Tag: Republicans

Warning: Rick Scott Ahead

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$8,800

Amount spent by Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R/Tea) to add his own name to the 35 highway signs which welcome visitors to the state. No governor has ever placed his name on the signs, but Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino applauded the move. “When travelers cross into the state and see ‘Governor Rick Scott,’ he wrote, ‘it works on the same level as ‘Low Flying Aircraft,’ ‘Rock Slide Area’ or “Slow: Children Playing.'” Scott slashed other state spending, recently vetoing $615 million from the state budget that included 500 jobs at the Department of Children and Families.

Republican Path to Victory in 2012: Take Down the Economy

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Boehner-ObamaWe get that Republicans don’t care about folks like us. We know they are willing to stop Social Security payments, and payroll for the members of America’s armed services rather than raise the debt ceiling. We get it, we really do.

But to tank the American, and likely the global, economy just to give their lame candidate (whoever it might be) a chance at taking down Obama in 2012? Exactly that is starting to look to like their best strategy.

The Economist: ‘America is undermining its economy for no good reason’

It’s not just Americans drawing a line between a House vote not to extend the debt ceiling and economic setbacks. Our friends across the pond are making the same observation.

Blogger “R.A.” at Britain’s The Economist predicted with exact accuracy on June 1 that such moves would mire economic growth, and decried these self-inflicted wounds. Our stock markets dropped that same day.

R.A. begins with the big picture, the one tea partiers and FOX News miss.

[…]

Florida Republican Calls Out Governor on Education Cuts

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What is more surprising is the governor’s sudden emphasis on K-12 education. The budget we sent him funds education at a higher level than the governor recommended just a few months ago, when he proposed a 10 percent cut. The governor communicated numerous priorities during session, and we did our best to accommodate him. It would have been helpful if the governor had shared this new-found emphasis with us before the budget was finalized.

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon (R – Winter Park), reacting to a new strategy crafted by the Republican Party of Florida and Gov. Rick Scott to deflect criticism of the state’s budget. The relationship between the tea party governor and the Republican-controlled legislature continues to erode.

Florida’s Scott Continues to Sink in Popularity

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29%

Of Floridians approve of the job Rick Scott (R/Tea) is doing as governor, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. This figure represents a decrease from last month, when both he and the state’s legislature, which holds a Republican super majority, earned approval from 35%. Today, the legislature is even lower than Scott, at 27%. Both results are the lowest for any Florida governor or legislature in the history of the poll.

GOP/Tea Overconfidence Ends in Defeat

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He didn’t write anybody off. He went and talked to everybody, while on the other side, they ran like they had already won it.

— Former Jacksonville, FL mayor Jake Godbold, commenting on the win for the office by Democrat Alvin Brown. The Republican/Tea Party candidate was so favored to win that both he and his party badly miscalculated voter sentiment.

Florida Mayor’s Race Could Be Early Indicator of Tea Party Decline

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brownclinton
Former Pres. Bill Clinton campaigns for Jacksonville's possible next mayor, Alvin Brown
Update: After a day of counting absentee and provisional ballots produced a 1,648 vote lead for Brown, Hogan conceded. Jacksonville has its first black mayor and first Democrat in the job since 1995.

Jacksonville Republicans are reeling because the nightmare they were having when they went to bed last night didn’t slip away as they hoped at today’s dawn. No, Democrat Alvin Brown, a former Clinton administration and Al Gore advisor, African-American, and pro-education candidate (not to be confused with bizarre nobody Alvin Greene of South Carolina) was still 603 votes ahead in the mayor’s race, just like he was last night.

As we speak, absentee and provisional ballots are being counted, so anything could happen in what the elections supervisor is calling the closest mayor’s race in Jacksonville history. Anything could happen, that is, except reinstating the conventional wisdom that a Democrat can’t win in Jacksonville – or in Northeast Florida. Apparently he can.

Brown was one of six candidates in the elimination round in March that was expected to easily pick Republican Audrey Moran, who passes for moderate in these parts, and fellow Republican and incumbent Tax Collector Mike Hogan to face off in the final race. Had that played out, Duval County voters would have the familiar Republican Thing One and Republican Thing Two from which to choose, and First Baptist Church (a Jacksonville institution that pulls most of the power strings), the Chamber of Commerce, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, and a few others could resume running things for another four years.

And then something strange happened.
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The Unconvincables: Gov. Rick Scott Denys Climate Change

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I’ve not been convinced that there’s any man-made climate change. Nothing’s convinced me that there is.

— Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R-Tea), who presides over a state where 95 percent of the population lives within 35 miles of the coast, and where, by the turn of the century, the waterline will be between 2 and 5 feet higher.

The Job Nobody Wants

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0

Number of applicants for Florida Education Commissioner. Eric J. Smith, a Jeb Bush ally, announced his resignation in March, after new Republican Tea Party Gov. Rick Scott failed to meet with him more than two months into office. Smith was instrumental in winning $700 million for Florida in the White House’s Race to the Top initiative. Scott has refused federal dollars for Florida, most notably turning down $2 billion to develop high-speed rail along the failing I-4 corridor.