Daniel TilsonThe details of a messy divorce between Gov. Rick Scott and campaign finance co-chair Mike Fernandez became public last week, shedding unflattering new light on the dysfunctional political culture Scott has created in Tallahassee.
It’s a light that could help millions of Florida voters see through this year’s attempted “extreme makeover” of Scott, intended to soften his image and win him another four years in office.
For those who may have missed the headlines, TV news stories and assorted hubbub, a quick recap.
Fernandez is a “rags to riches” Cuban immigrant, a self-made billionaire who just like Scott, got rich as a health-care CEO. A leading GOP donor and fundraiser, Fernandez started his campaign work for Scott last November by making a personal contribution of $1 million.
Then late last week he suddenly resigned, amidst reports of tension between him and other Scott staffers. A few days later, The Miami Herald reported on a long email Fernandez had sent to Scott’s campaign manager, senior adviser and fundraising chief.
It painted an ugly picture of a campaign culture marred by paranoia, lack of diversity, “lack of experience” and “cultural insensitivity.”
The headline-grabbing item on that list is the last one, referring to a Fernandez business associate who told him of enduring a car trip with Scott aides making ethnic slurs.
Fernandez noted the incident with understandable annoyance in his email.
“It’s culturally insensitive for him to hear senior staff members mimicking a Mexican accent on the way to Chipotle. It shows that the team does not understand the culture YOU need to win”
While still supporting Scott, Fernandez could no longer endure being part of a team he found lacked the Florida-specific natives, know-how and mentality needed to connect with Hispanic and Latino voters.
Before resigning, he requested more input and open dialogue, but quotes 31-year-old campaign chair and New Jersey import Melissa Sellers as saying:
“We need to be paranoid in the political world.”
You might write that off as characteristic of an amped-up re-election campaign mindset. But that has been the Scott administration’s modus operandi from Day One, as witnessed by endless reports of inadequate press access, deleted emails, denials of comment, dismissal of accusations later proven true…and more.
What can’t be written off is the arrogance that goes hand in hand with the paranoia, arrogance that got even a hardcore conservative like Fernandez to jump a ship he feared more full of sharks than the waters around it.
That arrogance has been on full display in the Scott campaign’s damage control efforts since the story broke, a “deny and deflect” strategy that has backfired badly.
But what Hispanic, Latino and other voters need to remember more than this story, are the actions of the Scott administration, which have spoken louder and been more arrogant and culturally insensitive than any words could ever be.
- Veto of a 2013 bill passed with bipartisan support that would have allowed undocumented young immigrants to get temporary driver’s licenses.
- Hundreds of millions in cuts to public health and community service programs.
- Attempted $3.3 billion in cuts to public schools.
- Targeting Hispanic, Latino, and black voters for “purging” from voter rolls statewide.
- Rejection of billions of dollars in federal funding for public transportation and health-care initiatives.
- Unwillingness to get the Florida House to take $50 billion in Medicaid expansion funding and insure more than a million low-income Floridians.
In the harsh light of the Fernandez revelations, voters have good reason to find the culture, attitude and words of Scott & Co. distasteful.
But it’s the calculated actions and inaction of Gov. Scott that should earn him a one-way ticket out of office come November.
Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
