FL Gov Rick Scott's robo-calls backfiring (Spoofing phones to hide identity---isn't this illegal??)

[seafan]

Apparently, his 29% approval rating is getting under his thin skin.


Marc Caputo reports at Tampa Bay's The Buzz blog:

As we first tweeted this morning, the Republican Party of Florida is robo-calling voters to drum up support for Gov. Rick Scott, who might be America's most-disliked governor, with a 29 percent approval rating. Now that a full day of calls are in, it appears that's just making some fellow Republicans upset.

The automatic, pre-recorded calls feature Scott's voice derided (sic) the hometown projects he vetoed from the budgets as "special interest waste." Not the kind of message that fellow Republicans, who crafted the budget, wanted to hear. Especially when those special interests included hungry and needy seniors, homeless veterans, paralysis victims, etc.

Former Republican State Rep. J.C. Planas of Miami said he was called and was infuriated that needy projects were being described as waste. What's more, he said, the incoming number on his cell phone caller ID showed that it was his own number phoning in -- a process of disguising calls known as "spoofing."

"It's bad enough that he's hurting my community with these vetoes and misrepresenting the purpose of them," Planas said. "But then he's spoofing my phone? Why?"

.....

No one in the Capitol can remember the last time a governor had to resort to robo-calling to drum up support. He also is urging supporters on Twitter and Facebook to support his vetoes (which kind of add up to $615 million) and call on legislators to plug some of the freed-up money back into education.

But Scott never mentions that he called for a bigger cut to education than the Legislature was comfortable with. Now he's flip-flopping on members of his own party and playing the blame game.

House Speaker Dean Cannon was irked that the calls suggested the Republican controlled Legislature skimped on education -- when it was Scott himself who called for a deeper cut. House Republican leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera of Miami was doubly bothered.

"The Republican Party of Florida is paying for this?" Lopez-Cantera asked. "That's interesting. I'm on the Republican Executive Committee and I'm Miami-Dade's state committeeman and no one gave me so much as a courtesy call that they were going to be doing this."

Lopez-Cantera was among the Republican representatives who wanted about $730,000 to feed needy seniors in Allapattah and Little Havana. Both line items were vetoed.

"This wasn't money for special interests," said Lopez-Cantera. "These are needy seniors."

There was some irony in Scott's strident stance against special interests when he announced the budget vetoes. Before his speech, he was preceded by representatives of some heavy-hitting special interests: a representative of The Villages development, Florida Chamber of Commerce lobbyist David Hart and National Federation of Independent Business lobbyist Allen Douglas.

Not every interest was represented at the event. Scott's office and RPOF staffers used sheriff's deputies to block Democrats from the event Thursday. The next day, Scott's office denied it had a role.

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Aaron Sharockman, a journalist in attendance at Scott's budget veto event at The Villages, promptly shot down Scott's lies about not shutting out Democrats:

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Here's what actually happened -- the Buzz saw all of it firsthand. Sumter County sheriff's deputies were summoned by Scott staffers wearing suits and black earpieces. They told the deputies that the budget signing was a private event and that a group of Democrats standing or sitting in the last two rows had to leave.

Deputies went to tell the group -- more than a dozen people -- to leave. The deputies said the town square had been leased and that the organizers wanted the group of Democrats to leave. The group of Democrats said it was unfair.

"You all are preaching to the choir," a deputy told them. "I'm doing what I'm told."

The deputies were getting their orders from Russ Abrams, a $60,000 a year special assistant to Scott. Seeing this, the Buzz approached Abrams. He told us the budget signing was "a private event." When asked more questions, Abrams said: "I don't need to talk to the press," and then, "I don't have anything to say."

Abrams and other men wearing black earpieces then attempted to identify other people with anti-Scott intentions. They alerted deputies, who told them they had to leave the town square.

We've asked Wright if he wanted to clarify his comments, and are waiting to hear back.

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Background info here



Isn't spoofing someone's phone number illegal?


And is outright lying and stealing from the people becoming of the Governor of Florida?




I honestly do not see how this man will complete his singular term in office.


We don't have a mechanism in place now to recall a governor (or legislators/Cabinet for that matter). But the way things are headed, this GOP Legislature could very well institute it themselves out of fury over Rick Scott.


These people are poisonous for the state of Florida.