On Friday, SPB blogged about four hot political rumors heating up Florida politics just as the temperature was dropping.
So how’d SPB do?
Rumor #1 was that Melissa Sellers would be named Gov. Rick Scott’s chief of staff on Monday and that “Sellers has already convinced Scott to streamline the Executive Office of the Governor by eliminating all but one of the deputy chiefs of staff positions, which will go to Scott-Sellers loyalist Frank Collins.” Well, SPB nailed the timing of the Sellers roll-out — an angle to the story not even the Tampa Bay Times‘ Steve Bousquet, who first broke the news about Sellers likely getting the position, had in his story. And while SPB was right about Frank Collins being promoted, the EOG was streamlined as forecasted.
Rumor #2 was that Scott was “working the phones to line up support for Leslie Dougher’s re-election as party chair.” This rumor turned out to be absolutely true; in fact, the first real action Scott took after being re-elected was to endorse Dougher for a second term as RPOF chair.
Rumor #3 was that Senate President Andy Gardiner would tap Tom Lee to be Appropriations chairman. As of this writing, Gardiner has yet to put Lee or anyone else in charge of approps, but the drumbeat that Lee is getting the job has only grown stronger since SPB first posted the rumor. Still, an incomplete is an incomplete.
Rumor #4 was that Democratic state Rep. Dwayne Taylor would abandon his insurrection against incoming Minority Leader Mark Pafford. SPB was dead wrong: we said Taylor would abandon his bid on Friday; he did so on Monday.
Add it all up and we’re at two-and-a-half rumors were right, with half a rumor wrong and an incomplete on Tom Lee. Not too shabby.
