Guest AuthorWhen Rick Scott ran for governor in 2010, he campaigned primarily against President Obama, even though his Democratic opponent was actually Alex Sink.
Using more than $70 million of his own money, the relatively unknown newcomer flooded homes daily with two or three colorful fliers that either bashed Obama or linked Sink to the president’s policies.
The strategy worked, giving Scott a thin margin of victory. Will Scott, who will probably raise more than $100 million for his re-election campaign, repeat the same strategy in 2014? And will it work?
My answers are yes to the first question, but I’m not so sure about the second.
Scott has never really stopped campaigning against the President. He and his GOP lackeys employed questionable tactics to try to prevent Obama from winning the state. Voter rolls were purged. The early voting period was shortened. Nonetheless, Obama won Florida.
Lately, the governor has stepped up his Obama-bashing rhetoric. He blamed the President for the federal shutdown, saying Obama wasn’t willing to work with House Republicans. He has demanded further delays in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He attacked the President over increases in flood insurance rates.
While both Obama and Scott have low approval ratings with Floridians at the moment, I don’t think the political atmosphere of 2014 will be the same as 2010.
Four years ago, the Tea Party swept conservative Republicans into office in Tallahassee and Washington. There was dissatisfaction with the same old politics and the Tea Party tapped into that “throw the bums out” mentality. Democrats were caught flat-footed and failed to gain any momentum in the 2010 general election.
Since then, the Republican Party has fractured under the uncompromising pressure from the Tea Party wing. Conservatives have been told that they aren’t conservative enough and oddballs have won several GOP primaries, only to lose to moderate Democrats.
People have tired of the Tea Party’s constant haranguing about Obama, its unwillingness to listen and play well with others and its policies that appear to be anti-women, anti-minority and anti-immigration.
Most Floridians are weary of hating government and they aren’t afraid of a black man in the White House. Talk of birth certificates, radical Islam and food-stamp abusers no longer gain much traction.
Scott would do better to focus on his record and abandon the “Obama is a bogeyman” strategy.
One comment
Lynn L. Laird
November 11, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Anti- President Obama is still alive and well in the Panhandle. Scott will use this Confederate Hate mentality to its fullest out here in the back woods of lower Alabama. How well will it do, will depend on if moderate republicans, independents & Democrats will be willing to come to the aide of Mr. Crist and confront the haters. Almost all of the local electorate are republicans, and are supporters of the local crazy tea party, and they will NOT stand up against them. Mr. Crist needs to forget trying to gather support from the hard core republicans, and focus his campaign on getting support and getting out voters in the moderate white, progressive voters, and in the various African-American districts, communities.
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