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s you venture around Gainesville, political signs are a ubiquitous sight on street corners. However, as far as the eye can see, there’s hardly a sign in sight for either Gov. Rick Scott or democratic candidate Charlie Crist. Perhaps the campaigns are simply eschewing campaign signs for other means of advertisement, or perhaps it’s a sign that voters are just not that excited for the gubernatorial election. With less than a month until Election Day, campaign fever should be sweeping Florida. But if it’s happening elsewhere in the state, it’s certainly not happening in Gainesville.
Crist recently visited Gainesville to open a campaign office, but few politicos seemed to care, despite the candidate himself showing up to christen the office.
If there’s one campaign tactic seen by Floridians everywhere, it’s the attack ads eating away at our hearts and souls. Charlie Crist loves President Barack Obama, Rick Scott steals money like Dr. Evil, and both candidates are going to eat your children. Perhaps the last ad isn’t real, but at this point, would you put it past either candidate to make such a horrific claim?
Generally, I consider campaign signs to be nothing more than litter that decorates our yards, street corners and abandoned businesses during campaign season, but seeing an entire town nearly bereft of Crist or Scott signs during such a close election is quite surprising.
It’s true that Gainesville is not exactly the main battleground for control of the governor’s mansion, but you have to wonder if voters in South Florida and along the Interstate 4 corridor feel the same way. They have a choice between “Lord Voldemort” or “Two-Face,” and neither option seems particularly appealing.
Rolling Stone picked up on the current state of the gubernatorial campaign last week, publishing an article entitled “The Florida Farce,” that chronicles why voters should not support either candidate. Nothing in the article was particularly revelatory as they lambasted Scott for his actions while he was CEO of Columbia/HCA and exposed Crist for the flip-flopping, political opportunist that he is.
While we’re abundantly aware of the candidates’ downfalls, now is the time for us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves if this is the best we can do. Democrats are so desperate for the keys to the governor’s mansion that they welcomed Crist into the party with open arms giving him more than 74 percent of the democratic primary vote. For a man who once wanted to bring back prison chain gangs — earning him the nickname Chain Gang Charlie — it was a stunning turnaround. Crist was a Republican just four short years ago, but Democrats don’t care; they just want to win.
Republicans seem fine with Scott, who famously used his Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate a whopping 75 times. His company was fined an extraordinary $1.7 billion for Medicare fraud, but again, Republicans seem to have no qualms giving this man another four years in Tallahassee.
Are we truly scraping the barrel so deeply for good politicians in both parties that Democrats and Republicans must settle for political opportunists like Crist or fraudsters who look like Lurch from the Addams Family?
As discussed in the Rolling Stone piece, Florida has immense problems to tackle, from climate change — if you haven’t noticed, Miami’s starting to drown — to the future of health care in a state where nearly 19 percent of the population is over the age of 65.
Scott seems only able to toe the Tea Party line, while Crist will say just about anything to get elected and then may not do anything once in office. The prospect of either man spending the next four years running Florida should terrify us all into finding real leadership between now and 2018.
We have to deal with the effects of climate change now, advance the state’s aging infrastructure that can no longer handle the swelling population and finally bring an end to the corruption that envelops Tallahassee like fog on a humid morning. Can this be done with Scott and Crist?
Only time will tell, but don’t hold your breath.
Joel Mendelson is a UF grad student in political campaigning. His columns appear on Wednesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 10/8/2014]
