Gov. Rick Scott at Boca Republican Club

–Update: Video of Gov. Scott’s speech has been added to the top of this post–


The Boca Raton Republican Club held an event tonight at the Town Center Marriott.
Incumbent State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff introduced the Governor. Her primary opponent, Mike Lameyer, was in the audience. Strangely he was not invited to speak. Lameyer would cut $5B in state spending on illegal immigrants. He also expressed concern about pension abuse by state and local employees.
Gov Scott spoke about the importance of state legislative elections. He mentioned some other candidates and party officials.

He expressed appreciation for all the people who helped him elected. He talked about his early life, living in public housing as a child, served in the military, married now for over 40 years and now has a grandchild.
Scott said families want their kids to get a great education.
Eliminated tenure and added merit pay to improve teacher quality, plus easier to open charter schools.
Increased state funding for K-12 education.
Jobs – make sure Florida businesses can compete. Lower taxes, less regulation, shorter permitting and less litigation.
Cut taxes for small business, eliminated 1000 regulations. Unemployment at a 3-year low. Legislation focused on getting people to work.
Don’t let government raise the cost of living. Florida is growing because we like people here.
Cut back on PIP insurance. Should reduce that part of auto insurance 10% this year and 25% next year.
Supports 2nd Amendment. That drew a lot of cheers.
The US has the highest corporate tax in the world, the most regulation and massive deficits. Talked about importance of federal elections to make the US more attractive for business.
Sharply criticized Obamacare, increasing FL cost for Medicaid, and driving up cost of healthcare for businesses. It will kill jobs, raise taxes and destroy quality of care.
Talked about sunshine laws and efforts to make emails to and from him and top staff public.
Overall it was a good speech and well received, though we haven’t had an opportunity to fact check his remarks. We certainly invite comments.
Adam Hasner, candidate for Congress in East Boca, spoke after dinner. His speech was more about rallying the troops but didn’t include much substance. The audience, about 200-250, seemed to appreciate what he said.
State Rep. Bill Hager also spoke. He was rated 100% by the state chamber of commerce.