Tag Archive for Governor

Challengers already lining up against Scott?

June 15, 2011 Uncategorized One comment

A 29% approval rate will motivate a lot of people to take your job.

The rumblings have already started that possible opponents have already started sizing up Florida Governor Rick Scott‘s re-election chances in 2014. There aren’t any new names on this list but when the incumbent is getting booed out of every baseball game in the state, you’ve got to consider it right?

Three names being thrown around, three politicians that lost last November.

Alex Sink:The former CFO and Governor candidate lost by just a few thousand votes and a poorly timed text message. The amount of buyer’s remorse from voters that picked the former health care exec over Sink, is enough to deliver her a 2014 victory. You’ve got to hope that her press skills have improved and let’s remember she blamed President Obama for her loss last year. Should Obama be re-elected and if the economic landscape doesn’t improve, she’ll be blaming him for another loss as well.

Dan Gelber:He lost the race for Florida Attorney General last year to Pam Bondi, by a larger margin than anyone originally thought. That was suppose to be the one position in the cabinet that the Dems were counting on but, like Sink, Bondi chose to run against Obama and won easily. Gelber could fare well against Rick Scott in a televised debate especially if Rick Scott’s campaign promises don’t pan out. I could see Gelber winning a primary over an easily stumped Alex Sink but, there is one guy that could take that nomination from Dan, especially if starts siphoning votes from the left and perfectly times his run as a Democrat.

Charlie Crist: Awww, yeah! Rubio was the right choice but, you guys know you miss ole’ Charlie and how entertaining would a Charlie Crist/Rick Scott race be? I can’t believe that Crist has abandoned his political aspirations, he’s still going to have the fire in the belly (for a potential 2016 VP run that is) to try to move back into the Governor’s mansion. That race would be a blast to write about.

A Charlie Crist- Rick Scott race would attract national attention

Rick Scott says goodbye to Solantic

April 14, 2011 Uncategorized No comments

Yes, that Solantic.

You know, the urgent care clinics that you see when you drive around Central Florida?

Did you know that Florida Governor Rick Scott owned most of that? A lot of Floridians don’t and if you didn’t know just forget it, because he doesn’t own it anymore.

The Governor has agreed to sell controlling stock in the company for “less than 62 million” the dollar amount reported by the Palm Beach Post. Scott’s ownership of Solantic has been a thorn in his side since he decided to run for office 10 month’s ago.

You see the former HCA/Columbia boss had to drag that 1.7 billion dollar medical fraud monkey across the finish line last November and now the policies he wants to implement are creating all kinds of conflict of interests problems.

Governor leads the state, state regulates health providers, Solantic is a health provider.

Cutting ties with Solantic will give Scott a controversy free, ok a less controversial path to drug testing state employees, a policy which I actually like, as well as free him up to go after other legislation effecting medicaid.

Governor Scott obviously takes a huge loss selling his shares, urgent care in Florida? It’s a goldmine. Let’s have a look at what Rick Scott has given up to be Governor.

$75 million, just to get elected
Privacy, he takes a daily beat down from the press.
Now, controlling stake in the most promising chain of urgent care clinics in Florida.

All of this to get booed at baseball games and a 41% approval rating.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but Scott’s crown just got 62 million dollars lighter.

Selling Solantic will get rid of the COF buzz, when dealing with health care issues in Florida.

Rick Scott vs. Buckethead!? Who ya got?

April 11, 2011 Uncategorized No comments

There are a lot of Central Florida celebrities, that I would expect to step up and challenge our unpopular Governor.

A well funded philanthropist.

A frequent talking head from the left, like Alan Grayson.

If you were to tell me, that it was a radio personality, then off the top of my head, I would think of someone who was vocally critical of the Governor on a daily basis, like Jim Philips.

That last pick would be close, but I’d be on the wrong program. Instead, when Rick Scott gets his press briefing tomorrow, he’ll be told that he’s been challenged on his “Let’s Get to Work” street cred.

“Governor, there is a gentlemen from Orlando named…ahem Buckethead. He’s has issued you, a jobs challenged

This isn’t the first time that Buckethead has worked with government to try and help the community. He’s ran the “BS saves Christmas campaign with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer” that resulted in hundreds of his listeners decorating downtown, when the city’s budget fell short.

Buckethead has vowed that his show “The BS” will put more people to work than, Governor Scott over the next 30 day. They’ll throw a job fair, give some airtime to employers hiring, and run a jobs segment on his show.

Now, we all know Governor Scott isn’t going to get involved or even comment on this campaign, and either side can twist or spin the numbers to favor their efforts, but this clever contest should at least put a few dozen people back to work and that’s what matters.

