As the November gubernatorial election looms on Florida’s horizon, the Rick Scott and Charlie Crist camps are neck and neck in the polls. However, a Voter Survey Service poll commissioned by the Sunshine State News released Monday revealed Scott has pulled slightly ahead of Crist. As it stands, Scott leads with a 45-percent poll ranking, and Crist is lagging at 44 percent.
News outlets blame Crist’s public support of Affordable Care Act. The Sunshine State News reported “the weight of Crist’s support for President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law continues to drag him down,” citing James Lee, the president of Voter Survey Service.
This season’s close race is like stepping into a time machine. The Sunshine State News also reported Lee said, “‘This race, in my opinion, looks very locked in. In other words, it almost looks like a repeat of what we had in the summer of 2010.’”
Lee “described the Scott versus Alex Sink race as a back and forth ping-pong match in polling,” according to the article.
The sudden uptick in Scott approval is surprising considering all his shady behavior that’s recently come to light. The Tampa Bay Times released a report Saturday that detailed his stealthy way of evading public records: In 2010, Scott proclaimed Florida’s ownership of two planes for official travel wasteful and replaced them with a private jet he purchased “at his expense.”
But no public plane, Times writer Steve Bousquet said, means no public records.
“Scott’s air travel reflects not only his wealth, but his preference for stealth,” Bousquet wrote. “Despite his oft-stated support for transparency, Scott keeps his flight itineraries off tracking websites and even blacks out arrival and departure details on official schedules after the fact, citing the need for security.”
As governor, Scott doesn’t have to disclose details about travel plans and expenses like other candidates, and he’s using it to his campaign’s advantage.
Bousquet wrote that Scott is busy using half-truths to smear Crist. Last month, a PolitiFact Florida ruling found that a claim made by the Scott camp in an email to the media wasn’t fully accurate. An email to reporters said Crist signed “an automatic 15 percent annual tuition raise” for public universities. While Crist did pass a law allowing tuition increases, the increases weren’t automatic, and they weren’t always 15 percent. PolitiFact Florida said Scott’s statement is “partially accurate, but leaves out many important details.”
This evasion of campaign regulations and flat-out lying highlights Scott’s disconnect with Florida’s general population. But his lead in the poll begs the question: Will Scott’s old antics — protecting big-business interests and not reporting all the facts — land him a second term? Who knows?
For Florida, the possibility of another four years with nobody’s favorite Lord Voldemort look-alike isn’t far off.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 4/8/2014 under the headline "Scott relies on half truths in gubernatorial race"]
