It’s a given that when your city and region host a mega event, such as a Super Bowl, an Olympics or a national political convention, local officials will be hustling to max out on the experience and the exposure. Sure, occupied hotel rooms in late August is an economic bonus for this market, but more importantly there are impressions to be made. Via video to those around the country and globe. And, yes, Bayshore Boulevard looks better with date palms.
But even more critical are the in-person impressions of key business influentials and their political enablers. They are here. You don’t know when or whether they will be back. And it’s imperative they see self-serving opportunity in this area.
So, of course the Tampa Bay Partnership, the Tampa Bay Host Committee, the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Bob Buckhorn have been prepping for an all-out pitch about this market’s business upsides. But one event, eminently requisite, will be cloaked in irony and hypocrisy. In fact, enterprising journalists, looking for more than humidity, strip clubs and license-to-carriers to write about, could have fun with this one.
Call it the unwelcome wagon. The one commandeered by Gov. Rick “Learning Curve at Tampa’s Expense” Scott.
At some point during GOPster week, the Tallywagon will, in effect, be parked prominently in front of the downtown CAMLS, USF’s cutting-edge, $38 million Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. CAMLS, as we know, underscores that Tampa Bay and USF are now major med-tech players. It might be the first bullet on Tampa PowerPoint presentations. The only problem: Among those notably showing it off: Rick Scott.
The same Rick Scott who single-handedly put a governor on Tampa’s regional potential with his high-handed, anti-Obama thumbs-down of economically stimulating, megalopolis-inducing, high-speed rail dollars. The one who has hammered higher education, the worst possible signal to cutting-edge business leaders, and played Poly politics to the detriment of USF. The one who waxed Second Amendment snotty over Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s reasonable request for help keeping the convention “event zone” as safe and bullet-free as possible. And the one who made attracting international commerce and investment around here more problematic by, however maladroitly, signing House Bill 959–the one that bans state and local governments from contracting with companies with business ties to Cuba (and Syria).
This is who will be touting CAMLS in downtown Tampa.
For journalists who’ve done their homework, they will know why key Tampa officials will seemingly be smiling through gritted teeth. This governor is no friend of Tampa.
But thanks to Charlie Crist’s senatorial ambitions, Alex Sink’s awful campaign, the Tea Party’s impact on the ideologically clueless and $73 million in Scott self-financing, Florida has the country’s most notoriously unpopular governor. And Tampa, in a position to make major marketing manna from CAMLS, will likely have to contend with the diversion from political hell that is Scott on a good day.
If Scott must come to Tampa, let him hawk donuts or lift luggage.