ORLANDO — Speaking to a crowd of conservatives Tuesday in the Floridian Ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker proudly declared that two-thirds of American governors are now Republican. It’s the first time since 1922 that the GOP has held 33 out of 50 governorships.
“My goodness, we have a Republican governor coming up in January now in Bernie Sanders’ state of Vermont,” said Walker, who serves as vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association. “I mean, who would have thought?”
The RGA — a well-funded political organization aimed at electing conservatives — believed early on that Republican Phil Scott could win in the Green Mountain State in 2016.
The RGA began pouring money into the governor’s race through a political action committee called “A Stronger Vermont” in March. Much of the initial spending went to political research, which was followed by an avalanche of ads. In total, the RGA invested more than $2.8 million into the candidacy of Scott — the vast majority of which went to television spots critical of his opponent, Democrat Sue Minter.
The RGA ads were developed independently of the Scott campaign. The governor-elect said he didn’t like the tone of some of the ads, but said he appreciated the support.
The RGA investment paid off, and on Nov. 8 Scott became one of three Republicans nationally who flipped a governor’s seats from blue to red.
Speaking at a panel at the RGA’s annual conference, Walker, who ran for president but dropped out early, expressed his glee at the recent electoral success of the GOP.
“The possibilities are endless now that we have a Republican president, a Republican House, a Republican Senate, a vast Republican majority when it comes to governors and state leaders across America,” Walker said. “There’s no end to the good we can do.”
After he got off stage, Gov. Walker dismissed attempts to talk more about the Vermont race as he walked away with an entourage of security guards, explaining tersely, “I have another panel.”
Jon Thompson, the RGA communications director who was standing nearby, was happy to talk about Scott’s electoral success.
“We saw Scott as a very strong candidate who could win,” Thompson said. “You know, our internal polling never had him down. Even our last poll – about a week before Election Day – actually had him winning the race by 14 points.”
(According to an official tally released by the secretary of state’s office Tuesday, Scott beat Minter by nine points.)
The RGA invested heavily in 12 governor races this political season. Thompson said Scott was chosen partly because of his ability to win over moderate Democrats, similar to the appeal of former Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.
Still, Thompson said the RGA always expected a hard-fought race.
“The RGA is not an organization that invests in landslides or lost causes,” he said. “So if we’re investing in a race, we see it as competitive.”
The RGA has seen Scott as a potentially strong candidate for years, and emails obtained by VTDigger show that former RGA Political Director Josh Robinson met with Scott back in February of 2012.
Scott had just won re-election as lieutenant governor, beating Democrat Cassandra Gekas by nearly 20 points.
“Always good to see you and let me know if I can ever be of assistance,” Robinson wrote to Scott on Feb. 7, 2012.
“Thanks,” Scott replied. He then gave Robinson his cellphone number “just in case you need to get in touch.”
RGA spokesman Thompson said there had been a number of short conversations between the RGA and Scott over the years. In those conversations the Thunder Road race car driver “made it known he was thinking of running.”
Thompson made clear that while the organizational wing of the RGA had been in contact with Scott, the PAC side had not coordinated with the governor-elect’s campaign. (A recent complaint from from the Vermont Democratic Party alleging inappropriate coordination between the RGA and Scott was dismissed by the attorney general in September.)
Gov.-elect Scott was in Orlando Tuesday for the annual RGA conference, which included panels with other governors, as well as networking with corporate representatives.
(The RGA paid travel and lodging expenses for Scott and his wife, as well as for Brittney Wilson, Scott’s former campaign coordinator who will likely serve some role in his administration.)
“Everybody is amazed by the fact that we have Democrats as our U.S. senators and our congressman,” Wilson said Tuesday. “They are asking, ‘How do you win in a blue state?’”
In a Tuesday interview overlooking an expansive blue swimming pool, Scott said he hadn’t yet been swimming.
He then described his positive interactions with some of the other more moderate Republican governors in New England, including Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and newly elected New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. (A selfie of Sununu and Scott surfaced online Tuesday.)
Scott also said he admired Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s leadership, and said that in the upcoming weeks he would be digging into the economic programs set forth by the other Republican governors to see if “maybe there are some pieces that we can harvest from them.”
Scott also said he hoped to form a “Northeast coalition” of more moderate governors who could push back against some of President-elect Donald Trump’s policy proposals.
The tone at the RGA conference Tuesday was sunny and upbeat over the results of the national election, where Trump won the White House and the Congress was retaken by Republicans.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence — who currently serves as Indiana’s governor and an RGA official — visited the RGA conference Monday night.
According to Walker, Pence notified the governors in attendance that Trump was prepared to swiftly repeal many of President Obama’s policies and regulations, including the Affordable Care Act, federal overtime rules and strict standards set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“I am just giddy,” said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley during a panel discussion. “And if you talk to any of the governors here, we are just so excited at the possibilities and the opportunities that are going to be here.”
Scott was not in Florida Monday for the Pence event, instead spending time with his mother. He said that he felt that he didn’t miss much.
Scott pushed back on Trump’s plans to repeal Obama’s health care law, which could leave tens of thousands of Vermonters uninsured.
Scott also said that the current EPA guidelines for cleaning up Lake Champlain were necessary, though he suggested that the cleanup timeline was perhaps “too stringent.”
Scott reiterated that he didn’t agree with every Republican governor on every policy idea, and said the RGA conference had give him the “realization that there’s really different aspects of politics throughout the nation.”
Throughout the RGA conference Tuesday, representatives of huge corporations — from Comcast to Koch Industries — milled around the hotel bar and talked to power players as a women in a red dress played piano.
Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — who was recently ousted from Trump’s White House transition team — was seen in the hotel lobby speaking passionately with Haley Barbour, the former governor of Mississippi.
There were a number of private meetings and panels throughout the day between governors and businesses. A dinner party by the pool Tuesday night was also off limits to the press.
Throughout Tuesday, Scott met behind closed doors for formal meetings with a number of interest groups. The meetings took place in the Waldorf Astoria’s Peak Room, and the governor-elect’s staff provided a list of those Scott met with.
They were:
Alvarez & Marsal – a management firm aimed at fixing ailing enterprises. Past clients include Lehman Brothers, Target and Arthur Andersen.
TracFone – a wireless cell phone service provider.
NextEra – one of the nation’s top renewable energy power suppliers. In 2014, the company announced it would no longer trade Vermont’s renewable energy credits.
Energy Solutions – a waste management company that specializes in decommissioning nuclear power plants, and has been handling water disposal at Vermont Yankee.
First Net – a government-chartered authority tasked with providing emergency responders with the first nationwide, high-speed, broadband network dedicated to public safety.
Scott said that the RGA trip was more about striking up relationships with governors, not special interests.
“Nobody’s here twisting my arm,” he said.
Asked if he had mingled with any other corporate representatives unofficially, including the much-aligned Koch Industries, Scott said he had not.
“There is quite a bit of Coke product around, Coca-Cola,” the governor-elect then joked. “I haven’t seen a single Pepsi can since I’ve been here.”
Indeed, seemingly every table at the RGA conference was stocked with cold cases of Coca-Cola products, perhaps a perk for the millions of dollars the soft beverage company has donated to the RGA over the years.
Scott received at least $4,000 from the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Northern New England in his gubernatorial bid, a pittance compared to his millions in RGA support.
RGA spokesman Thompson said that while there had been little thought put into a potential strategy should Scott seek re-election, he promised that the RGA “has governor-elect Scott’s back.”
“He’s up for election very soon — in two years — so of course we will be there for him,” Thompson pledged. “Whatever we need to do.”
