Associated Industries of Florida hosted a closed-door breakfast fund-raiser with Rick Scott Friday. For more than an hour, the Republican candidate for governor talked about his agenda for creating jobs, improving schools and having a viable private insurance market in Florida -- an AIF priority.
AIF was willing to allow a reporter to listen, but the company said Scott's campaign vetoed the idea because he wants fund-raisers to be private. "He talked about the business environment in Florida, and how he wants to make it No. 1," AIF's Barney Bishop said afterward. "He talked about helping companies that are already in Florida grow before he talked about bringing companies to Florida."
AIF co-endorsed Scott and Bill McCollum in the GOP primary, and now supports Scott over Democrat Alex Sink. The self-proclaimed "voice of business" is representative of the special interest culture that Scott spent the entire primary campaign bashing, but Scott is saying he wants to be inclusive and listen to all interest groups in the general election cycle.
Bishop said Sink never had any chance of competing for the firm's endorsement because she refused to fill out a seven-issue questionnaire. "How dare somebody run for governor and think they don't have to answer questions? I'm just flabbergasted," Bishop said.
-- Steve Bousquet
The flawed logic in the Times’ Jennifer Carroll launch
http://bit.ly/boxy1q
Posted by: Saint Petersblog | September 03, 2010 at 12:24 PM
Creating jobs is #1 priority for Scott but creating jobs that could go to illegal aliens who make up 8% of the current workforce, then it is a wasted effort.
To make sure all jobs created in Fl go to legal workers we have to have mandatory e-verify so only legal workers will be hired.
Posted by: George Fuller | September 03, 2010 at 10:24 PM
Scott says he wants to get laws passed to control illegal immigration and I take him at his word.
He ran the primary without special interest groups but now they are all over him like a cheap suit.
I will get worried if he gets in bed with the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (COC) and the ASSOCIATED BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS (ABC).
Both groups oppose and have gone to court across the country to fight legislation that would bar illegal alien workers.
If Scott is friendly with COC and ABC then the legal workers of the state could be thrown under that big bus he tours in.
Posted by: George Fuller | September 03, 2010 at 10:29 PM
AIF is incredibly arrogant, and Barney Bishop is a bufoon, although a very well paid one!
Posted by: Harold Manoginslogin | September 04, 2010 at 10:14 AM