Senator Nelson and Governor Rick Scott have exchanged blows since the culmination of Tuesday’s midterm elections that saw Governor Scott winning Senator Nelson’s seat. As their race undergoes a recount, Senator Nelson’s attorney compared Governor Scott’s use of a state law-enforcement agency to investigate the actions of elections officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties to that of a “Third World Dictatorship.”
Marc Elias, Senator Nelson’s attorney, has largely received criticism with claims that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election. Elias, commenting on the news conference that Governor Scott held on Thursday, said that Governor Scott’s “tone and the tenor and behavior” are that of a campaign that doesn’t believe they will win after the recounts are over.
Elias criticized Governor Scott by saying that “He himself said that as ballots are being counted it is tightening. Then he made some veiled threat or suggestion that he was going to somehow involve law enforcement. This is not a Third World dictatorship.”
Matt Caldwell, Republican candidate for Florida Agriculture, has been vocal about the recount efforts and the suspicious activity surrounding them. He assured that “we will fight to ensure this election is accurate and fair.” In addition, along with many other Republicans, Caldwell has blasted Brenda Snipes.
In a statement the night he declared victory, Caldwell detailed that “We have watched Brenda Snipes and the Broward supervisor of elections demonstrate gross incompetence and potential corruption election cycle after election cycle. Over the past two days, Snipes' office has refused to give either an accurate count of outstanding ballots or where they come from, all while the Democratic candidates continue to pick up tens of thousands of new votes. Ms. Snipes’ office has a record of incompetence and illegal behavior.”
Still, Senator Nelson and Democrats push forward as they try to keep the “blue ripple” alive and going.
