I know that in sports, some players are “All Americans.” In Florida, Governor Rick Scott might be considered “All Republican.” He follows the script of today’s GOP (a party that bears little resemblance to the GOP I once knew and supported), but without the finesse that allows other Republican lawmakers to at least pretend they care about their constituents, and that their policies, however damaging, are based on good intentions.
Scott has been everything you’d expect from a sleaze who–before turning to electoral politics–admitt to 14 counts of Medicare fraud and paid the federal government more than $600 million dollars in fines.
A couple of days ago, the Tampa Bay Times issued a blistering critique of Scott, calling him the worst governor in Florida’s history. Titled “If He Only Had a Heart,” it’s well worth reading in its entirety, but I’ll just share the summary:
In Scott’s Florida, it is harder for citizens to vote and for the jobless to collect unemployment. It is easier for renters to be evicted and for borrowers to be charged high interest rates on short-term loans. It is harder for patients to win claims against doctors who hurt them and for consumers to get fair treatment from car dealers who deceive them. It is easier for businesses to avoid paying taxes, building roads and repairing environmental damage.
Scott may lack their talent to project a “kinder, gentler” facade, but there is an entire cohort of Republican governors operating from the same playbook.
Most, like Indiana’s governor, are much smoother, but the agenda is same.
What I find interesting in the Florida Gubernatorial race.
There’s no doubt that Scott is one of, if not the, most unpopular governors in the country. Erick, Son of Erick, of Red State even said so in one of the site’s posts, saying his coming out in favor of Medicaid expansion was a political move rather than a policy move to boost his pole numbers.
But if you look at the polling, the likely Democratic challenger, former Gov Charle Crist, has had a big hit to his poll numbers while Scott’s seem to be on a slow but steady rise.
http://i.imgur.com/1WfHS2v.png
And the race has barely started.
Florida may hate Rick Scott, but do they hate him enough to replace him?
I couldn’t believe it when FL elected that criminal and asked one of the Dem chairs in Key West about it. She said that voter turnout when he was elected was about 25% so that’s how he got elected. 25% of the people of FL showed up to vote for their governor and Indiana needs to take notice of that statistic. I would imagine that similar numbers voted for Pence.
However bad you think Scott is, he’s worse. HIs primary acts as Governor have been to turn a personal profit, particularly in the health care company his wife “owns.” http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/gov-scott-shifting-clinics-to-his-wife-raises-conf/nLqnH/
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/gov-rick-scotts-drug-testing-policy-stirs-suspicio/nLq8f/
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/gov-rick-scott-solantic-and-conflict-of-interest-whats-the-deal/1161158
We desperately need for the Democrats to run someone who is really good, but at this point, if the person is breathing, that is just fine, too. If the last guy had been just a tad more aggressive–not introducing his down home parents–he would have won. But now we have an empty suit in hot competition with Rick Scott.