Florida Governor Rick Scott Is So Unpopular He Would Lose To A Figment Of Voters' Imagination

06/12/2012

Florida Governor Rick Scott is entering Al-Pacino-third-act-monologue stage of villainy, going on the following rant about the DoJ's warning to stop his voter purge:

It’s a no-brainer. Think about it. We don’t want non-U.S. citizens voting. In Florida, the debate’s over. Now Justice is saying we’re doing something wrong. We want to make sure that our voters get to vote and but non-U.S. citizens don’t vote. It’s simple...This is not a partisan issue. This isn’t Republican, Democrat or independent. This is protecting the rights of U.S. citizens and not diluting their vote by non-U.S. citizens. When non U.S. citizens register to vote and vote, it is illegal. It’s a crime it shouldn’t be happening in our great state. We’re trying to fix our voters rolls and they’re trying to stop us. It doesn’t make any sense.

(If you're anything like me, you heard "HE'S AN ABSENTEE LANDLORD" throughout that entire thing.)

If Scott needs an update on why his voter purge actually disenfranchises more people than the voter fraud it supposedly prevents, and why the DoJ has every motive to stop it, Think Progress dug up this reminder from former Attorney General and current Romney advisor Mike Mukasey:

At the same time, the Court acknowledged the undeniable fact that voter ID laws can burden some citizens’ right to vote. It is important for states to implement and administer such laws in a way that minimizes that possibility. And it is important for the Department to do its part to guard against that possibility. We will not hesitate to use the tools available to us — including the Voting Rights Act — if these laws, important though they may be, are used improperly to deny the right to vote.

But Scott might want to shut his big mouth anyway, as Public Policy Polling finds him losing to a figment of voters' imagination. Hit it:

Several polls have shown now that Rick Scott would lose in 2014 if Charlie Crist became a Democrat and ran against him but our newest survey finds that Democrats might not need that high of a profile candidate to knock off Scott, at least if he remains this unpopular. 5% of voters in the state have a positive opinion of State Senator Nan Rich. Only 14% have even heard of her. And despite that she still leads Scott by 12 points in a hypothetical match up, 47-35.

The voter purge has a lot to do with this. PPP found that only 34% of voters approved of kicking people with foreign-soundin' names off the voter rolls, compared to 50% disapproval.

There has been mention that the effort could give emblazon Scott's image and give him Scott Walker-type turnaround. PPP rolls its polling eyes: the lowest Walker's rating ever got was 43%, which would be a record high for Scott.

Why the consistently low ratings for a governor elected two years ago in a tea party wave? Ed Kilgore remembers way, way back:

Maybe some Florida reader can explain Scott to me. As I vaguely recall from 2010, Scott, a man who became filthy rich running a for-profit hospital chain and managed to avoid personal liability for said chain’s gigantic Medicare fraud bust which led to his firing, won the Republican gubernatorial nomination by posing as a Tea Party zealot and spending a gazillion dollars to beat a dim party hack. He narrowly won the general election by spending the rest of his gazillions and riding the largest GOP wave since maybe 1946. He’s been increasingly unpopular from practically the moment he was elected, but that has had little effect on his behavior.

Scott clearly realizes he was elected on a fluke, and wants to wrap Florida up in a GOP cocoon before it has a chance to swing back toward the center. (He should try redistricting.) Romney has a decent but not insurmountable lead in the state, the largest of his leads in swing states, and is counting on America's Wang to help him close the electoral college gap. Scott's no doubt hoping Romney's prioritization of Florida will help him, and he wants to help Romney back by futzing with the voter rolls. But if he's not careful, he could become so toxic that Romney won't want anywhere near him.

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