A recent Quinnipiac poll suggests by a slim margin, Florida women favor Democrat challenger Charlie Crist over Republican Governor Rick Scott. In the first part of a two-part series, we’ll find out what top GOP women actually think of their gubernatorial candidate: Rick Scott.
To First Lady Ann Scott, her husband is a very hard worker who cares a lot about people, including Floridians. She says both of them—high school sweethearts—didn’t have a lot in the beginning.
“We didn’t have much money, and we saved every penny we could,” said Ann Scott, at a campaign event last month. “You think he’s tough now when it comes to trimming the fat on the state budget. I promise you he got his eye for pinching pennies very early in life.”
Their life together and how it relates to Floridians is also the target of one of the few positive ads released a month ago by either campaign.
“My walk with Rick started in high school. We held on and never let go. We started with nothing, did a tour in the Navy, college on the G.I. bill, started a career, and built a business. We always believed that hard work and a little luck would pave our way. We have to make it possible for this generation to believe, to have a job, to have an opportunity to believe in themselves, and Florida can count on Rick.”
"Now, him and Ann [are] walking down the beach, and Ann is speaking about their history together. And, it’s such a pleasant ad to see,” said Leslie Dougher, the chair of the Republican Party of Florida.
“I guess some of the things that people don’t know about Governor Scott is he has really selflessly dedicated himself to be Governor of this great state, and over the last four years, he’s made the state best for everybody who’s in the state of Florida. He picks up the phone, calls businesses to move here to bring jobs to the state of Florida, because that’s what will make us a stronger state,” she added.
And, Dougher says he has a great track record.
“He said he was going to come and create private sector jobs, and he’s done it. He said he was going to cut taxes for businesses and he’s done that,” continued Dougher.
But, not everyone would agree with Scott’s jobs-creating track record, including his own former Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll.
She says with the amount of negative ads flying back and forth between the candidates, it’s important voters research each candidate and their records because she says the Governor’s race is full of ads with half-truths.
“I should say they’re half-false and that falseness make it not true at all. For example...we hear that Governor Scott has had more job creation. Well, people should be asking, ’what were these job creations, when we have in our urban sectors and our rural areas, unemployment numbers that are double digits,’” said Carroll.
Carroll, now an author of a tell-all book about her time in government and a political analyst for a local TV station, used to be Scott’s second-in-command. That is, she says, until he forced her to resign amid reports she was linked to an alleged gambling ring. She was never found guilty of any wrongdoing.
“The Governor never had my back,” she said. “The Governor never came out and said, like President Obama came out for Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder—regardless of how you feel about those people that have been totally loyal of him and supportive of him. For Governor Scott, the most he would say is ‘oh, she’s a nice person.’ Well, what good is that? If you’re not standing up and saying, ‘my lieutenant governor did no wrong.’”
“First of all, I don’t understand why he wanted her to resign, but if he did want her to resign. I think he owed it to her to have a face-to-face with her and ask for a resignation,” said Paula Dockery.
The former Republican Senator added, “He sends his Chief of Staff—who is just a hired individual and third in that office—with a pre-typed one-sentence resignation, and that, to me, doesn’t show good leadership, any loyalty, and it showed a great lack of respect for her as a legislator, his running mate, and as a woman. To me, that was a very bad sign in terms of his character.”
Dockery—now a syndicated columnist—has written several critical columns about Scott and his policies, and will, instead, be voting for Democrat challenger Charlie Crist.
She was actually one of the few Republicans who supported Scott in the primary when he was he was first running for Governor against Bill McCollum. He even at one time asked her to be his running mate.
“I was heartened when Governor Rick Scott—then Rick Scott, a candidate—told me he understood he had to govern for all people, not just the far right of the Republican Party, which was his base in the primary. But then, soon after he was elected, he did the exact opposite. And, that was a little frustrating to me.”
Now embracing the moderate Republican title, she says while Scott has done well to recruit companies to the state, he’s fallen short on not being a good manager or administrator.
“He’s had so much turnover in Department of Corrections, Department of Education, Department of Children and Families,” said Dockery. “There’ve been problems with DCF, including some tragic deaths of a lot of kids in state oversight. There’ve been deaths in the prison system. So, he’s really been disappointing in terms of running his own agencies and putting the best people in charge of those. So, that was really surprising considering he really ran as a business person.”
But, First Lady Ann Scott would disagree with how her husband has managed the state. Looking at different areas, like how Scott has helped to market the state as one of the world’s top tourist destinations and Florida’s 43-year crime low, she says Governor Scott has done a lot for Florida.
“When Rick became Governor, he set out to turn our economy around, and I have to tell you, I’m so proud of the things he’s accomplished throughout his life as well as his terms as Governor,” said Mrs. Scott.
On this year’s ballot, Florida voters will see Scott, Republican-turned-Democrat Crist, and Libertarian Adrian Wyllie.
Stay tuned to next Friday’s Capital Report for the end of a two part series on what top Democratic women think of their candidate, Charlie Crist.
For more news updates, follow Sascha Cordner on Twitter: @SaschaCordner.
