Gov. Rick Scott may not be an official candidate for the U.S. Senate yet, but that hasn’t stopped him from dumping a few million dollars into a new ad campaign highlighting his work on Hurricane Irma recovery efforts.
This week, Scott launched a $2 million TV ad campaign. The ad hones in on Hurricane Irma, a Category 4 storm which made landfall in Florida last month. The storm engulfed the majority of Florida with high-speed winds and heavy rains.
Irma caused heavy flooding and significant damage in the Florida Keys, where the storm made its first landfall at the beginning of September.
“Hurricane Irma was the worst of nature, but it brought out the best in Floridians with neighbors helping neighbors,” Scott says in the ad.
In the ad, the governor says he’s prioritized Floridians’ needs by pushing for repairs to the Lake Okeechobee dike and putting forward a new constitutional amendment to make it more difficult for the state legislature to raise taxes.
Repairs to the Lake O dike were scheduled to take another eight years, but Gov. Scott said he wants to cut the $1.7 billion project’s finished timeline down to five years. The governor has also said he has President Donald Trump’s commitment to fully fund dike repairs.
Unmentioned in the ad is Scott’s rumored ambition for higher office. Instead, he chooses to highlight an undeniable high point in his governorship -- and newly-released polls seem to agree, with two-thirds of Floridians saying they had a favorable impression of how Scott handled the storm.
A recent survey from Mason-Dixon Polling showed over a third of Floridians -- 35 percent -- rated Gov. Scott’s hurricane performance as “excellent” while another third -- 31 percent -- said it was “good.”
A smaller number of Floridians (25 percent) viewed Scott’s performance as “fair” while only four percent deemed it “poor.”
Democrats and Scott’s possible opponent, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, have largely criticized how Scott handled the hurricane, specifically focusing on the deaths of 13 elderly people in a Hollywood nursing home.
"We don’t know all the facts, it will come out in the criminal investigation, but it is inexcusable that eight frail elderly people would die," Nelson said, criticizing Scott.
Nursing home officials said they repeatedly tried to call the governor for assistance when the home became sweltering after losing power during the storm, while Gov. Scott said he was not responsible for the deaths because the home did not call 911 for help soon enough.
Scott is taking advantage of not being an official federal candidate just yet -- the governor can run ad campaigns similar to this through his Let’s Get to Work Committee, which can take unlimited corporate money.
If and when Scott becomes a U.S. Senate candidate, these types of ad campaigns would be prohibited.
Polls show Scott could benefit from large ad buys -- a University of North Florida poll released this week showed Scott and Nelson in a dead heat going into 2018.
The survey showed Nelson taking 37 percent with Scott right behind him at 36 percent. Only seven percent of voters back other candidates and 20 percent are not sure.
Scott has closed in on Nelson in recent months. Back in February, UNF released a poll showing Nelson up 44 percent to 38 percent.
View Scott's new ad below:
