Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he is less concerned about his approval ratings than the unemployment mark.
When asked following an appearance before the Rotary Club of Tallahassee, Scott didnt directly address the results of a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier in the day that indicated Floridians have a low opinion of their governor.
The number I look at every month is our unemployment rate, Scott told reporters at the Leon County Civic Center event.
Were bucking the national trend, weve come down 2.5 percent in the last 17 months.
Scott is upside down in the poll, with 49 percent of those surveyed disapproving of the governor while 39 percent approve of his tenure in Tallahassee. Nevertheless, a solid majority of 60 percent support Scotts effort to stop noncitizens from voting, purging them from the rolls.
Meanwhile, Scott didnt gloat when asked about the results in the poll that found a solid majority of Floridians supported his ongoing effort to clear non-U.S. citizens from county lists of registered voters.
Ive not met one person in our state who said non-U.S. citizens should be voting in our elections, Scott said. Its my job to make sure that only U.S. citizens vote in our races.
On Tuesday, a coalition of civil rights groups -- groups that adamantly claim to be nonpartisan -- filed a lawsuit charging Florida with race discrimination for how it has gone about trying to find people ineligible for voting on the county registration lists.
This was the third lawsuit filed against the state -- joining one by the ACLU of Florida and another by the U.S. Department of Justice -- seeking to halt the states work.
Florida has countered with its own lawsuit to gain access to the Homeland Security Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database the governors office has requested since September. The state claims it has tried in vain to get DHS's help in finding noncitizens among Floridas registered voters.
Read more of the poll results here.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
