Hillsborough GOP gives Scott warm reception

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a pariah to the Republican Party just a year ago, showed Saturday night how that has changed, appearing as the headliner and biggest celebrity at a massive Hillsborough County GOP fundraising dinner.

Fresh from his inaugural legislative session as governor, Scott was heartily applauded and praised at a gathering that included top party figures from all over the state.

"He is the kindest smartest, most generous man, and determined to make this state a better place," said Attorney General Pam Bondi, of Tampa, introducing Scott at the gathering.

"Governor, thank you for your leadership – you are doing what's right despite what anyone says.… Your courage has not gone unnoticed."

The gathering was billed as the largest-ever Lincoln Day fundraising dinner for the local party, with 650 people attending at a minimum of $125 each, and somewhere between $165,000 and $200,000 raised.

The event showed the crucial importance of the county and the Hillsborough party – one of the largest local Republican organizations in the state – in Florida's political balance.

Besides Scott, GOP U.S. Senate candidates Adam Hasner, Mike Haridopolos and George LeMieux all attended, along with all three state Cabinet members and a host of local elected Republican county-level officials from around the Tampa Bay area.

Scott's appearance was a dramatic reversal from just a year ago, when he was running as an insurgent against the party establishment's favored candidate, Bill McCollum, for the nomination for governor.

In that campaign, some of the same GOP leaders applauding Saturday night paid for political ads that, in effect, called Scott a crook. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, then chairman of the national Republican Party's gubernatorial campaign committee, blasted Scott for ads criticizing McCollum.

Meanwhile, Scott, who bashed "career politicians" and ran as an outsider in the race, made it clear Saturday night he's aligned with the party's leaders.

"As a group, we have changed the thought processes in this state," he said, describing the just-concluded legislative session. "All the things that we all knew really needed to get done [have] happened."

"We can all be proud of what happened this session because of what [House Speaker] Dean Cannon and [Senate President] Mike Haridopolos did," he said – praising two of the GOP leaders who once helped fund ad campaigns against Scott.