Home » Posts tagged 'Florida Governor'
Tag Archives: Florida Governor
Video: New Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sets out agenda in inaugural address
Republican DeSantis sworn in as Sunshine State’s 46th governor
Video From WJXT-TV Jacksonville via YouTube
Debate between Crist and Scott in Florida starts off with nasty spat over a fan
Republican Gov. Rick Scott refuses to take the stage because of a fan placed under Crist’s podium
DAVIE, Florida (CFP) — A gubernatorial debate in Florida took a bizarre turn, when Republican Gov. Rick Scott initially refused to take the stage after a fan was placed under the podium of Democrat Charlie Crist, in apparent violation of the rules of the October 15 debate.
Florida Governor Rick Scott
Scott eventually relented and took the stage at Broward College, but not before Crist got into a contretemps with the debate moderator, Elliott Rodriguez, over whether the fan violated the rules.
“Are we really going to debate about a fan?” Crist said.
Asked later in the debate why he wanted to use a fan despite the rules, Crist said, “Why not?”
“Is there anything wrong with being comfortable? I don’t think there is.”
During the debate, Scott continued a line of attack that he has made throughout the campaign that during Crist’s tenure as governor between 2007 and 2011 — when Crist was a Republican — the state lost 832,000 jobs. Scott charged that Crist was so consumed by his ambition for higher office that he didn’t do enough to promote economic development.
“He didn’t want to do the job. He wanted to be vice president and then ran against Marco Rubio for the Senate,” Scott said. “Charlie is a lot of talk. But he’s not a lot of action.”
Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist
But Crist responded that he could not be held responsible for jobs lost during the Great Recession.
“The people of Florida know that I didn’t cause the global economic meltdown,” he said. “They are smarter than that.”
Crist also hit Scott for not pushing through the private option expansion of Medicaid that was part of Obamacare in Florida.
“People are hurting, and they are suffering,” he said, adding that “I don’t know why” Scott hasn’t pushed for Medicaid expansion.
But Scott responded that Crist was actually governor when Obamacare was passed.
“Did he go to the legislature to pass this because it’s a great idea? No,” Scott said, adding that “Obamacare is a bad law.”
To a chorus of boos from the audience, Crist also raised a line of attack that he has made throughout the campaign over fraud charges lodged against Scott’s former company, HCA, in 1997.
“The truth hurts sometimes,” Crist said. “You pled the Fifth 75 times.”
Scott was never charged in connection with the HCA fraud, although the company paid a $600 million fine. The same issue was unsuccessfully raised against Scott in 2010 when he was first elected governor.
Scott was also pressed on whether he thought Florida’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, passed by voters in 2008, was discriminatory.
“While I believe in traditional marriage, we have to understand people have different views,” Scott said, noting that the ban is currently being challenged in court.
Pressed further if he thought the ban was discriminatory, Scott said only, “I don’t believe in discrimination.”
Crist came back swinging, saying he supported same-sex marriage, even though in 2008, when he was a Republican governor, he supported that amendment. Scott then pounced on Crist’s inconsistency.
“We don’t know what Charlie believes on this issue because he’s taken every side on this issue,” Scott said.
Polls have shown the race for governor in the Sunshine State is too close to call.
Crist was elected governor as a conservative Republican in 2006. In 2010, he gave up the governorship to pursue a U.S. Senate seat, first as a Republican and then as an independent. He became a Democrat in 2012.
Florida’s last two governors, Rick Scott and Charlie Crist, to battle in November
Crist, who served a single term as governor as a Republican, wins the Democratic nomination to face off with incumbent Republican Scott
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CFP) — This November, Florida voters will choose between their current governor and his immediate predecessor in what’s likely to be an expensive and pitched battle for the state’s top job.
Former Governor Charlie Crist won the Democratic nomination for governor in the August 26 primary, besting former State Senator Nan Rich with 74 percent of the vote. Republican Governor Rick Scott, 61, did even better in his primary, taking 88 percent against two little known opponents.
Crist’s win caps a remarkable political makeover for a man who started out in politics as a conservative Republican, serving as attorney general before getting elected governor in 2006.
In 2010, he gave up the governorship to pursue an open U.S. Senate seat. When he fell way behind the eventual winner, GOP U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, in the polls, he bolted the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as an independent. in 2012, after endorsing President Obama for re-election, he became a Democrat and then jumped into the governor’s race.
In her campaign, Rich tried to make the case to Democrats that, unlike Crist, she was a longtime party loyalist. But her campaign never caught traction.
In a victory speech to supporters in Fort Lauderdale, Crist said the general election will be “about making sure that Floridians get their Florida back.”
“Our Florida is one where fairness and opportunity trump money and partisanship,” he said. “Our Florida is one where common sense and compassion come before cynicism and cronyism. And most importantly, our Florida is one where the government works for and answers to the people, not the special interests.”
Scott did not make a public speech on election night, instead releasing a statement saying the November election will be about “talk versus action.”
“That means Florida will have a choice between a governor who sent our state into a tailspin and a governor who gets results,” he said. “Charlie Crist failed as governor, lost 830,000 jobs, and tried to run off to Washington – and now he wants his job back.”
Scott, an multimillionaire former health care executive, pumped $75 million of his own money to win the governorship in 2010 in his first run for political office. He is expected to have a significant financial advantage over Crist in a state with numerous, expensive media markets, although Crist has so far raised more than $20 million.
Polls show the race as a dead heat with a little more than two months left before the general election.
Poll: Republican incumbent Rick Scott trails Charlie Crist in Florida governor’s race
Crist, the Sunshine State’s former governor, also calls for ending U.S. embargo against Cuba
MIAMI (CFP) — Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist holds a small lead over Republican Governor Rick Scott in the Florida governor’s race, according to two recent polls.
Democratic challenger Charlie Crist
And in a turnabout likely to draw the ire of the state’s influential Cuban-American community, Crist now says he thinks the U.S. embargo against Cuba, in place since 1962, ought to be lifted.
“The embargo has done nothing in more than 50 years to change the regime in Cuba,” Crist said in a statement, adding that “if we want to bring democracy to Cuba, we need to encourage American values and investment there.”
Just four years ago, when Crist was making a unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, he supported the embargo. Scott immediately pounced on Crist’s change of heart, which he first announced in a response to a question from television satirist Bill Maher.
Florida Governor Rick Scott
“Our nation is great because we were built on a foundation of freedom and democracy,” Scott said. ” That is not true in Cuba, and we should not pretend it is. The importance of maintaining the embargo is that it stands for the Cuban people’s right to be free.”
In his interview with Maher, Crist agreed with Maher that more Florida politicians need to stand up to the Cuban-American community, a remark Scott called “insulting.”
A February 5 poll by the University of Florida found Crist leading Scott 47 percent to 40 percent in a head-to-head matchup. A poll from Quinniapiac University released January 30 gave Crist a slightly larger lead, 46 percent to 38 percent.
Scott, 61, a multimillionaire health care entrepreneuer, narrowly won the governorship four years ago. Crist, 57, served as governor as a Republican from 2007 to 2011. He gave up the office to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, losing to Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. Crist later became a Democrat.
Crist faces a primary challenge from Nan Rich, a former Democratic state senator, who, alluding to Crist’s often changing political affiliations, styles herself as the “one true Democrat” in the race.
There has also been speculation that Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson might run against Crist for governor. However, Nelson has distanced himself from that speculation, saying he has no plans to leave the Senate.
The University of Florida poll found that Nelson also leads Scott in a hypothetical matchup, while both the UF poll and Quinniapiac polls found that Scott leads Rich when they are compared head-to-head.
Chicken Fried Politics 