Buckethead has said that he hopes, he loses. I hope so too. It would be a sad, sad statement on our recovery efforts if he doesn’t.

You can find the full campaign here.

Rick Scott’s Facebook Townhall

March 23, 2011 Uncategorized No comments

Stay with me for a second. Have you ever paid $10.50 for a movie ticket, $20 more dollars for popcorn, candy, and soda, walk into the theater and have just a dreadful experience?

Light from the cellphones of kids texting, sound missing from the first two previews shown, and after all of this a really, really, bad movie.

Are you going to go back to see the sequel?

This is where I’m going. Florida Governor Rick Scott held a Twitter Townhall in January, and the thing was a mess. We had Rick Scott impostors, insults, and silly questions.

Perhaps, the most frustrating thing was that we didn’t get answers from, who is still one of the biggest question marks in Florida politics.

It became apparent that the Governor’s staff didn’t know social media or were more in love with the idea of being able to say they were trying constituent outreach on a new, popular platform.

So, what’s a Guv gonna do? Try it again.

Tuesday night Rick Scott had another townhall, this time on Facebook and let me tell you, Mark Zuckerberg might have thrown our governor off the site if he saw how poor of a job was done.

What we had was a landfill of insults, questions soaked in sarcasm, technical difficulties and again, no answers.

The most successful back and forth of the night was between the political friends and foes of the Governor, who stretched out comment threads that made seeing other questions difficult.

Still, we’re almost certain to hear the administration bragging about how they’re leading the way with social media and politics.

and that film sequel I was mentioning? Ghost Rider. A sequel to that? You can’t be serious!?

Oh yeah, part two is coming.

Rick Scott's Facebook Townhall

March 23, 2011 Uncategorized No comments

Stay with me for a second. Have you ever paid $10.50 for a movie ticket, $20 more dollars for popcorn, candy, and soda, walk into the theater and have just a dreadful experience?

Light from the cellphones of kids texting, sound missing from the first two previews shown, and after all of this a really, really, bad movie.

Are you going to go back to see the sequel?

This is where I’m going. Florida Governor Rick Scott held a Twitter Townhall in January, and the thing was a mess. We had Rick Scott impostors, insults, and silly questions.

Perhaps, the most frustrating thing was that we didn’t get answers from, who is still one of the biggest question marks in Florida politics.

It became apparent that the Governor’s staff didn’t know social media or were more in love with the idea of being able to say they were trying constituent outreach on a new, popular platform.

So, what’s a Guv gonna do? Try it again.

Tuesday night Rick Scott had another townhall, this time on Facebook and let me tell you, Mark Zuckerberg might have thrown our governor off the site if he saw how poor of a job was done.

What we had was a landfill of insults, questions soaked in sarcasm, technical difficulties and again, no answers.

The most successful back and forth of the night was between the political friends and foes of the Governor, who stretched out comment threads that made seeing other questions difficult.

Still, we’re almost certain to hear the administration bragging about how they’re leading the way with social media and politics.

and that film sequel I was mentioning? Ghost Rider. A sequel to that? You can’t be serious!?

Oh yeah, part two is coming.

Rick Scott’s State of the State Address “Don’t Blink”

March 9, 2011 Uncategorized No comments

“Doing what must be done will not make me popular. It will make me most likely to succeed”

“To the unemployed citizens of Florida, this is an emergency session”

“Show me the jobs”

“Don’t blink”

Just a few of the statements from Florida Governor Rick Scott’s State of the State address, that took place in Tallahassee yesterday afternoon amid two protests. One against the Governors policies and budget that would tighten the belt here in the sunshine state and another standing behind the Governor and applauding the decisions that he’s made early on, on his watch.

It was hard tracking the attendance numbers for the Awake the State vs. Save Our State rallies. The media orgs each had different numbers, but attendance was below that of the anticipated amount. Both sides claim victory yesterday reporting total numbers from statewide protests that did amount in the thousands.

At the center of it all Rick Scott stayed on message. His hands in a bridge, with his head on a swivel speaking in short calculated sentences. He got his “Colin Firth” on, stammering in a “King’s Speech” manner for the first few statements, but got settled and delivered a speech that would certainly please his following.

It was an appropriate way to kick off a session that can expect a resurrection of teacher merit pay before the end of the week and a high drama decision on the fate of Sunrail before the end of the month. In between? Property insurance, job growth initiatives, and health care blow-back.

It was a proper opening for what promises to be one of the most action-packed session in Florida’s history.

