In his heart of hearts, Rick Scott would probably rather govern from Naples than from Tallahassee.
The capital city is enemy territory for the retired health-care executive hell-bent on downsizing state government. Even some resident Republicans pose a rear-guard threat to Scott, who launched his crusade by toppling party favorite Bill McCollum in the GOP primary.
Scott's agenda as governor is clear, and it is clearly not business as usual. Veering to the right of mainstream Republicans, he would:
- Cut property taxes by 19 percent.
- Phase out the state business tax.
- Reduce the state work force by 5 percent.
- Sell the state airplane and eliminate lawmakers' pet spending projects (called "turkeys" by Florida TaxWatch).
- Drug-test welfare recipients.
"I will stand up to the Tallahassee insiders who have failed us," Scott says.
Whether he can get the Legislature to go along is an open question.
Incoming legislative leaders, headed by Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon, appear to share Scott's sweeping agenda. Both lawmakers are fiscal conservatives, but each also supported McCollum.
If Scott becomes governor, it will be despite residual sore feelings by some GOP stalwarts, notably McCollum himself, who has sulked on the sidelines during the fall campaign.
THE 'GOVERNATOR,' PART II?
Though Scott clearly knows how to run large-scale organizations, his outsider image and his lack of political experience are both blessings and curses.
In many respects, his nomination was payback for a Republican Party that had become smug, if not corrupt, under disgraced party boss Jim Greer. Just as Marco Rubio ran Greer crony Charlie Crist out of the party, Scott routed career politician McCollum.
But when it comes to governing, conventional wisdom suggests that Scott will have to mend fences and make accommodations with GOP leaders in Tallahassee.
Or not.
Californians know that story line from their governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The popular film star was elected governor, and quickly found that Sacramento was a vastly different place to Hollywood.
"It's been difficult for Schwarzenegger," says Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. "We're not electing a dictator, we're electing a governor."
Scott, however, has the capacity to surprise, and to inspire. Colleagues and competitors from his days at HCA/Columbia and other business ventures alternately describe him as "entrepreneurial," "empowering," "intense" and "focused."
And, refreshingly for a big-time CEO, Scott comes off as humble and sincere in one-on-one situations.
At HCA, there was no executive dining room, no preferred parking places for executives, no teak-wood, richly paneled offices. Scott went through the lunch line and ate in the corporate cafeteria just like everyone else.
Most people interviewed for this article believe that Scott's opponent, Alex Sink, would have an easier learning curve as governor, given her four years as the state's chief financial officer.
Seth McKee, professor of political science at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, said, "Most troubling is Scott's utter lack of political experience. It is unclear just how he would go about performing such an important job while knowing hardly anything about public affairs.
"The 'outsider' line may win votes, but it will inevitably lead to major problems in the role of governing."
One of those built-in "problems" could be Tallahassee's skeptical and, in some cases, left-leaning capital press corps.
But Scott's wide-ranging experience as chief executive of an expansive, multibillion-dollar health-care company provides clues for success.
He was ahead of his time using performance measurements. Now its done everywhere," one Scott colleague told the Gulf Coast Business Review recently.
He got more out of 24 hours in a day than anyone, added an HCA executive.
And shattering the stereotype of the domineering CEO, Scott's co-workers say they never felt micro-managed or marginalized.
"The culture was inclusive. He had little tolerance for intolerant people," the HCA manager said.
Sink has hammered Scott for the $1.7 billion that HCA paid in Medicare fines after Scott left the company. Scott accepts responsibility, while noting that many other heath-care concerns, including Harvard and Duke medical centers, were fined during that time, as well.
In fact, Scott and his management team believed that the company could have successfully fought the penalties, but HCA's board of directors thought otherwise.
McKee says the Medicare episode undermines Scott's credibility.
"The talk of demanding governmental accountability doesn't come across as authentic because of his evasiveness in his professional dealings and the notoriety garnered from ducking questions while under oath," the professor said.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Growing up in humble circumstances in the Midwest, Scott married young, joined the Navy, earned a law degree and embarked on a series of small and large business ventures that made him a multimillionaire. After HCA, Scott and his family moved to Naples.
His eventual entry into Florida politics, and his willingness to spend his personal fortune doing so, reveals a desire to keep the state from going the way of California and New York, where stiflingly high taxes squelch entrepreneurship and kill jobs.
As a captain of industry, Scott says he has the tools to create 700,000 private-sector jobs in seven years while making Florida "the most attractive state to do business."
Scott's message of lower taxes and smaller government resonates with voters anxious about the economy and evermore skeptical about big public spending schemes coming out of Washington.
As a state's right advocate, Scott quickly embraced Arizona's tough immigration law and fully supports Florida's legal challenge to Obamacare.
Taking an equally strong line in favor of school choice and education reform, Scott is closely aligned with Jeb Bush and state Sen. John Thrasher, the outgoing chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
Agree with him or not, there's no question where Scott stands -- a contrast to Sink, who maneuvers for wiggle room with nuanced positions on hot-button issues.
As a self-funded outsider with no political IOUs, Scott would be free to make tough decisions that could rattle the establishment.
"He's more likely to cut because he doesn't know the people," predicts Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch.
Scott's direct approach and targeted agenda will challenge some of the grandees in Tallahassee, from both political parties. But with dominant Republican majorities in both houses of the Legislature, and the most conservative House and Senate leaders in recent years, Scott appears to have the political winds at his back.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341
