Inquiry Sought After Former Commissioner Accuses Gov. Rick Scott of Meddling

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MIAMI — As Gov. Rick Scott faced mounting questions about the ouster of the top state law enforcement chief and allegations of improper political meddling, two influential fellow Republicans called for an inquiry on Thursday into the potentially damaging accusations.

The two men, Jeff Atwater, the chief financial officer, and Adam Putnam, the agriculture commissioner — members of Florida’s independently elected three-person cabinet — said the allegations made by Gerald Bailey, the state’s longtime commissioner of the Department of Law Enforcement, were serious enough to warrant an investigation by a third party.

“There should be some follow-up to those allegations and whether they were incidents of illegal activity versus sloppy, campaign-official-type interactions that occurred,” Mr. Putnam told reporters after an event.

In a recent interview with The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times capital bureau, Mr. Bailey, who is widely respected, said Governor Scott had lied when telling the Florida cabinet that Mr. Bailey had willingly resigned from his job as commissioner in December. The three cabinet members — who, along with the governor, oversee the law enforcement post — said they had not known until after the vote to hire a new commissioner that Mr. Bailey had been ousted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/us/politics/inquiry-sought-after-florida-governor-rick-scott-is-accused-of-meddling.html