The chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) typically uses that position to rake in cash to support the election bids of candidates across the country. Current chair Sen. Rick Scott of Florida is taking a very different approach and in the process angering many of his GOP colleagues.
Scott, the richest person in the U.S. Senate with an estimated net worth of $290 million, has directed a large portion of his fundraising efforts to his own accounts, according to a report in The Washington Post. He reportedly has also has redirected money from party digital revenue away from Senate campaigns and instead is buying ads promoting himself.
Those unusual money management moves, plus the controversial conservative policy agenda that he dropped on the GOP seven weeks ago, have a number of his colleagues grumbling that he's using his position to promote his own political future rather than that of candidates he's supposed to help get elected.
"Private grumbling about how Scott has turned the NRSC into the 'National Rick Scott Committee' has become widespread enough in some Republican circles that other jokes have been added. 'All this, for four percent in Iowa,' is the punchline of one about the harm he could do to Republican fortunes in November in pursuit of national ambitions," The Washington Post reported.
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During a Feb. 28 meeting in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, other senators complained to the Kentucky Republican that they were being attacked in their states for parts of Scott's policy plan, particularly the tax provision and another imposing term limits. "They chastised him in round-robin fashion for the unnecessary headache he had created, said people familiar with the meeting, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations," according to the newspaper.
Scott's so-called "Plan to Rescue America" included a provision raising taxes on millions of Americans who currently don't pay federal income tax. The plan, released in February, sparked a backlash from liberals and conservatives alike, which The Washington Post described as "seven weeks of turmoil."
Scott's reaction basically was "I don't care."
“My whole life has been people telling me that, you know, you’re doing it the wrong way. You can’t, you shouldn’t be doing this,” he said in a recent interview at NRSC headquarters. “I’ve been up here for three years. Do you know how many people have come to me and asked me, before they vote, what my opinion is on something and whether it’s good for my state? That would be zero.”
A few days later, Scott responded with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled "Why I’m Defying Beltway Cowardice” and a speech at the end of March at the Heritage Foundation. “Bring it on,” he said there.
David Bergstein, the communications director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told The Post, “We’ve got three words for him: Keep it up. No NRSC chair has done more for Senate Democrats than Rick Scott.”
