy, and so long as it's done right, any group has the right to do so. And if any group does it wrong, they should be stopped from doing so that way.''

By Thursday, the firestorm had grown exponentially, with Congress moving to cut off federal funds for ACORN, which provides counseling for people trying to find housing and other services in addition to voter registration.

Rubio called on Crist to follow other governors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, in launching an investigation into the group.

Rubio also asked Crist for a full accounting of any influence ACORN may have had in the effort to change Florida's law denying voting rights to certain ex-felons.

The letter, despite any political motivation by Rubio, puts Crist in awkward position -- ACORN's website features of a photo of him with a woman wearing a red ACORN T-shirt -- and he did not directly respond to it.

Instead, Crist's office sent Rubio the same response given to about 100 constituents who had called about ACORN.

It said an investigation was under way and stressed that ACORN had not received tax money through the legislative appropriation process.

Since last summer, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been involved in an investigation into fraudulent voter-registration forms submitted by signature gatherers in Miami.