A.G. Gancarski
Another round of bad press awaits House members of the Duval County Legislative Delegation on Wednesday.
Governor Rick Scott will host a roundtable on Jacksonville’s Westside, discussing Enterprise Florida backed programs that “invest in Florida’s military and defense communities.”
Those with memories that extend back a few days will remember that Scott was already here on Mar. 20, for a roundtable addressing votes by local Florida House members against Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida.
Below, a few of the hottest quotes:
“Here’s what’s frustrating to me: we have politicians in Florida turning their backs on jobs,” Scott said, including locally.
“We’ve added 1.3 million jobs in the last six years. Enterprise Florida: it’s transparent. You get a great return on investment. Visit Florida: one in every six jobs in the state comes down to tourism.”
“You’ve got House members in this part of the state that said they want to completely shut down Enterprise Florida. Jason Fischer, Clay Yarborough, Kimberly Daniels, Cord Byrd, Tracie Davis — they want to shut down Enterprise Florida after all that success,” Scott said.
“When people ran for office,” Scott said, “did you see any ads saying they wanted to get rid of Enterprise Florida?”
Meanwhile, in contrast to Scott barnstorming the state to light up recalcitrant House members, he spent much of Tuesday meeting with State Senators, including Northeast Florida Republicans Rob Bradley and Aaron Bean.
The visits were convivial, according to the senators.
Bean called it a “happy visit.”
Bradley lauded the governor’s “underrated sense of humor.”
Wednesday’s gubernatorial visit to Jacksonville — the third in less than two weeks, if one counts the co-appearance with VP Mike Pence when selling the thwarted American Health Care Act — likely won’t be as happy.
And the laugh lines likely will be lost on the House members — almost all of them freshman legislators, who expected that their days of getting blasted ended when they won their safe seat primaries last August.
