Florida’s Choice: First Woman Governor or a Crook?

In 2003, EMILY’s List toasted Alex Sink as the only pro-choice member of Florida's cabinet. Unsurprisingly, she is also its only woman. Florida has never had a female governor; its one and only female U.S. senator survived one term. It's one of the many reasons the Florida gubernatorial elections this November are critical.

When Floridians go to the polls on November 2, they have two stark options for governor. There’s Alex Sink, a pro-choice Democrat and the state’s Chief Financial Officer, running on a record of competence and bipartisanship. The man she running against is a parasite at best, a criminal at worst.

Rick Scott, the Republican nominee for governor of Florida, has spent his professional career in the health care field. In 1998, he was ousted from his position as CEO of Columbia/HCA after the company pled guilty to 14 felony charges of defrauding the government of Medicare funds and paying a record $1.7 billion in fines (criminal). In his next business venture, Solantic clinics, is a chain of for-profit medical clinics in Florida. In both 1993 and recently, Scott has been a loud, organized, and well-funded opponent of health care reform -- mostly because he feeds off of high insurance costs, defrauding the government, and luring the uninsured to his clinics (parasite). Not even all Republicans can get on board with Scott’s sleaze, as demonstrated by conservative political strategist Dick Morris who told a reporter, "I think Rick Scott is a criminal who belongs in jail not in the governor's office."

While the Senate and the House are receiving most of the media's attention, the gubernatorial races this year are crucial. Just this year, current-Florida governor Charlie Crist vetoed a bill that would force women who seek an abortion to view an ultrasound and hear a description of the fetus, and restrict any public funds from elective abortions. In a state like Florida, that's not the last time a dangerous anti-choice bill will make it to the governor's desk. Sink would veto it too. With the country in recession, either Sink or Scott will be making important decisions next year, from what to cut (Scott will go after social services and education), whether to accept vital stimulus funds (Scott will not), and influence the redistricting process which will have a huge impact on which party governs the state for the next decade.

This is a crucial and a competitive race. You can contribute to Sink's campaign here and read an endorsement here. So Florida, first woman governor ... or crook?

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons