The relationship between Florida\u2019s current Governor and his predecessor has been chilly at best.<\/p>\n
From the moment U.S. Sen. Rick Scott <\/strong>left the inauguration<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/strong> early, evidence has piled up of a dysfunctional working relationship and a personal animus. Now, new reporting suggests that the simmering conflict may boil over into a 2024 showdown on a national stage, even as Scott\u2019s Senate office told us again Friday afternoon that Scott is \u201crunning for re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u00a0Puck News<\/strong><\/a> article entitled \u201cWho\u2019s afraid of Rick Scott?\u201d suggests that one person with some trepidation might be DeSantis himself.<\/p>\n The current Governor has ridden high for months in polls of a still-hypothetical 2024 Republican Presidential Primary field, and Scott has been a marginal afterthought if polled at all. But the article by veteran journalist Tara Palmeri<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>suggests, as one DeSantis alum puts it, it\u2019s \u201cvery bad news\u201d if Scott indeed passes on a re-election bid after all and runs for the presidency.<\/p>\n \u201cScott is still leaving the door open for a presidential run in 2024,\u201d the report contends, citing a Scott advisor as saying the Senator \u201cwants to keep his options open.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, Palmeri suggests the Senator has been operating on two tracks. His Chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which started and ended with Democratic control of the Senate, was a way to \u201cbuild his own donor network across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRick is always a guy who maintains options because he has a checkbook,\u201d a \u201cformer DeSantis staffer\u201d was quoted as saying. \u201cHe\u2019s very disciplined and he doesn\u2019t do things half-assed. He\u2019s very analytical and it\u2019s a very dangerous proposition for DeSantis if he runs. Rick has the credibility to take the wind out of Ron\u2019s sails and he has the money to wear him out.\u201d<\/p>\n The attacks could take many forms, reportedly. \u201cScott views the DeSantis administration, I\u2019m told, as overly focused on culture war pi\u00f1atas rather than fiscal issues,\u201d Palmeri writes, before suggesting that double-Ivy DeSantis\u2019 student loan debt may be a campaign trail albatross, useful to \u201cframe DeSantis as a taxpayer-mooching grifter who is worth $300,000 while still carrying student loans.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether DeSantis\u2019 middle class level<\/a><\/strong> of personal wealth can inspire outrage against Scott, the richest man in the plutocratic U.S. Senate, remains to be seen. When running for office, DeSantis distanced himself from Scott amid controversy about the Senator\u2019s blind trust for his assets as Governor.<\/p>\n \u201cI basically made decisions to serve in uniform, as a prosecutor, and in Congress to my financial detriment,\u201d DeSantis said<\/a><\/strong> in October 2018. \u201cI\u2019m not complaining about that, but I\u2019m not entering (office) with a big trust fund or anything like that, so I\u2019m not going to be entering office with those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRick Scott\u2019s team is vicious,\u201d the former DeSantis aide said. \u201cIt\u2019s very bad news for Ron if Rick gets in the race because he has the resources to zero in on him. He can go around and say that Ron DeSantis is standing on his shoulders with credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who have followed the first four years of DeSantis\u2019 administration will recall a number of volleys one man lobbed at the other. Perhaps the most vivid was in 2020, when the state\u2019s creaky unemployment website couldn\u2019t handle the surge of applicants for reemployment assistance.<\/p>\n The Governor likened it to a \u201cjalopy in the Daytona 500<\/a><\/strong>\u201d and Scott urged him to \u201cquit blaming others<\/a><\/strong>\u201d for the website his administration inherited.<\/p>\n The chill between the former and current Governors didn\u2019t abate in time for 2022\u2019s hurricane season, when Scott said DeSantis didn\u2019t talk to him after the fearsome Hurricane Ian<\/a><\/strong> ravaged the state.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/220894-1-florida-politics-digital-ads-solar-728x90-1.jpg\")
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