Ending months of speculation, former Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said Friday she will not run for governor against incumbent Republican Rick Scott in 2014, further fueling “will he or won’t he” chatter about Democrat Charlie Crist.
Sink, who narrowly lost a bid for governor to Scott in 2010, said she plans to focus on the non-profit foundation she created to help young entrepreneurs.
“After careful consideration, I have decided that the best way for me to make a positive and lasting impact on our state is to continue the work we’ve started together,” Sink, 65, said in an e-mail. “I plan to continue my involvement with the Florida Next Foundation, working to build a state of innovation and inspiring the next generation of young Florida leaders. And of course I am going to be supporting candidates who I believe share my vision that Florida can be a state of opportunity for all of its citizens.”
Those close to Sink have said that the death of her husband, Bill McBride, in December played a role in her decision to stay out of the race. The Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2002, McBride lost that race to former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Sink did not have a primary in her first run for public office in 2006 and easily won the CFO race. She also faced no significant competition in the Democratic gubernatorial primary three years ago before losing to Scott by 1.2 percent.
But onetime-Republican Crist is widely expected to make an attempt — as a Democrat — to return to the governor’s mansion. Crist did not seek re-election after one term in 2010 and instead ran a failed U.S. Senate campaign as an independent.
Crist is anticipated to announce his entrée into the 2014 race next month.
“I loved working with Alex on the Florida Cabinet and I’m sure it won’t be the last time we work together,” Crist said in an email Friday. “Florida needs Alex Sink and I’m excited about what’s happening at her Florida Next Foundation.”
For now at least, former state Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich is the only serious Democratic candidate in the race, Democrats have floated the idea of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., running.
Rich said the narrowing field sharpens the differences between her and both Scott and Crist.
“It will give Florida voters a clear choice between someone who has life-long core Democratic values and a commitment to working families and the middle class versus either one of them,” Rich said.
Rich said she backed Sink in her attempt to defeat Scott and hopes “she will be as supportive of me as I was of her.”
Sink’s e-mail announcing her decision not to run had a campaign flavor nonetheless.
Sink accused Scott of “failed leadership on the economy, education and the environment” and pledged to “continue to speak out and to aggressively hold him accountable for ignoring Floridians’ best interests.”
Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arcenaux said he admired Sink’s “strength and clarity of purpose.”
“Alex Sink has consistently stood up for Florida’s middle-class families and small businesses, I know Democrats across Florida look forward to hearing her strong advocacy at the Florida Next Foundation and around the state in the months and years to come,” Arcenaux said in a statement.
The Republican Party of Florida jumped on Sink’s announcement, also questioning whether she would throw her support behind “Florida’s leading liberal” Rich.
“Anything other than full-throated support for Senator Rich is an implicit endorsement of Charlie Crist, a candidate she called a ‘disaster,’ ” RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry said in a statement, adding the RPOF “is more than happy to run the campaign that Alex Sink would have run against Charlie Crist.”
–Dara Kam, News Service of Florida
Ben Dover says
Someone better run against and beat this evil infected boil on the buttocks of Florida`s ass, every penny sent to help the people displaced from their homes and sick and starving in the woods by the wars the republicans started , this A-HOLE turns the money away , they don t need it , I`m a Millionaire, but they are starving , I don t care I eat like a King, but they live in the woods , I don t care I live in a Mansion , But they are sick , I have the best health care money can buy , screw them and Obamacare, this guy will certainly burn in hell when he dies , but hes making the poor in Fla live in hell right now , he has got to GO!!!!!!!
Joey Paparazzi says
Charlie Crist for Governor.
Sherry Epley says
Rick Scott and his cronies in our state legislature have done more to disenfranchise people of color than any other governor in our history. He has worked against the interest of the middle class worker in every way possible. . . from lowering education budgets, to turning down federal money for high speed rail systems for commuters, to cutting taxes for the wealthy business owners in exchange for jobs that did not happen. . . and much more! THEY ALL NEED TO BE VOTED OUT!
Your vote. . . USE IT OR LOSE IT!
Christopher V. says
The simpletons who think Scott stinks are members of the Great Unwashed, incapable of thinking, carrying their own weight, etc, for themselves. We need businesspeople to lead, not politiians who never had a real job. Scott in 2014!
Robert says
Out of 33,904 votes cast here in Flagler county during the 2010 general election there was 17, 7711 buffoons who voted for Rick Scott. Rick Scott, a man who was on the cusp of a criminal enterprise that defrauded the US Government of billions of dollars.
And then he hid behind the Fifth Amendment when called testify in a court of law.
So the next time you go to the polls take a look around, on average, for every two people you see voting at least one of them can be labeled as one of the a**holes who voted for Rick Scott.
Sherry Epley says
My! My! My! So anyone who is not a Republican, Tea Party, NRA vombie is so very quickly characterized as “the great unwashed” “simpletons” “who don’t carry their own weight”, eh? You really don’t want to go there!
There was once a Republican government leader who uncharacteristically had what he considered to be a wise thought. He said “Democrats are those who begin life caring about people and justice and ethics. Then when they become wealthy they convert to Republicans because they want lower taxes. And, then when they become OVER-EDUCATED they revert back to being Democrats again.”
Please tell me what “intelligent” being would ever consider any amount of education to be too much? Does over-educated mean that we are able to see through the propaganda of hate that is spewed from the right winged media outlets every minute of every day? Being educated, open minded, independent thinkers is extremely threatening to those Fascist who require complete control of their constituents..
So, I suppose President John Kennedy would fit into the group some consider the unworthy “TAKERS”? Oh yes, and President Bill Clinton of Yale law school. . . a real “simpleton”? Then there was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served as our President for 12 years. . . another “simpleton”, from Harvard? And then there is of course President Obama yet another “simpleton” from Harvard? Or, are they the non-controllable over-educated, caring, compassionate Democrats that so threaten to undo the hate that has been so carefully created by the Fascist for many years?
Yes, I could go on and on about the education and tremendous contributions made by our Democratic Presidents and other Democratic leaders that made our nation great, but the Rick Scott lovers are much too narrow minded to take any of that in. . . much less open their hearts to a more positive, inclusive way of being.
The vast majority of the Democrats I have met over the past 40 years have been very hard working, well employed, educated, family oriented, honest, responsible, ethical folks who just want to live peaceful, secure lives in a fair society that is part of a country for which they can be very proud.
As for me personally, I am state college educated gal who has done my 40 years of 50 hour weeks. I have started and run my own very successful high tech business. . . after working in the insurance industry for 11 years. I have had the honor to serve on 2 national boards of directors for 5 years. I have, several times, gone to Washington DC and urged my congressional representatives to vote in favor of the USA high tech consultant employment industry. And, I have traveled “extensively” in over 20 foreign countries across 4 continents.
And you Mr. Christopher V.?