Rick Scott and Bill Nelson didnt square off last year in the gubernatorial election, but signs are starting to point to a fight between the two Florida politicians down the road.
Last week, after speculation grew that the governor could take Nelson on in 2018, Floridas senior senator fired a warning shot at Scott over how his administration cracked down on state government officials, using the term climate change in official communications.
Nelson even went on the Senate floor to talk about it in a speech Thursday.
Scientists simply must have the tools and the ability to tell us what they observe, without limitation on the terms that they can speak, Nelson said. "Lets make clear that public science cannot be muzzled, that we wont support censorship.
This is just the latest round between the two. Throughout 2013 and the first months of 2014, when he flirted with running for governor, Nelson spent an inordinate amount of time attacking Scott and Republicans in the Legislature, calling them a tea party government and hitting them on various issues: education, transportation and Medicaid. Scott hasnt been as aggressive, but hes fired back on Nelson over the years on various issues.
Making things even more intriguing, Democrat-pollster PPP came out with a poll showing Nelson and Scott, who are both pretty well-known, running close, with the Democrat having only a 4 percent lead.
A Nelson-Scott race would certainly offer Florida voters a stark electoral choice. Whatever his moderate persona, Nelson has backed the Obama White House on all the major issues, including Obamacare. Scott burst on the political scene by being against Obamacare and leveraged his opposition to it all the way to the governors mansion.
Nelson and Scott also offer sharply contrasting political personas. When he ran against Bill McCollum and Alex Sink, Scott showed off his lack of political experience in contrast to those two Cabinet officials. Nelson is far more of a career politician than even McCollum was since the Democrat was first elected to a Florida House seat all the way back in 1972.
Both Nelson and Scott can be underestimated by their enemies. Republicans thought they had Nelson on the ropes in 2012, but he utterly destroyed Connie Mack. Nelsons been winning elections in Florida for decades in spite of his bland persona. Few politicians know the state as well as Nelson does and work it harder.
Democrats have been underestimating Scott for years, even as he beat Sink and Charlie Crist, dismissing his wins as the result of money. Scotts persona is, at best, awkward, but his economic record and ideas have helped him win his two elections.
The Senate election is still more than three-and-a-half years away and plenty can happen in that time. Nelson will be 76 in 2018 and could well end up retiring as so many of his colleagues have in recent years: Tom Harkin, Jay Rockefeller and now Harry Reid. But, for the moment, Florida looks as if it could be home to yet another high-profile election.
Tallahassee based political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis exclusively for Sunshine State News.
