Scott says he wants to be the ‘jobs senator’
At Palm Beach County stop, governor touts his record
Wearing a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a Navy cap, Gov. Rick Scott took a page from his political playbook from eight years ago to demonstrate why he should be Florida’s next U.S. senator. It’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs. That’s been a familiar refrain from Scott through the years. The 65-year-old former hospital executive told a crowd of flagwaving supporters in Palm Beach County on Thursday that his record of job creation as governor speaks for itself.
“I am a doer,” he said during a campaign stop at Baron Signs Manufacturing in Riviera Beach, his second stop in South Florida this week. “I will get stuff done. … I want to be the jobs senator.”
That’s a message Scott will want to stick to in his bid to unseat three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a 75-year-old Democrat, said Susan MacManus, a professor of political science at the University of South Florida.
About 1.5 million jobs — just 200,000 short of his goal — have been created during Scott’s seven years as governor, coinciding with the national economic recovery, according to the fact-checking outfit Politifact.
It might be tougher for Scott to portray himself as a political outsider and escape the Democrat’s attempts to tie him with President Donald Trump, MacManus said.
“The governor is one of the most known
persons in any state,” she said. “It’s going to be a tough sale to convince folks that he is a fresh face.”
Scott spoke on a balcony overlooking a warehouse floor where signs were being built. Three American flags hung from the ceiling. He recalled how when he became governor in 2010 people were losing their homes to foreclosure, and unemployment had hit double digits.
Scott referred to Washington — controlled by fellow Republicans — as broken and plagued by career politicians. He wants to limit senators to two terms and representatives to no more than six.
“I don’t fit in at Tallahassee, and I am not going to fit in at Washington, D.C.,” he told the crowd.
With Republicans holding a narrow majority in the Senate, the Florida race is expected to be one of the most closely watched in the country. Scott and Nelson are polling in a dead heat, and political strategists expect the race to cost as much as $200 million, blitzing the airwaves with a relentless torrent of political ads.
Scott, who reported a net worth of nearly $150 million last year, poured tens of millions of his fortune into his campaigns for governor. Term limits bar Scott from seeking a third term as governor. He announced his bid for Senate on Monday at a construction company warehouse in Orlando.
He visited Hialeah on Tuesday, where he veered off script to eulogize Jeri Bustamante, a 33-year-old aide who died in a boating accident in the Keys. During a stop in Sarasota earlier Thursday, Scott deflected a question on whether he would support legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, only saying there “needs to be complete transparency.”
Nelson is also moving on the jobs front. He filed legislation this week to provide tax incentives to companies that hire workers who have lost their jobs because of automation, as well as extending tax benefits to people undergoing job training.
“The world is changing, and we need to change with it,” Nelson said. “We need to do everything we can to create additional jobs and opportunities for the millions of hard-working people who could wake up one day and suddenly find their job obsolete.”
MacManus said she expects the environment, health care and guns will also emerge as key issues. As the race becomes “highly nationalized” because of outside interest, whatever happens in Washington, including Trump’s Twitter feed, could have implications for Scott’s campaign, she said.
“This is going to be the year when messaging is difficult where you have people who are already sick of politics and distrustful of politics and media,” MacManus said.
Other wild cards will include the migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida because of Hurricane Maria, along with a younger voter base possibly energized by activism following the Parkland school shooting that killed 17 students and staff, she said.
As Scott walked into the room, someone yelled his campaign slogan, “Let’s Get to Work.”
“That’s right,” Scott answered as he walked toward the microphone.
sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher