Rick Scott might have beaten Charlie Crist by only 60,000 votes -- but the governor is pushing for his conservative agenda as if he had a big mandate.
But if Scott won by a small margin in November, other Republicans and conservatives fared much better on Election Day. Scott has all the right in the world to go forward with his plan to cut taxes and warn about the dangers of big government, which is exactly what he did in his inaugural address on Tuesday.
Voters across the nation and in Florida are accepting Scotts message. In Florida, Scotts Cabinet colleagues all won big and the GOP defeated six Democrats in the state House to claim a veto-proof majority. At the national level, the GOP took back the Senate from Harry Reid and the Democrats.
Just like 2010, Scott has proven less popular than his party. Despite that, he held on to a narrow win over Republican-turned-no-party-affiliation-turned-Democrat candidate Crist. Scott has nothing to lose by pushing for his agenda, especially with a strong majority in the House and a solid one in the Senate.
Of course, Democrats are up in arms. Allison Tant sent out a statement on Tuesday whining that a majority of voters didnt support Scott. As if that ever slowed down the likes of Bill Clinton, who was kept under 50 percent of the popular vote twice, or JFK or Woodrow Wilson. Sorry, Mr. Lincoln. Sixty percent of the voters didnt back you so try to be an insignificant president. The governor can ignore the case Tant and the Democrats are making and proceed full steam ahead.
Scott also has the luxury of having advanced as far up the ladder as he can go for the moment. Whatever presidential aspirations Scott has will have to be held in check for the time being as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio take their shots. Its hard to imagine Scott, who was a business executive long before he was governor, in the Senate. There is simply no political downside for Scott advancing conservative fiscal policy and tax cuts.
Based on his inaugural speech on Tuesday, Scott knows this. He is going to keep his eye on creating jobs, cutting taxes and luring new businesses to Florida. Its what he did in his first term and it assured that he would win a second term. With the political winds behind him, Scott has no reason to take his foot off the gas now -- and, as his inaugural address shows, he has no plans to.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis exclusively for Sunshine State News.
