Although Gov. Rick Scott has had a shaky relationship with GOP leaders in the state legislature since he took office in January, several Republicans at UF are choosing to stand by the former health executive-turned-politician — at least for now.
A Quinnipiac University poll released April 6 showed that voter disapproval for Scott has more than doubled since Feb. 2. In April, 48 percent of voters who responded disapproved of Scott’s work so far, while 35 percent approved.
In Quinnipiac’s February poll, 35 percent of those polled approved of his work so far while only 22 percent did not.
In a poll by Public Policy Polling released March 29, respondents indicated that in a hypothetical rematch Scott would lose to Sink in a 56-37 result.
Sixteen percent of polled voters who said they voted for Scott also indicated they would switch to Sink, and 21 percent of Republicans said the same.
Despite the fact that November 2010 exit polls expected Scott to win the independent vote by eight points, the March poll indicated that in a rematch Sink would score the independents’ support by a 61-29 margin of victory.
While Democrats’ dislike of Scott comes as no surprise, there is concern that Scott’s scruples with Republicans in the legislature and his actions concerning the budget may have caused some Republican voters to falter in their support for the new governor.
Former chair of the UF College Republicans and current UF law student Bryan Griffin said although Scott’s recent actions cannot please every Republican, let alone every Florida resident, they are the necessary moves for a state burdened with economic woes.
“He has done what is necessary to make sure Florida doesn’t find itself in a worse-off place financially,” he said. ”He’s following through with his campaign promises.”
Griffin said sliding poll numbers should not be taken as an ultimate indicator of Florida voters turning their backs on Scott, as such data could be considered questionable given the number of those willing to answer the approval rating polls who already have a bias in mind.
Nevertheless, he believes the favorable fiscal results Scott will bring to the state by the end of his tenure will trump the backlash his administration is feeling now.
Christine Pratt, a UF law student and a registered Republican who voted for Scott, said in an email interview that she supports his budget cuts because, while painful at first, they will improve Florida in the long run.
When she graduates in May, she hopes to practice law for a government agency and knows she’ll feel the sting of those cuts when she applies for those jobs.
“But Rick Scott isn’t implementing these cuts to be evil and miserly,” she said. “He’s trying to do the right thing — he’s trying to keep the State of Florida out of bankruptcy,”
Kenneth Wald, a distinguished professor of political science at UF, said the problems between Scott and the Republicans in the Legislature arise from his inexperience with political office and the need to listen to other officials, Wald said.
“He is trying to run the state as if it were a corporation, and the reality is you have a board of directors in the Legislature that wants [to be] deeply involved,” he said.
Albert Matheny, associate dean of the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a political science professor, said in an email interview it is unclear how Republicans will handle Scott.
His campaign stance that conventional politics pitting Republicans against Democrats are a problem in Florida made him unpopular with traditional Republican leaders in Tallahassee.
Scott’s failure to consult Republican officials in the state capital about his initiatives and his disregard for their input will probably upset even the most conservative Republicans, he said.
Wald said Scott’s ideologies are more in line with the Tea Party than the Republican Party as a whole.
If he appears to defer to a single political faction like the Tea Partiers, it could backfire by alienating more moderate Republicans.
“We’ve seen Republicans dump governors who they felt were too far moderate,” Wald said. “Whether they would dump somebody who’s too far to the right (is uncertain)…we haven’t seen that before.”
Alligator Staff Writer CJ Pruner contributed to this report.
