The search for Florida's next lieutenant governor will be an inside job.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Governor Rick Scott said on Monday that the search for Jennifer Carroll's replacement will be run by his chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth, and it will be an internal process with no vetting by outsiders.
"We're starting the process now," Scott said, speaking to reporters at the Governor's Mansion. "We'll take the right amount of time because we want to get the right person that would do a great job at this."
Carroll resigned in March, a day after she was interviewed by law enforcement investigating an Internet sweepstakes cafe operator Carroll had ties to.
Scott also said on Monday that he and fellow Republican governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Phil Bryant of Mississippi have sent a letter to President Obama asking him to stop the one-day weekly furloughs for nearly half of the states' National Guard members that have come with sequestration cuts.
The three say that the furloughs reduce the Guards' ability to "perform administrative, maintenance and training tasks" during a time of year when hurricanes, wildfires and flooding may affect their states.
We understand there are mechanisms to recall our military first responders during emergencies; however they will be recalled to respond with equipment readiness that will be increasingly degraded. We estimate we will require several additional days to allow our forces to perform administrative, maintenance and training tasks to prepare units to properly respond.
