Rick Scott to Jennifer Carroll "It's tough being lieutenant governor"
08/26/2014
She says she was treated like a step child. That the governor was aloof. That the staff treated her poorly. Florida's fired lieutenant governor - Jennifer Carroll - has written a book damning Scott and his administration for paying her little heed and tossing her overboard in a panic.
Few people will care. Few people will read the book. Few people know who was lieutenant governor or, who is now.
But for the folks who like this stuff, there is some interesting tidbits as reported by the Tallahassee Democrat and the Tampa Bay Times.
From the Tallahassee Democrat:
After being questioned by two Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents about work her public relations firm had done for a charity operating Internet cafes, Carroll said she was stunned when Scott chief of staff Adam Hollingsworth handed her a one-sentence resignation letter.
“It was a knee-jerk reaction,” she said of her decision not to fight for her elected post. “It was so demoralizing and disrespectful for Gov. Scott to send a subordinate to fire me.”
(Note: Carroll was never accused of any wrongdoing).
". . .during the inauguration, I was treated like an unwanted stepchild,” Carroll wrote. “That night at the ball, I was even instructed not to go out into the crowd. ... I think his staff was afraid he’d be upstaged.”
Early in the administration, she said, an attorney suggested she be sent to head theDepartment of Business and Professional Regulation or Department of Children and Families.
“I wondered if they just wanted me on the ticket to win, and after that were trying to push me out of the position by making me an agency head,” she wrote. “That way, the governor wouldn’t have to deal with me regularly or have to share the spotlight.”
". . . “No matter what I did to try to establish a relationship with the governor, nothing worked.”
From the Times:
In a parting shot, here's what Carroll has to say about her successor, Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who was chosen after a 10-month absence: "The new lieutenant governor is being treated even worse than I was from what I hear. He only has a small staff and he doesn’t have security. They gave him a car to drive himself around in. They haven’t given him much to do."
One should never be a lieutenant governor. Few have been happy in the job. Few have been taken seriously. Most are thrilled to be asked and miserable moments after the inauguration when they realize that the governor and his staff simply wants the LG to stay out of the way.
It is a position with no power or influence unless it is bestowed by the governor. After having his staff fire Carroll, Scott waited a year to appoint a new lieutenant governor.
Cleary Scott thinks the position is a waste of his time.
If Carroll really wants to cause mischief, she will start campaigning for Charlie Crist.
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