Struggling in the polls, Rick Scott can take a page from other Florida politicians as he looks to improve his chances for re-election. This week he unveiled the states Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2012 -- and revealed one of the best weapons in his political arsenal as he seeks a second term next year.
Scott revealed Thursday that Floridas crime rate dropped 6.5 percent from 2011 to 2012, including 43,500 fewer crimes and 4,218 fewer violent crimes. Scott trumpeted these numbers, highlighting Floridas lowest crime rate since 1981.
It is because of the hard work of Floridas law enforcement community that we can celebrate todays great news about Floridas crime rate, Scott said before pivoting to job creation. Having a low crime rate is important to my goal of creating jobs and opportunities for Florida families, and making our state the best state in the nation to live, work or raise a family.
Scott and his team have taken in recent months to pointing to lower unemployment rates, crowing its working as Florida continues its economic recovery. But the lower unemployment rate has done little to help Scotts image, and he continues to trail most of the likely Democratic candidates in the polls. Scott also remains upside down in the polls with more voters disapproving of his performance in Tallahassee than supporting it.
In truth, though, it has been nearly four months since any notable survey has measured Scott's popularity.
While Scott has been more focused on Floridas economy and creating jobs than he has been on fighting crime, he could turn the numbers on the states crime rate to his advantage. Certainly there have been Republican politicians who have made political hay on crime in recent years. Before he won applause for his response to the 9/11 attacks, Rudy Giuliani became the first Republican mayor of New York City in a generation by focusing on fighting crime.
But the governor can also look to a Florida Republican whose background -- like Scotts -- was primarily in the private sector instead of in government. In 1966, Claude Kirk was the first Republican to win a gubernatorial election in almost a century. Kirk was certainly helped by liberal Miami Mayor Robert King High defeating the more conservative Gov. Haydon Burns in the Democratic primary which led North Florida Democrats to back the Republican in the general election.
But Kirk also scored major political points by attacking Highs record on crime, slamming Miami for being open to organized crime. Helped by a bevy of white papers, Kirk was able to portray himself as tougher on crime than High -- which helped lead to a major political upset that November.
There are other examples Scott can look to as well. Lawton Chiles tried to portray himself as tougher on crime than Bob Martinez in 1990. Jeb Bush tried the same strategy against Chiles in 1994 but came up a little short. Still, when Bush ran again for governor and won in 1998, he was able to make crime an issue, arguing that he supported lethal injection instead of just the electric chair.
In short, Florida voters have a history of supporting candidates who are seen as tough on crime. With the announcement this week that Florida has its lowest crime rate in more than 40 years, Scott has taken one issue away from Charlie Crist, Bill Nelson, Alex Sink or whoever ends up with the Democratic nomination. Scott is still extremely vulnerable to be sure -- but not on the issue of crime.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis piece exclusively for Sunshine State News.
