TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) – On Thursday’s one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Gov. Rick Scott made his eighth trip to Puerto Rico since the storm left the U.S. territory in tatters.
Cynics might view Scott’s visit, in which he was slated to join Puerto Rican officials at an afternoon ceremony, as an attempt to snag Boricua votes as the term-limited governor tries to unseat veteran U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November.
Announcing the trip, Scott’s press shop noted that the Florida governor has “been in contact with Puerto Rican officials to offer assistance and guidance” in response to the storm, even before Maria made landfall a year ago.
The somber occasion comes as top-of-the-ticket candidates continue to court Puerto Rican voters who had already emigrated to the Sunshine State as well as hurricane evacuees who have made Florida their new home.
But Democratic pols used the anniversary to link Scott and fellow Republican Ron DeSantis, the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, to President Donald Trump. The president sparked outrage last week when he said the estimated 3,000 deaths caused by Maria in Puerto Rico was a trumped-up number created by Democrats.
Contradicting a flurry of press releases about how much Scott’s done to help…
