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ICYMI: Self-Serving Scott’s Rough Weekend

Self-Serving Rick Scott kept adding to the over 300 bad news stories he’s suffered since starting his campaign.

Here’s what Floridians were reading about Scott this weekend:

  • A Sun Sentinel editorial held him accountable for his poor response and lack of leadership during Hurricane Irma;
  • The Tampa Bay Times editorial board called him out for his conversion from High-Speed Rail opponent to supporter after he and his wife invested in a company that would build high speed rail in Florida.
  • Gatehouse found that Scott has received over a million dollars in campaign donations from people he appointed to state boards and commissions.
  • His shady campaign finances scandals, corruption and self-serving politics made front pages across the state.

Sun Sentinel:  Gov. Rick Scott still needs to answer for his Hurricane Irma response | Editorial

  • Gov. Rick Scott’s net worth is almost $250 million. Yet as he campaigns for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Bill Nelson, Scott describes himself in everyman terms. “I’ll return your phone calls,” he told supporters at a rally last month. If that pledge sounds familiar, it should. We heard it from Scott before Hurricane Irma. The governor gave out his cell phone number and promised a quick response.
  • Yet no help came when the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills called. Irma had knocked out the nursing home’s power. Without air conditioning, temperatures were rising. Twelve patients died. The governor’s staff blames the nursing home.
  • Let’s start with calls to that cell phone. Scott’s office deleted them. A spokeswoman claimed that the action was legal because the calls involved “transitory” information and thus did not need to be retained…Because of the deletion, however, there’s no way for the public to verify those claims, especially with regard to the nursing home.
  • After Nelson’s recent ad criticized Scott over Irma, the governor’s campaign responded with the usual talking point about Scott “leading the state through the largest storm in recent history.” In retrospect, however, Scott wasn’t much of a leader. 

Tampa Bay Times: Editorial: Did Rick Scott’s wallet affect his epiphany on rail line?

  • Within weeks of taking office in 2011, Gov. Rick Scott made one of the worst decisions of his administration and refused $2.4 billion in federal money for a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando.
  • Within months of leaving office, the governor now thinks the rail line is a swell idea. No wonder. It turns out the governor and his wife invested at least $3 million in a credit fund for the parent company of the outfit that wants to build the rail line. Scott is a walking conflict of interest, and this is another exhibit in the growing case for overhauling financial disclosure requirements for Florida candidates and officeholders.
  • Scott kills the plan in 2011 for high speed rail, which would have been running by now. He hires as his chief of staff in 2012 an executive at another firm owned by All Aboard Florida’s parent company. All Aboard Florida, now operating as Brightline, starts running diesel-electric trains this spring between Miami and West Palm Beach. The state announces in June that Brightline wants to build a high-speed connection between Tampa and Orlando, the governor calls that “exciting,’’ and the state will seek proposals.
  • Here’s what’s missing in that time line that Floridians didn’t know: Scott and wife last year invested at least $3 million in a credit fund for All Aboard Florida’s parent company, and it could be much more. The federal financial disclosures Scott was required to file as a U.S. Senate candidate show two of Ann Scott’s three holdings in a credit fund for Fortress Investment Group — All Aboard Florida’s parent company — are worth “over $1 million.’’ Scott’s disclosure shows the governor’s blind trust holds between $500,000 and $1 million in the credit fund, Fortress Secured Lending Fund. And last year, the Scotts’ investment in that fund produced at least $150,000 in income.
  • That’s information Floridians should know as they evaluate whether Scott’s public policy decisions have been affected by his family’s personal investments. Yet they would have remained in the dark without the federal financial disclosure forms. Most of the governor’s investments are held by a blind trust, and the state does not require the finances of spouses of state officeholders to be publicly disclosed. As the old Florida slogan goes, the rules are different here.
  • Scott is the wealthiest governor in Florida’s history. Yet Floridians have no idea exactly how wealthy, and they would have no idea of his potential conflicts of interest from investments by his “blind trust” and his wife if he had not decided to run for U.S. Senate.

Gatehouse: Scott turns to appointees for Senate campaign cash

  • Locked in one of the nation’s costliest elections, Republican Rick Scott is pulling campaign money not only from his own pocket and from major GOP national donors but also from another rich vein of cash. Well-heeled Floridians appointed by Scott to a number of state boards during his two terms as governor are ponying up to help him unseat three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
  • Scott has collected close to $1.4 million from 127 appointees, their spouses and children, who have given either to his Senate campaign or the New Republican PAC supporting his bid.
  • …it shows how the broad reach of the governor’s power can be used to advance his political future. Those who give deny that there’s any link between their appointments and the checks they cut for Scott’s Senate bid. But the campaign data shows a remarkable correlation.
  • Those who give deny that there’s any link between their appointments and the checks they cut for Scott’s Senate bid. But the campaign data shows a remarkable correlation.
  • “It smacks of pay-to-play,” said Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a government watchdog organization.

See the front pages:

 

See more:

Miami Herald: Rick Scott killed a high-speed rail plan. Then All Aboard rolled up and he bought it; Politico: Scott’s wife gave loan to accountant at firm housing Scott’s blind trust; U.S. News & World: US Sen. Nelson Rails at Gov. Scott Over His Finances; FOX35: Scott’s family makes loan to “blind trust” accountant; WCTV: Loan given by Ann Scott raises questions about governor’s blind trust; Politico: Nelson, Scott spar over Ann Scott’s loan to blind trust accountant; WTSP: Scott invested in companies he impacts as governor; Tampa Bay Times: Rick Scott told Florida not to invest in companies linked to Venezuela, but he did; Capitol News Service: Case seeking to open Governor’s blind trust continues; Miami Herald: Has Gov. Scott disclosed all his personal finances or not? Court could decide; Miami Herald: In disclosure Q and A, Scott campaign provides its own questions, then avoids some answers; Miami Herald:Rick Scott and family made $550M in one transaction. How ‘blind’ is his blind trust?; Florida Bulldog: Rick Scott paid $200,000 in tax incentives to company in which he had financial interest; Tampa Bay Times: Rick and Ann Scott had stake in shipping giant linked to Putin; GateHouse Media: Gov. Rick Scott profits from Hep C drug tied to state prisons, opioid crisis; Florida Politics: Rick Scott’s blind trust connected to controversial Chinese company ZTE; Orlando Sentinel: Gov. Rick Scott’s net worth soars 56 percent to $232 million, report shows; Tampa Bay Times, Ruth: Is Rick Scott’s blind trust that blind?; News Service of Florida: Rick Scott fights lawsuit demanding he disclose financial assets; Esquire: How ‘Blind’ Is Governor Rick Scott’s Blind Trust, Really?; Florida Bulldog: What did Gov. Rick Scott do with mysterious $120 million in cash?  

 

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What Floridians Are Reading And Watching: Self-Serving Scott’s High Speed Scheme

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