Dockery Spits In Scott's Eye

And this is why I continue to admire Paula Dockery.

Via the Times:
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"Politics should have no place in the future of Florida's transportation, as evidenced by this letter of bipartisan support," said the letter, signed by 26 members of the Republican-controlled Florida Senate.

"This project would create real jobs, cleaner and smarter transportation and true economic development for Floridians," said the letter written to LaHood.

The letter was partly authored by one of Scott's first Senate backers, Republican Paula Dockery of Lakeland, who argued that the newly created Florida Rail Enterprise could act independently of Scott because the state's share of the rail money — $300 million — was already approved last year by a previous governor, Charlie Crist.
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A huge bulk of Florida lawmakers, real ones who know and care about how government works, is rightfully rebuking Scott's insane rejection of high-speed rail money. The bad thing is this money is now likely to land in the hands of a corporation with little oversight.

But I guess reducing government and corporate responsibility is another of Gov. Voldemort's main missions.

P.S. Paula, I still think you are cool, but are you regretting this whole Scott bandwagon thing yet?

Rick Scott, Killing Jobs

When someone calls any office that reports to the Florida governor right now, they will more than likely end up on hold, hearing new Gov. Rick Scott spout his campaign pledge to create 700,000 new jobs in seven years. But since arriving in Tallahassee, the government-hating government leader has done nothing but kill jobs and pay.

His most recent action today is the total rejection of high-speed rail, despite the fact the state government would have to pay nothing to get the rail and that there will be no return for taxpayers because of the rejection. I hoped having folks like Paula Dockery on his team would make a difference with this administration, but that was apparently mis-placed hope. The remarkable act of stupidity is being applauded by so-called conservatives, but the rest of the country is pretty much laughing at us right now.

Via Time's Adam Sorenson:
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"It's one thing to look a gift horse in the mouth. It's quite another thing to slaughter a gift horse and send its disemboweled corpse back to Washington.

Florida Governor Rick Scott just killed the Obama administration's marquee high-speed rail project, giving up a whopping $2.4 billion in federal funds for a Tampa-Orlando bullet train. This was the nation's most shovel-ready high-speed project, and the state wasn't required to spend a dime to build it; running through the heart of the politically sensitive I-4 corridor, it had bipartisan support in South Florida, where it was seen as a precursor to a long-awaited Orlando-Miami line."
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What do we lose? Of course, we miss out a popular and clean mode of public transportation. We miss being on the cutting edge of this debate, and we miss improving connectivity between our most important commerce centers in Central Florida.

But most pertinent to Scott's duplicitous logic, we lose JOBS.

We miss out on the short-term construction jobs from laying down track clear across the state of Florida.

We miss out on permanent service jobs manning the trains and maintaining the infrastructure.

We miss out on the secondary jobs which would be created for private-sector contractors providing needed equipment and material to support the presence of rail.

We miss out on high-tech jobs which would center along the track and explore new ways to improve the efficiency of the trains or to do a host of other things directly connected with the presence of rail.

That is a short list of the direct jobs which Scott could have taken credit for if he did nothing more than accept a free check for $2.4 billion.

Of course, Scott's job creation promise has a pesky qualifier. He wants seven years to create jobs. That means, of course, that when he runs for re-election, he won't have to prove he got anywhere close to that 700,000 number he has quoted ad nauseam. But he will try and claim every single job ever created, including those private sector jobs which came about without his assistance or in spite of his reckless and foolish interference.

What we cannot let happen is for the most jobs he has just flat-out prohibited be forgotten. This man just killed thousands of jobs, and he did it for not other reason than to keep a bunch of idiotic, short-sighted, uninformed and just plain stupid Tea Party voters happy, despite the fact many of them very well could have made money doing something as mindless as carrying bars of steel down the road so that more evolved co-workers would install them into rail track.

Update: Now, Obama wants to just send the rail money elsewhere and New York is yelling dibs.

Will Dockery Save Rail

I have never understood the connection between Paula Dockery, one of the Republicans in the state whom I respect most, and Rick Scott, our new Gov.-elect and perhaps the least useful person to ever move to the Sunshine State. But I hope that connection can help to save high-speed rail in some form in the state of Florida. If we ever want to see statewide mass transit or a reduction in vehicle emissions, this program is essential to Florida's future.

