Is Scott eyeing run for White House?
TALLAHASSEE – For the past eight years, Republican Gov. Rick Scott has filled a role familiar to a chief executive, with his powers hindered only by the Legislature and the courts.
Now, as he prepares to take office in the U.S. Senate, he’s about to become one of 100 senators trying to get agendas across in a town full of conflicting priorities and where he’ll need to win allies and build consensus.
“He’s got that sort of my-way-or-the-highway approach you can have as an executive, but it just doesn’t really work in a legislative branch,” said Tallahassee Democratic consultant Steve Schale.
The vastly different role has led Schale and others to speculate that Scott, who would not be interviewed for this story, wants to run for president six years from now.
“I suspect that most of what he’ll do in the Senate is try to figure out how to position him best for the option to run in 2024,”
Schale added.
A Scott decision this week heightened those whispers. On Monday his office said he’ll stay as governor until the end of his term on Jan. 8, instead of being sworn in with other senators on Jan. 3. The later swearing in means he’ll have the least seniority in the chamber, a factor in committee assignments.
“If his goal is to run for president in 2024, then things like seniority in the Senate don’t matter,” Schale said. “He’s not going to be there long enough to make a difference.”
A spokesman for Scott shrugged off the consequences of the decision, noting that he would only lose three places in seniority by the delay.
“That’s an issue for people who are planning on staying in Washington for 30 years, and that’s just not the way he looks at things,” said spokesman Chris Hartline.
As governor, Scott often had an awkward relationship with fellow GOP legislative leaders but was able to get much of his agenda passed despite clashes with them.
When he first took office Scott initially brought in top staffers from outside the state and made major moves without notifying the Legislature, such as selling the state planes and rejecting federal funds for a high-speed rail project. Still, lawmakers who’ve clashed with him say he was able to adapt to the role and will do the same in the Senate.
“When he was elected as governor the rap on Rick Scott was, ‘this guy’s never been inside the Capitol building, he doesn’t know where the House is, where the Senate is, he’s not going to be able to accommodate himself to government,’ ” said Don Gaetz, a former GOP Florida Senate president who bumped heads with Scott at times during his 2012-2014 tenure. “He had some rough spots at the beginning, but … if you look at what he said he wanted to do, and you look at what he did, Rick Scott was a very successful governor.”
Hartline allowed there would be a transition period for Scott but said there would be benefits to the move as well, such as having an impact on federal issues like the national debt and foreign policy he didn’t have as governor.
Scott’s friendly relationship with President Donald Trump could also help. During the campaign, Scott consistently touted his ability to get $600 million in federal funding for repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike, speeding up the projected completion date by three years to 2022, based on his friendship with Trump. Scott earlier this year also highlighted the Trump administration’s decision to exempt Florida from a review that could open up new areas to offshore drilling, although other Interior Department staffers said the state is still a part of the formal process for review.
But unlike during his term as governor, when he only had to negotiate with fellow Republicans in control of the Legislature, the Democrats will control the U.S. House next year, another constraint on his agenda.
And Scott’s goals could put him at odds even with Republican senators.
Scott campaigned on a platform of “Make Washington Work,” which helped contrast himself as a get-things-done reformer against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, who’d been in elected offices since 1972, who he labeled a “do-nothing” lawmaker.
That platform includes things like two-term limits for senators; forgoing pay during government shutdowns and budget impasses; extending Congress’ often truncated work weeks to include Fridays; ban ex-Congress members from lobbying for 10 years; and ending taxpayer pensions for members of Congress.
While popular with the public, similar ideas have gone nowhere in the past. If Scott tries to follow through, he could alienate fellow members whose votes and influence he’ll
“That’s an issue for people who are planning on staying in Washington for 30 years, and that’s just not the way [Scott] looks at things.” — spokesman Chris Hartline, on Scott remaining governor until the end of his term
need for other things.
Hartline said Scott would have to be “strategic” in how he pushed that agenda but said he wouldn’t drop those ideas once in office.
Still, Scott backers note he’s defied political gravity in the past, winning three statewide elections by wafer-thin margins. They say his executive’s mindset will help him break through the chronic gridlock in the Senate.
“He will adapt to the need to count to 51, because if he can’t count to 51, he can’t get a Mothers’ Day resolution through the U.S. Senate,’’ Gaetz said. “But I also think he will help reshape the environment as somebody who knows how to make decisions and knows how to get things done.
“He will adapt to the U.S. Senate, but I think the Senate will adapt to him.”