Guest AuthorGov. Rick Scott has signed the state budget, the only legislative enactment that has to become law. In so doing, he went light with his veto pen, not wanting to offend any legislators by killing any pet projects.
A large stack of bills remains on his desk. He will sign most, veto a few and allow some to become law without his signature.
Meanwhile, the summer and fall elections are in full swing, and the race for governor will be expensive and nasty.
Already, an unprecedented amount of money has been spent for this time in the election cycle. The most lavish spending is in the Tampa Bay area, as the I-4 corridor vote will likely decide the outcome.
Scott has already spent nearly $10 million in TV ads.
“IndependentRepublicrat” Charlie Crist, with his third political affiliation in four years, is trying to convince people he’s really a Democrat. He’s articulating positions radically different than the ones he espoused when running with a different affiliation. He also has to get through a Democratic primary running against a real Democrat. While he seems to be giving it scant attention, it will be interesting to see who the Democrats who actually go to the polls identify as the real Democratic candidate.
Both Scott and Crist are on a collision course in what promises to be the nastiest statewide race in the nation.
Each has high name recognition and each has served as governor. Both are all over the state taking credit for whatever good may have happened and blaming the other for anything bad. I even heard someone blame Scott for global warming.
Each is trying to be all things to all people.
“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other, according to Oscar Ameringer, “the Mark Twain of American Socialism.”
The implications of the outcome in the Florida governor’s race are huge, extending far beyond Florida.
Projections are that well over $100 million will be spent in the race. Scott’s contributions are coming from varied industries and special interests.Whoever occupies the Florida Governor’s Mansion will control the nation’s largest swing state heading into the 2016 elections. Whoever wins the White House must win Florida and the party of the sitting governor will have a lot to do with that.
Crist has raised less than Scott, but nearly half of his money has come from the legal community.
Scott not only has the fundraising edge, but has a better organized campaign being run by some of the best of the best. Still, Scott holds only a slight lead over Crist and in the next few months, the race could turn in either direction. All polls are within the margin of error.
Crist’s campaign is stocked with Obama campaign hands and supporters, just as Scott’s is filled with Romney alums. In Florida in 2012, Obama beat Romney by less than a percentage point.
Scott enjoys the benefits of incumbency, which allows him to dominate the earned media news cycle most of the time.
Scott needs to keep reminding Republican voters that the Charlie Crist they voted for eight years ago is not the same Charlie Crist he proclaims to be today. Crist is solidly on board with Obama and with Obamacare, neither of which sell well in Florida.
Scott has to win back the GOP rank and file and quiet the concerns of the Republican elite.
Meanwhile, Crist has to convince all of those Democrats who worked so hard against him that he is now really one of them. He has a lot of explaining to do.
So far, the campaign has featured a lot of misrepresentations. I like a comment made by Adlai Stevenson: “I offered my opponents a deal: “if they stop telling lies about me, I will stop telling the truth about them”.
Anyway you look at it, the governor’s race isn’t going to be pretty or cheap. It promises to be a high-stakes knock-down drag-out campaign where winning will trump the truth.
That’s My Opinion and I am sticking to it.
John Grant is a political columnist who served 21 years in the Florida Legislature. He can be reached at [email protected] Column courtesy of Context Florida.
