Latest news out of Florida today courtesy of Mason-Dixon’s latest poll:
Yet another Florida poll shows a tied 2018 U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
Scott has not announced his candidacy. But pollsters are treating him as the de facto GOP nominee — and he’s tied with Nelson at 44 percent, according to a survey released Thursday by the Jacksonville-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy. Twelve percent of respondents were undecided.
The results represent a post-Hurricane Irma bump for Scott, who in February trailed Nelson by 45-41 percent. A Wednesday poll by Mason-Dixon found a majority of Floridians thought Scott handled Irma well.
“The swing has come primarily among unaffiliated voters, with Scott taking a 44-40 percent lead,” pollster Brad Coker wrote in a memo summarizing the results. “In February, nelson was ahead of Scott 46-37 percent among these Independents.”
Here are more details:
Both candidates have secured their base according to the Mason-Dixon poll as Nelson has the support of 82 percent of Democrats while Scott has reeled in the backing of 81 percent of Republicans. The governor takes 49 percent of men while 40 percent of them are for Nelson. Women lean the Democrat’s way with 47 percent of them for Nelson and 40 percent for Scott. There’s also something of a racial divide as a majority of whites--54 percent--are for Scott while around a third--34 percent--back Nelson while 87 percent of blacks go for the Democrat and only 4 percent of them are behind the Republican. Nelson leads with a majority of Hispanics, taking 54 percent while 32 percent are for Scott.
Scott has made up ground with voters outside the major parties. In the February Mason-Dixon poll, Nelson led 46 percent to 37 percent with these voters. In the new poll, Scott is ahead with 44 percent of voters outside the major parties while Nelson takes 40 percent of these voters.
The poll shows Scott with solid leads in North Florida--where he takes 57 percent to Nelson’s 33 percent--and Southwest Florida where the governor is up 53 percent to 36 percent. Nelson is up in Southeast Florida where he takes 58 percent and Scott pulls 31 percent. Scott is ahead 45 percent to 42 percent in Central Florida while both candidates take 42 percent in the Tampa Bay area.
Nelson and Scott are both in good shape with Florida voters. The poll finds 38 percent of those surveyed view Nelson in a favorable light while 21 percent see him as unfavorable while 27 percent are neutral on him and 14 percent have never heard of him. Scott is seen as favorable by 44 percent, unfavorable by 33 percent while 21 percent are neutral on him and 2 percent have never heard of him.
Scott’s performance in Tallahassee is approved by 53 percent of those surveyed while 40 percent disapprove of it and 7 percent are not sure. Half of those surveyed--50 percent--approve of Nelson’s performance in the Senate while 35 percent disapprove of it and 15 percent are not sure.
The poll of 625 registered Florida voters was taken from Oct. 17 through Oct. 19 and had a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.
Indeed, Scott is trying to capitalize on how he handled Hurricane Irma:
Scott’s political committee Let’s Get to Work released the 30-second ad on Wednesday. Politico reported that the political committee is expected to spend nearly $2 million on the ad.
The Republican governor is being forced to leave office next year due to term limits. Scott is expected to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018, but he has not officially announced he is a candidate. Nelson is a Democrat.
The ad mentions Irma at the beginning but then mentions that Scott is pushing to get federal money to repair the Lake Okeechobee dike and that he pushed a constitutional amendment to limit future tax increases.
But Scott will still have to face the music on this:
Before Gov. Rick Scott and South Florida healthcare mogul Dr. Jack Michel began pointing fingers at each other after elderly patients baked to death in Michel’s now-closed Hollywood nursing home, the two men were pals of a sort.
At least twice, the governor’s office tapped Michel to publicly endorse his budget and healthcare proposals. And since 2013, records show, Michel’s Larkin Community Hospital in South Miami has received more than $23 million from a Scott-recommended program that uses Medicaid tax dollars to train future doctors.
But that’s not the only largesse the state has lavished on Dr. Michel, who in addition to being president and chairman of Larkin is its 100 percent owner. Michel also owns 100 percent of the notorious Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, state records show.
The Naples Daily News reported last month that Larkin “has received $48 million in taxpayer money since 2006 to treat state prisoners” under “no-bid agreements.”
The most recent five-year contract was to run until Dec. 20, 2017, but in June of this year the Department of Corrections extended it until June 30, 2018 and can be renewed for an additional three years. Under its terms, Larkin subcontracts with prison healthcare vendors to treat state inmates in “a secure hospital unit” at Larkin Community Hospital.
Larkin also receives state payments to develop a university campus and create jobs under a Qualified Brownfield Redevelopment Bonus Tax Refund Agreement signed in 2013 by Michel and Jesse Panuccio, the governor’s appointee as executive director with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
The deal calls for Florida to refund to Larkin hospital $300,000 in corporate income, property and other taxes paid between now and 2025. The project is for a “university campus that includes a school of osteopathic medicine, a school of nursing, a college of pharmacy and a school of dentistry.”
Ad Nelson is pushing to look into this:
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee announced today that it is launching an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 14 residents at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills nursing home in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
The investigation comes following a request from Florida’s U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a senior member of the committee.
The residents of the nursing home were left without power and no air conditioning in the days following the Sept. 10-11 devastation by Hurricane Irma. Two days after the storm left, two residents were found dead in their beds and others were rushed to the hospital, where 12 more would die after apparently being baked in the sweltering facility.
Florida is investigating, and has revoked the home’s license, and the owners of the home are suing the state over that revocation.
“It is my understanding that it is the state’s responsibility to certify a nursing home’s compliance with all federal emergency preparedness regulations in order to receive federal payments under the Medicare and Medicaid programs,” Nelson wrote on Sept. 29 to U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, and Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, who serve as the panel’s Chairman and Ranking Member respectively.
“Because the certification for a skilled nursing facility is subject to CMS approval, and the Senate Committee on Finance has jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid programs, I urge the Committee to use its authority to conduct a complete investigation into the State of Florida’s certification of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills to determine what led to the deaths of 12 seniors there in the wake of Hurricane Irma,” Nelson’s letter continued.
Responding to Nelson’s request, Hatch and Wyden sent letters Tuesday to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, requesting information about its new nursing home emergency preparedness requirements, and to the state of Florida seeking answers to questions regarding the state’s emergency preparedness plans and response to Hurricane Irma.
This is going to be one expensive and nasty race and we have to get ready to defeat Trump’s BFF. Click here to donate and get involved with Nelson’s re-election campaign.