美国国家公共电台 NPR Republican Florida Governor Jumps Into Senate Race, Shaking Up 2018 Map

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Florida's Republican governor, Rick Scott, announced this morning that he is running for U.S. Senate. He’ll be taking on Democrat¹ Bill Nelson for that post. NPR's Greg Allen says Scott's announcement is the latest move in a surprising and polarizing career.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE²: Few people in Florida had heard of Rick Scott in 2010 when he announced he was beginning his political career with a run for the state's top office. He ended up spending more than $70 million of his own money on a campaign that came at the right time. It was the beginning of the insurgent³ Tea Party movement, which embraced Scott as one of its own. After taking office, Scott announced plans to cut $5 billion out of the state budget in front of a crowd of Tea Party supporters.

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RICK SCOTT: It's a budget that's designed to reduce state spending, lower taxes and hold your government accountable. This is the budget you asked for.

ALLEN: In his first year, Scott oversaw⁴ big cuts in spending on education, healthcare and the environment. He took aim at government regulations, eliminating an agency that oversaw development statewide. It was all done with one purpose in mind.

MAC STIPANOVICH: His thing was jobs, which he's been so consistent about as almost to be one-dimensional in the last eight years.

ALLEN: Mac Stipanovich is a longtime Florida Republican political strategist.

STIPANOVICH: Tax cuts for business to create jobs. What time is it? Time to create jobs.

ALLEN: Florida's economy, like that of the nation, has rebounded⁵ during Scott's time in office. Democrats⁶ point out, though, that median incomes have declined during that period, while the cost of living has risen. Scott took office as a conservative with tough positions on many issues, urging, for example, a crackdown on immigration. In a state where a fifth of the population is foreign-born, he quickly retreated from that. After opposing expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable⁷ Care Act, he reversed himself on that issue not once, but twice. Now, once again, he opposes it. Brian Ballard, a lobbyist and fundraiser with close ties to Scott, says as he's gained experience in office, Scott's positions on many issues have evolved.

BRIAN BALLARD: He's a combination of an insurgent mentality⁸ but somebody who understands now how government operates, what it means to compromise to make important principles become governing policy.

ALLEN: Before he decided⁹ to run for governor, Rick Scott made millions in the private sector¹⁰. In the 1980s, he helped build Columbia/HCA into the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain. Scott left the company amidst a federal investigation¹¹. Columbia/HCA eventually pleaded guilty to overcharging the government and paid what was at the time the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history. In his campaigns for governor, opponents attacked Scott for being involved in one of the largest health care fraud cases in history, but the charges never took hold. Democratic strategist Steve Schale says opponents have consistently underrated Scott's political skills.

STEVE SCHALE: First of all, this is a guy that spends a lot of money on polling. He has a sense of where the voters are. He is a magician at manipulating the media. As he will say himself, he only says what he wants to be reported. And honestly, he's been lucky. He's run for re-election in two of the most Republican years in the last hundred, and certainly, he's benefited from that, as well.

ALLEN: Over the last year, Florida has been hit by a series of events that have tested Scott, including hurricanes Irma and Maria. In February, Scott rushed to Parkland after 17 people were killed in the mass shooting there and pledged action.

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SCOTT: The violence has to stop. We cannot lose another child in this country to violence in a school.

ALLEN: Working with Republican leaders in the Legislature, Scott was able to sign the first gun control legislation passed in Florida in more than two decades.

DAN GELBER: I think you've got to look at eight years, though.

ALLEN: Dan Gelber, a former Democratic leader in the Legislature, now mayor of Miami Beach, calls passage of the new gun law just a modest step.

GELBER: You know, all of these Republican officials, including the governor, have been very beholden to the NRA. They've given them an outsized influence over our state. They've allowed them to create a gun culture and a culture of violence.

ALLEN: Gelber and others say there's another part of his legacy¹² Scott may struggle with in a Senate campaign - his close ties to President Trump¹³. Scott was an early Trump supporter, and the president has urged him to run for the Senate. This election, many analysts¹⁴ believe, will in large part be a referendum on the president, one that may turn Rick Scott's close relationship with Trump into a liability. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

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