Bill Nelson confronts Rick Scott, restive base as campaign ramps up

Bill Nelson

Friday afternoon brought Sen. Bill Nelson to Jacksonville for various events, including a fundraiser at Baptist Health, a nod to facing the staunchest challenge of his political career from Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott for Florida” has spent $3.2 million on ads just this week, and $8 million since the Governor entered the race.

So Nelson is getting general election pressure, even as Democrats ranging from rainmakers like John Morgan to strategists like Steve Vancore and county chairs and activists fret that the Senators isn’t energizing the base.

Nelson, meanwhile, is gearing up for the toughest campaign of his life against Scott. We asked Nelson about the challenges he will face there, as well as the alleged issues energizing core supporters.

“First of all, he is independently wealthy. As we saw in past campaigns,” Nelson said, “he can write a check. His first campaign for Governor, he wrote $85 million of his own money.”

“Naturally,” Nelson added, “we are not going to have that kind of money. But that’s not the way that you win elections. People have a choice. Who’s in it to serve the people? And who’s in it for themselves?”

“We’re still six months out from this election. By the time that you get around to November,” Nelson said, “it’s going to be very clear the choice the people of Florida have.”

“I’ve always said that the best politics is just to do a good job. My job takes me to Washington every week,” Nelson said, “to vote and pass laws and to kill legislation and to try to bring us together in a bipartisan way.”

Indeed, Nelson is striking a moderate path — the latest evidence of that is his vote to confirm CIA Director Gina Haspel, which he justified in Jacksonville Friday.

“I have been on the Intelligence Committee. I have been through all the questions on the waterboarding,” Nelson said.

“I know that she did not affirmatively participate in that waterboarding,” Nelson said. “But what was more important to me was that she [will] not do it again.”

“It’s a form of torture. It’s against the law. And she has clearly said that she would not participate in that. She is obviously qualified, and I’ll tell you, we need the best and brightest that we can get as the head of the CIA,” Nelson said.

Nelson noted that he has the “good fortune of nobody running [against him] in the Democratic primary.”

“They gave me a vote of confidence to be the standard bearer for them in the November election,” Nelson said.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


2 comments

  • Bob

    May 18, 2018 at 6:06 pm

    Both Scott & Nelson are wealthy men. The difference being Scott worked to earn what he has & Nelson married into his money & has never had to work for it!

    • Cheryl

      May 20, 2018 at 10:24 pm

      Scott stole his money from Medicare.
      Look it up you fool.

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, William March, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Jesse Scheckner, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704