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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Florida politics: florid and farcical
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Aug 23, 2010 11:13pm |
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| Category | Perspective |
| Author | Diane Roberts |
| Media | Newspaper - Guardian |
| News Date | Thursday, August 19, 2010 05:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In a state eternally associated with plastic mouse ears and dangling chads, it's traditional to call politics a "circus", and not just because Florida used to have a college for clowns. The primary elections take place on 24 August, and the people running for office will either make you laugh or scare the bejeezus out of you.
There are two men grappling for the Republican gubernatorial nomination: both very angry, both very white. Insider Bill McCollum is a former congressman who led Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings in 1998. Now, as Florida's attorney general, he's suing the federal government to stop the "socialist" healthcare reform bill. Outsider Rick Scott used to run the nation's largest hospital corporation, until it got caught defrauding medical programmes for the elderly and indigent to the tune of $1.7bn. Scott was not indicted or questioned in connection with the case, but was forced to resign as CEO. Nevertheless, he promises to run Florida government "like a business".
On the Democratic side, Adelaide "Alex" Sink, the state's chief financial officer, faces no real primary opposition, so she could well become Florida's first female governor. Sink has an exotic pedigree: she's the great-granddaughter of Chang and Eng, the original Siamese Twins who toured with Barnum's circus in the 1860s. But instead of shooting herself out of a cannon or walking a highwire, she's concentrating on raising money and looking sane. The most controversial thing she's done this election season is eat barbecued marsupial at the Wausau, Florida Possum Festival.
Scott and McCollum have appeared in several televised "debates", which were really hair-pulling, bitch-slapping, ****-slinging smackdowns. They never get around to discussing actual issues such as Florida's 12% unemployment or the BP oil disaster. |
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