Crowley Political Report

 With recent polls suggesting that Governor Rick Scott is closing the gap with Charlie Crist, the Florida Democratic Party is hoping to do a bit of damage with its first campaign ad in 2014 governor's race.

The 30-second ad is intended to question Scott's integrity by reminding voters that he was CEO of Columbia/HCA - a national hospital company - that paid $1.7 billion in fines for Medicare fraud. Scott, who was forced to resign from the company said he was unaware of any wrongdoing and would have stopped it had he known.

This ad reminds voters that during depositions, Scott refused to answer questions 75 times.

The male voice in ad says:

Maybe you’ve heard about what was the largest Medicare fraud in history, committed when Rick Scott was a CEO.  

Or that Scott’s company paid record fraud fines of 1.7 billion dollars.  

And when Scott was deposed in lawsuits about his company, he took the fifth seventy-five times.  

Meaning, seventy-five times, Scott refused to answer questions because – if he had – he might admit to committing a crime.

A troubling past.  And now Rick Scott is our governor.  

Scott's campaign has spent many millions over the past months building up Scott and tearing down Crist. Democrats have been on the sidelines with political advertising lacking the money to match Scott's impressive firepower.

It will be interesting to see if this ad has any impact.

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