The blue wave victories of November did not reach the shores of Florida the way the very real climate-change waves crash into the state’s coast. Then-Gov. Rick Scott was able to successfully fool enough voters into forgetting his culpability and corruption in the Sunshine State and become Republican Senator Rick Scott. One of his campaign assurances was that as governor of Florida, he had put all of his wealth into a blind trust. Any bit of digging showed that this blind trust was mostly for show, as his wife—who didn’t have her investments and finances in a blind trust—seemed to basically share all of Rick’s assets.
Of course, right-wing Scott supporters might say, Hey, he does at least sort of have his finances in a blind trust. Fair enough. Guess what? Sen. Rick Scott isn’t interested in jumping through hoops to prove he isn’t corrupt and compromised when it comes to making decisions affecting millions of Floridians. As the Tampa Bay Times reports, Scott, probably feeling invincible for the next six years, has decided to do away with the blind-trust charade. “I’m not going to have a blind trust,” he said on Friday, telling reporters he would be making “regular filings” using the forms required of all congressional officials.
This doesn’t really change much about how Scott will perform his duties. It does highlight that his use of a blind trust was a sham. The richest governor in the history of Florida didn’t get that rich by doing the right thing.