The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Jeremy Wallace reports today that Sarasota GOP chairman Joe Gruters has "announced a petition drive this week to push (Rick) Scott to select state Rep. Doug Holder" to be his next Lieutenant Governor.
Holder is quoted as saying "What an unexpected surprise." Hmm. We heard from others that Holder was putting his name out immediately as a possible choice for the governor in the immediate aftermath of Jennifer Carroll's departure. Carroll was told to stand down after her name surfaced in the scandal involving Allied Veterans back on March 12. That's right, March 12. Now it's May 30. Is the state suffering at all because we haven't had an LG for over 10 weeks? Of course not.
This isn't something we just thought of. We wrote a piece back in 2010 when Carroll was named to be Rick Scott's running-mate how the position was essentially irrelevant. Nothing's transpired since that time to make us think differently. If anything, the troubles involving Carroll (and before her Jeff Kottkamp) seem to make this position more of a drag on the top of the ticket.
Speaking of Scott, two former death row inmates who were recently exonerated will call for him to veto a bill soon to reach his desk that could expedite those on death row getting executed. It comes after the state performed the ultimate punishment on Elmer Carroll last night.
The Tampa Bay area comes in a somewhat lowly 40th out of 50 of the most cosmopolitan areas of the country in terms of being in shape.
And there are a lot of interesting personalities running for office in St. Petersburg this summer. CL spoke with David McKalip about some of his policy positions recently. Check that out here.
