With Florida State out of the running to win the College World Series, a few months until football season, the Legislature not meeting again until September and no elections on the immediate horizon, one of Tallahassees favorite pastimes these days is to speculate who Gov. Rick Scott will tap to replace Jennifer Carroll as lieutenant governor.
The latest name to surface for the post Carroll resigned in March is Orange County School Superintendent Barbara Jenkins.The Orlando Sentinel reported Tuesday nightthat Jenkins is a leading candidate for the position.But, on Wednesday, Scotts team insisted Jenkins was only a possibility and stressed that the search for a new lieutenant governor had not begun.
If selected, Jenkins would help Scott reinforce his credentials on education. Scott certainly looked to play up his commitment to education in the 2013 Legislative Session by making teacher pay raises one of his top priorities and supporting additional funds for Floridas schools. Jenkins would also help Scott in crucial Central Florida, which promises to be a battleground in 2014. As an African-American woman, like Carroll, Jenkins, in theory, would be able to help Scotts outreach to minority communities and female voters.
But there are some clear strikes against Jenkins. While she started her career in Orlando and did her undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Central Florida, Jenkins spent seven years in North Carolina working at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. While she came back to Orange County in 2005, she expressed interest in leaving as late as 2011. Only two years ago, Jenkins was looking to get out of Florida and take over the Atlanta Public Schools.Shes also only been at her current post for little more than a year.
Then there is her party registration. Jenkins, while she certainly has been supportive of Scotts efforts, is a Democrat. Now Florida Republicans have been known to back ex-Democrats on occasion -- just ask Claude Kirk or Bill Grant -- but this could take away one of the GOPs chief lines of attack in 2014. The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) has been hammering former Gov. Charlie Crist in recent months for leaving the GOP to run with no party affiliation in 2010 and then joining the Democrats in 2012. Theyre trying to let know voters think they cant trust Crist as he looks to take Scott on in 2014. If Jenkins is selected as Scotts running mate, you better believe Democrats will throw her party switch back at the RPOF and the governors supporters.
Scott could certainly use some help in the polls and perhaps Jenkins would help the governor appeal to moderates and independents. But Scotts standing with the GOP is far from secure. Besides the wounds left over from his battle against Bill McCollum in the Republican primary in 2010, some conservatives upset with Scott on a host of issues ranging from his support for taking federal monies for expanding Medicaid under the Obama healthcare law to suspending Liberty County Sheriff Nicholas Finch. Naming a Democrat as lieutenant governor seems a little risky unless Scott is confident his Republican base is firmly behind him.
Reach Kevin Derby atkderby@sunshinestatenews.comor at (904) 521-3722.