I have always been very fond of Dockery, and have been unafraid to admit it. I first met her when she joined the state Senate, representing a portion of Florida which included my home county of Lake. But I knew her by reputation before that, as Dockery was the greatest proponent of high-speed rail in Florida. Sure, a lot of that had to do with her husband C.C. Dockery's heavy investment in rail, but that investment itself demonstrated a belief in the project. And Dockery's strong environmental record, including the Florida Forever fund and push for better water management, shows a commitment to the environment which extend beyond laying track.

Sadly, voters saw little potential in Dockery for the governor's mansion, and instead have elected Gov. Voldemort, a man who proudly doesn't believe in global warming. Additionally, his hatred of all things Obama has him threatening to reject $2 billion in stimulus-funding for rail if Florida has to outlay even 10 percent of the project costs.

Of course, the presumptions many people are making about Scott's plans for rail are based on campaign trail rhetoric. We don't know how fixed he is to statements he made during the debates, especially when his campaign was so whole-heartedly trying to paint everything about Barack Obama and Alex Sink with a negative tint. Will he wiggle?

This is where Paula Dockery is so important. Perhaps out of anger at Bill McCollum, Dockery became a major player in the Scott campaign. She was doing post-debate media for Scott after debates in the primary. More recently, she was named to Scott's transition team. Whatever else I can say about the Dark Lord's judgment, this was a very smart move.

What does this mean for rail, though? That is a little complicated. While Dockery has been a major supporter of high-speed rail, she has also fought tooth and nail against SunRail, a program she views primarily as welfare for CSX and perhaps a detriment to genuine high-speed efforts. I wish both programs could move forward and create a complete transportation network, but in the current revenue-lite environment, that is too much too ask from a practical standpoint.

But I was excited to see Dockery join a rally led by Sen. Bill Nelson on the significance of high-speed rail. Via the Ledger:

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Dockery... has been one of the leaders in Florida's efforts to bring in high-speed rail, said she was committed to the project just as she has been for 21 years.

"We need to be leaders, not followers," she said. "You have my word I will do everything I can."

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And from a political point of view, it is obvious that much of the I-4 corridor, where Scott did poorly in the general election, favors the initiative. The rally was attended by leaders from Lakeland, Tampa and Orlando. And one of the things Scott has to realize very quickly if he is to accomplish anything in his first term is that the time for political rhetoric needs to end right now and the time for genuine governing must begin.

I hope Scott is smart enough to listen to Dockery on this one.

Paula Dockery Out of Governor's Race

I suspected this after seeing a media poll with Paula Dockery at 3 percent, but this is still disappointing to me. I have told people across the political spectrum that if Dockery was the nominee, she would be the first Republican I ever voted for in a statewide election. But this wasn't the right year for a bipartisan candidate.

From her statement:

"I'm also a realist and understand the costs of effectively competing statewide. At this point in the election cycle, I see no financial path to victory. And so today, with both resignation that the resources are not there and appreciation for the journey we shared, I am ending my campaign to be governor of the great state of Florida.

The problems for her campaign were numerous. She started with a name recognition deficit, a state Senator up against a sitting Attorney General race who previously ran two Senate campaigns. Bill McCollum has stronger donor support and a reliable voter base. Dockery is popular enough in Lakeland, so much so she initially won her Senate seat unopposed, but has no Dockery Army waiting for her command.

Her hope was to be the outsider candidate, but she was the wrong flavor for this political environment. As Senate candidate Marco Rubio whipped up conservatives anxious to "take back" the Republican Party in Florida, Dockery challenged her opponent from the left. She was an environmentalist, and fought numerous efforts to pay for tax cuts by raiding trusts and issuing unfunded mandates. She was wooing those Republicans who are leaving the party. While she said nice words about Tea Party enthusiasm, she was never one of them.

Then Rick Scott came and claimed the usurper mantel. After dropping $6 million on the race, the upstart has established himself as the McCollum alternative. He is completely unqualified, dangerous fringe, but his message resonates right now with anti-establishment voters in his party. I realize it is unwise to compare figures from two polls, but judging the new media poll against a Mason-Dixon published in early May, Scott is pulling voters from Dockery.

According to the Ledger, she is taking time to decide whether to stay in her seat. That shows a dignity and class rare among ambitious politicians. She won this seat in 2008 and is entitled to another two terms, but since a couple Republicans were already organizing campaigns, she may resign anyway. But that would be a loss for Central Florida. I don't think it is what should happen, and I don't think it will.

The first time I ever met Dockery, she spoke with sincerity about becoming state Senate President someday, but term limits and a tendency to name leadership years in advance have doomed that possibility. Still, Dockery is an impressive lawmaker, and one who still has a lot to offer Florida.