The Fine Print

Dispatches from the Capitol: "If we are going to win this year, it's because of Sen. Jack Latvala."

It's no secret that Sen. Jack Latvala - the Pinellas County Republican who is now the Senate budget chief - has had up and down relationships with a lot of people in the political process, including the current governor.

But Latvala (shown here campaigning for Gov. Rick Scott in 2014) is now becoming more and more aligned with Scott in his ongoing feud with House Republicans over the fate of the state's tourism marketing program and the state's economic development agency.

Latvala has already sounded off that he does not agree with the House approach - which is to completely eliminate Enterprise Florida and place tight restrictions on Visit Florida. This ongoing disagreement threatens to prevent the GOP-controlled Legislature from passing a new state budget.

But it was still a tad surprising to see Scott - caught on camera last week - showering Latvala with effusive praise. (Assuming this was doing during Scott's visit to the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.)

"If we're going to win this year, it's because of Sen Jack Latvala,'' Scott said. "He's going to stand with us all the way through. And he’s going to take a lot of arrows for doing it. I’m going to tell you he’s got broad shoulders and he can do it."

Contrast that from just one day earlier where during an event held at a Tallahassee manufacturing plant Scott castigated Republican State. Rep. Halsey Beshears, a Monticello Republican, while praising two Tallahassee Democrats for voting against the House bills that target Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida. It's been part of a Scott strategy in recent weeks to call-out House Republican members by name in front of local television cameras.

Regardless of the philosophical debate underlying business incentives and aiding corporations and whether it helps create jobs - a debate that unites House Republicans with progressive Democrats - the real story playing out amid this feud is that Florida's Republican structure is deeply divided and there's no signs that's going to change anytime soon.

Other governors have had their differences with members of their own party - i.e. then-Gov. Jeb Bush in a fierce struggle with Senate Republicans over medical malpractice laws - but Bush wasn't running political ads that went after legislators responsible for helping him carry out his agenda. Nor was Bush refusing to raise money to help the Republican Party of Florida. (Note - Scott stopped raising money for the RPOF ahead of the 2016 elections - leaving that task primarily to House Republicans including House Speaker Richard Corcoran.)

But that's where we are now.

And this rift is already having reverberations as we head into the 2018 elections still seemingly so far away.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam - who has his own share of dust-ups with Scott - was by Scott's side this week as Scott held a public rally in the Capitol where he again criticized the House approach. Putnam is of course seen as a likely candidate for governor, but the speculation has been that Scott wants someone else to follow him into the governor's mansion. (As in someone with a business background...) Despite all that, Putnam was with Scott this week.

So now we have two potential candidates for governor - Latvala and Putnam - sticking up for the governor, while another potential candidate for governor - Corcoran - is not.

Of course one could say, what does it matter?

Scott will likely run for U.S. Senate and has been known to avoid getting involved in primaries. Yeah, but...Scott has a good relationship with President Donald Trump. Scott is also now in a leadership position with the Republican Governors Association, the entity responsible for helping Republicans across the nation. Scott polls well among GOP voters in the state and if he chose to get involved in a primary it could have an impact.

Corcoran in the end could decide not to run for governor, or he could mount a fierce campaign from the right where he goes after Putnam and others as being part of the corrupt process he says now controls Tallahassee.

But before all that happens - we will have to see who - in the words of Gov. Scott will "win" the debate over Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida.

That may say a lot about who has a winning political future.

Dispatches from the Capitol: Will Richard Corcoran dislike this message from Florida's past?

On Saturday a reminder of Florida's terrible past and evolution will finally open its doors to the public.

After spending nearly $6 million on renovations, The Grove is scheduled to open on March 11 - or one day after the anniversary of the birth of Gov. LeRoy Collins.

The mansion holds a significant role in the state's history. Built with slave labor by territorial Gov. Richard Keith Call,  it would eventually become home to Collins, who tried to shepherd the state through the civil rights era by taking a more moderate stance than other Southern governors. Collins married Mary Call Darby Collins, the great-granddaughter of Call.

The exhibits catalog the changes in the state and those who lived there - featuring for example - an audio description of Call's denunciation of Florida's secession from the Union where he told a group of secessionists that they had "opened the gates of hell."

The museum includes exhibits that detail how Collins initially came into office defending segregation but then came to view it as morally wrong. And it features illuminating information on other members of the Call family who lived in the mansion during the Civil War and throughout the decades before Collins and his wife moved into it.

But up on the 2nd floor of the mansion is an exhibit that actually touches on some of the main legislative battles that are raging a mile or so southward of The Grove in the halls of the state Capitol.

Museum caretakers have placed a short film that talks about Collins legacy in attempting to "modernize" his home state.

What does it touch on? Higher education, promotion of tourism, and efforts to attract businesses to the Sunshine State.

Collins is lauded as someone who pushed for the creation of junior colleges and the creation of the University of South Florida because he felt it was important to have higher education institutions closer to where people lived. (The Senate this week passed a bill designed to boost the state's higher education system into the ranks of the nation's elite.)

The film also points out that Collins worked constantly to try to lure businesses from outside the state to come to Florida. It quotes Howard Hughes, the industrialist (and pilot and film director...) as calling Collins "the greatest salesman" that Florida ever had. (The House is scheduled on Friday to approve a bill that would shutter the state's economic development agency Enterprise Florida.)

And then there's the part of the film that appears to have bearing on one of the key talking points being made by House Speaker Richard Corcoran and House supporters about Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing corporation.

They have noted that Visit Florida was officially created back in the '90s and have argued that people visited Florida before then without the need of any state resources promoting tourism. The House is considering a bill to overhaul Visit Florida and appear on track to cut a large chunk of its funding.

But the exhibit at The Grove seems to contradict that.

"He foresaw the need for greater state funding to promote tourism and helped lay the groundwork" for the organization that eventually become Visit Florida,'' states the exhibit.

State officials from the Department of State - who work for Gov. Rick Scott - say this is a bit of coincidence, noting that work on The Grove exhibits predate the incendiary debate over Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida by probably a year or more. Scott is fiercely opposed to the House efforts and has criticized House members for considering "job-killing legislation." Public records appear to back that up as emails and discussions about the script go back to early 2016.

For what it's worth, Scott does not plan to attend the grand opening of The Grove, so it may be a while before he sees the exhibit himself. At last word, it didn't sound as if any House leaders, including the speaker, planned to be there either.