News has been trickling in about Rick Scott's refusal to answer questions
regarding a 2013 hunting trip to the King Ranch, in Texas -- financed
by Florida's powerful sugar lobby.
That he won't answer questions is no big surprise -- but remember in 2010 when Rick Scott accused his Republican primary opponent of being "bought and paid for" by the sugar industry? What a difference four years makes.
The Florida Times-Union's Ron Littlepage didn't mince words:
U.S. Sugar has already contributed $534,462 to Scott's re-election campaign, which I guess makes him "bought and paid for" as well.
These shady trips are just the kind of thing we've come to expect from
Scott, but it got worse.
The
Tampa Bay Times reported
that just one month after his 2013 trip to the King Ranch, Scott appointed
a King Ranch employee to the board of the South Florida Water Management
District, an agency that oversees everglades restoration.
(That begs the question: Is installing a man with direct ties to big agriculture,
including sugar -- some of the biggest polluters of everglades waters
-- effectively sending the fox to guard the henhouse?)
But if that wasn't bad enough,
the
Times also reported:
Months after Scott's hunting trip, the Legislature passed and Scott signed a bill that environmental groups say lets sugar growers pay less than their fair share for repairing damage they did to the Everglades, sticking taxpayers with the bill for the rest.
Did the legislation come up during the trips to King Ranch? No legislator will say.
It's not too hard to connect the dots here. Rick Scott and his GOP allies may not be talking, but the governor is enjoying the buck he shot on his trip. Let's throw it to Ron Littlepage again:
He had the buck mounted. Big Sugar probably did the same with a picture of Scott.
This is the exact kind of behavior we've unfortunately come to expect
from Scott -- he's bought and paid for by special interests, at the
expense of real Floridians.
Think of three friends of yours who might be considering voting for Scott,
and need to know this story. Then share it on Facebook or Twitter:
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One person at a time is how we'll win this November.
Thanks,
Scott Free Florida