|
 Six years ago that businessman, Rick Scott, won Florida's
Republican primary for governor. He then went on to take the general
election. Now in his second term, Scott is in many ways a prototype
for Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential campaign.
Scott’s success in Florida is something that should give serious
pause to Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from the state who hopes to use
it as a springboard to unseat Trump as the leading contender for the
Republican nomination to the Nov. 8 election.
Florida’s March 15 primary, to select a wealth of delegates to the
Republicans' July nominating convention, is likely the final chance
for Rubio, and perhaps the Republican establishment, to halt the
furious advance of Trump, a billionaire businessman with homes in
New York and Florida.
Trump's two leading strategists in Florida have strong ties to
Scott, rebutting the commonly held presumption among Trump’s critics
that his campaign is all about the former reality TV show host's
celebrity and popular appeal and not about tactics.
 “Nobody thought he had a shot. Nobody!” said Joe Gruters, a top
Republican Party official in the state who was an early ally of
Scott and who now co-chairs Trump's Florida effort. “The
establishment threw everything you can imagine at Rick Scott.”
A first-term senator, Rubio has finished behind Trump in
early-nomination contests to date. Rubio grew up in Miami, and his
Cuban-American heritage could give him an edge with the state’s
burgeoning Latino population.
But Rubio is still climbing uphill in the state race. While he has
benefited from the withdrawal from the race of another Florida son,
ex-Governor Jeb Bush, he trails Trump significantly. A Quinnipiac
University survey released on Thursday showed Trump with 44 percent
of the Republican vote, with Rubio far behind at 28 percent.
The good news for Rubio is that it’s the highest level of support he
has had in the state, suggesting that he is moving upward when he
needs it the most. But it may not be enough with many voters having
cast early and absentee ballots.
“When you have such a commanding lead like Trump has in all these
states, you have the ability to focus on states like Florida where
you know you can deliver the knockout blow,” Gruters said.
SAME CLOTH
While other Republicans campaigned in early-voting states, Trump
served notice he was taking winning Florida seriously, methodically
holding large-scale events across Florida, including one in October
in Miami, home to both Rubio and Bush.
When Bush and Rubio came to Florida at all, it was largely to raise
money in closed-door fundraisers. “There’s a big difference between
when you have 10,000 people showing up to a rally, hearing the
battle cry and getting motivated,” Gruters said, “than when you are
meeting people for $10,000-a-plate dinners where you exclude the
rank-and-file members.”
 Bush’s campaign was in such poor shape near the end that when a
Reuters correspondent visited his state campaign office in Tampa, it
was deserted. All of the staff and volunteers had been sent to South
Carolina for a primary vote in an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to
rescue his presidential bid.
Gruters is vice-chairman of the state Republican Party, making him
perhaps the highest-ranking party official in the country to embrace
Trump. He heads Trump’s Florida effort with Susie Wiles of
Jacksonville, who ran Scott’s 2010 campaign. He said he sees strong
similarities between Scott and Trump.
[to top of second column] |
“It’s not unusual for Florida to elect these non-establishment
guys,” he said.
Scott was the former CEO of Columbia/HCA, the healthcare giant that
ultimately settled a massive billing fraud case brought by the U.S.
government during his tenure. When he entered the 2010 Republican
primary, the assumption was that it was Attorney General Bill
McCollum’s race to lose.
Financing his own campaign, Scott ran hard to McCollum’s right,
supporting Arizona’s then highly controversial anti-immigration law
and releasing an ad that ripped President Barack Obama for defending
a possible mosque in New York near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks.
Like Trump, Scott portrayed himself as a businessman better suited
to repairing the distressed economy than the Republican
establishment was. “They both bring the same kind of attitude to
government,” said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at
the University of South Florida, “that a business person can run
government better than professional politicians.”
Trump has contributed $125,000 to Scott’s political-action committee
since 2012. Some have speculated Scott could serve as Trump’s vice
presidential nominee.
But in what may serve as another lesson for Trump, Scott remains a
highly polarizing figure. His relationship with the state
legislature has been prickly — and his approval ratings have never
crossed 50 percent. “He entered politics with half the state’s
voters liking him,” MacManus said. “He’s never gone much beyond
that.”
PLAYING FROM BEHIND
Bush’s departure from the presidential race has left Rubio flying
the establishment flag. His local supporters say it already has made
a huge difference, both in terms of support and money.
“(Bush) was dividing votes,” Tom Rooney, a U.S. congressman from
Florida who is chairing Rubio’s campaign here, told Reuters. “We
don’t have that issue anymore.”
The Rubio campaign, in Florida as elsewhere, is not courting Trump’s
voters. It believes they are unlikely to switch. Instead, Rooney
said, the idea is to woo the 60-65 percent of the party that so far
has not supported Trump.
To that end, Rubio has been playing catch-up, opening new offices
and securing a bevy of endorsements from local politicians. But
Rooney concedes while Rubio has consoled himself with second-place
finishes in places such as Iowa and South Carolina, that will not be
enough in Florida, especially given that the winner gets all of the
state’s 99 delegates.
“When we get into the winner-take-all states,” Rooney said, “you
can’t come in second and say you’re doing well.”
(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Howard Goller)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
