Though a risk-averse banker-type, Florida CFO Alex Sink is engaging in an intriguing political judo act with her latest ad that attacks Republican Rick Scott for attacking her over the state pension fund. True, the Scott/Republican Party ad is misleading in that it implies Sink was solely responsible for State Board of Administration investments, though she shares the duties with Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum. And it appears the ad doesn't give the most up-to-date losses of the investments, etc. More here
But it's not like the SBA has done a bang-up job. The board skirted legal advice and gambled on risky investments. Why draw attention to the SBA? Because, Sink says, there's another part of the story: The stock market went down, so nearly everyone lost money. And Florida's investments are highly rated by the industry.
But Sink could be playing with dynamite that either blows up on Scott or on her (or maybe it doesn't matter). Aside from the trap of talking about bad investments, Sink runs the risk of being in constant response-and-explain mode v. Scott, whose campaign is gleefully pointing out she hasn't responded to their ad over taxes. One at a time, guys.
To read whole story about how the trustees scrambled the state's nest egg (and why Bill McCollum is now coming to Sink's aid to cover his own keister) go here http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article970001.ece , and then vote for Michael E. Arth for governor.
http://www.michaelearth.org
Posted by: Michael E. Arth | October 02, 2010 at 07:15 AM