Flanked by rallies and tension was the only way to kick off a Rick Scott State of the State

Rick Scott's State of the State Address "Don't Blink"

March 9, 2011 Uncategorized No comments

“Doing what must be done will not make me popular. It will make me most likely to succeed”

“To the unemployed citizens of Florida, this is an emergency session”

“Show me the jobs”

“Don’t blink”

Just a few of the statements from Florida Governor Rick Scott’s State of the State address, that took place in Tallahassee yesterday afternoon amid two protests. One against the Governors policies and budget that would tighten the belt here in the sunshine state and another standing behind the Governor and applauding the decisions that he’s made early on, on his watch.

It was hard tracking the attendance numbers for the Awake the State vs. Save Our State rallies. The media orgs each had different numbers, but attendance was below that of the anticipated amount. Both sides claim victory yesterday reporting total numbers from statewide protests that did amount in the thousands.

At the center of it all Rick Scott stayed on message. His hands in a bridge, with his head on a swivel speaking in short calculated sentences. He got his “Colin Firth” on, stammering in a “King’s Speech” manner for the first few statements, but got settled and delivered a speech that would certainly please his following.

It was an appropriate way to kick off a session that can expect a resurrection of teacher merit pay before the end of the week and a high drama decision on the fate of Sunrail before the end of the month. In between? Property insurance, job growth initiatives, and health care blow-back.

It was a proper opening for what promises to be one of the most action-packed session in Florida’s history.

Flanked by rallies and tension was the only way to kick off a Rick Scott State of the State

Now that High-Speed rail is dead, you gotta stop Sunrail too right?

March 4, 2011 Uncategorized One comment

Now that the Florida supreme court has sided with Florida Governor Rick Scott, ruling that he has not overstepped his authority by refusing government funds, high speed rail is deader than fried chicken.

Now comes the really big question. The one that Republicans and Democrats, Tea Partiers and hefty lefties alike will be waiting for.

What about Sunrail?

If you examine the reasons behind Rick Scott turning down 2.4 Billion dollars of stimulus money, that being that there can be no guarantee of not putting the taxpayers at risk for having to pick up the extra costs of the project, or having to return the money altogether like he says, then by that same logic Governor Scott will have to kill Sunrail as well.

Florida Legislators bit their tongues on high speed rail and didn’t want to take any political risk by taking a stand against the governor. Will they do the same if he rejects Sunrail?

If Scott signs off on the Sunrail project, will the Tea Party turn against him?

It will be one of the more interesting things to watch in Florida Politics this year.

Is Sunrail next on the chopping block for Rick Scott?

VIDEO: Rick Scott latest high-speed rail challenge

February 24, 2011 Uncategorized No comments

Hey guys,

Check out this video starring Florida Governor Rick Scott and a few other familiar faces. The battle for high speed rail isn’t over yet.

 

Also gotta an interesting, different post for tomorrow. I hope you guys will drop by!

Take Care

Who is Rick Scott's latest rail opponent?

High Speed FAIL *- Rick Scott turns down Federal Transportation Funds

February 17, 2011 Uncategorized One comment

* I wish I would have thought of that headline but the credit goes to Syan Rhodes from WESH 2. The best joke I saw during my social media monitoring, yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, it was a crazy mess,

Florida Governor Rick Scott turned down 2.4 billion dollars in transportation federal stimulus money that would have funded high-speed rail from Orlando to Tampa, in what was the most controversial decision he’s made since…well last week, when he revealed the budget.

Despite, the fact that private corporations had offered to pick up the 300 million dollar difference, Scott was concerned about skittish contractors pulling out and high-speed rail’s ability to garner a big enough ridership to justify the expense.

This decision sent shock waves across the state energizing the Tea Party and sending Democrats into a frenzy, with one of them calling the Governor a “One man wrecking crew for the Florida economy”. Senator Bill Nelson is was on the phone with Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood talking about other possibilities that would circumvent the Governor’s decision. Transportation committee chairman Congressman John Mica isn’t about to quit on the initiative either.

President Obama? Well, he said there would be plenty of states that would be happy to take the money. Calls from New York were coming before close of business saying they would be happy to take Florida’s piece of the pie.

What do I think?

I can tell you that high-speed rail from Orlando to Tampa makes a heck of a lot more sense than Sunrail, a spine of a system that would require a 6 phase commute everyday. To rail, on rail, to destination and back. If Siemens or one of the other private companies would picked up the difference for high-speed rail, then by all means we’ve got to do it. An hour from OIA to downtown Tampa without dealing with I4? Yes…yes all day.

Less convention visitors clogging up I4? Sure

Less tourists, clogging up the approach to the Magic Kingdom? Even better.

Comparing the cheaper plane ticket and being able to enjoy both cities? Absolutely.

This was another head scratching move by Governor Scott, he’s doing things his way and like the other decisions he’s made during his short time in office we’ll have to see if it pays off.

That High-Speed rail stop by the convention center and the attractions might have come in handy,..

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