Brian Hughes, Rick Scott’s deputy communications director, is the latest gubernatorial staffer to make a career change – heading to the Florida Republican Party as its spokesman.

Hughes will take over from Trey Stapleton, who worked on Scott’s campaign. Stapleton is heading to Washington, D.C., and Hughes will become the new RPOF spokesman within the next two weeks, as the party gears up to serve as host for next summer’s Republican National Convention, in Tampa.

Hughes teamed with Scott communications director Brian Burgess to form what around the Capitol became known as the “two Brians,” a pair of aggressive defenders and promoters of the governor’s agenda. But with Scott marking his six-months in office on July 4, the governor’s office has lately undergone some door-swinging.

Scott chief-of-staff Mike Prendergast exited to the state Department of Veterans’ Affairs and top adviser Mary Anne Carter headed to her Tennessee home and a still-to-be-made-public 2012 political campaign. New chief-of-staff Steve MacNamara hasn’t said it, but clearly among his duties will be trying to improve Scott’s barnacle-scraping poll numbers.

LARGO _ Surrounded by war memorabilia on the day after the Fourth of July, Gov. Rick Scott held ceremonial bill signings at the Armed Forces Military Museum, showing “just a very small part” of the state’s gratitude for veterans’ service to the country.

Scott, flanked by several lawmakers and local officials, signed new laws giving free park passes to parents of military vets killed or wounded in combat, giving spouses of veterans returning overseas temporary health care licenses to get back to work more quickly and creating the Florida Veterans’ Hall of Fame inside the Capitol.

“These bills are great for the military, great for veterans, great for our state. We’ve got to make sure we’re the most military-friendly state in the country because we have to take care of the people who defended our freedom. It’s also nice to do this the day after the Fourth of July, a day that we all need to be celebrating what great freedoms we have in this country,” said Scott, who will attend a meet-and-greet with the Navy Corp Relief Society in Jacksonville later today.

The first-term governor enlisted in the U.S. Navy when was 18, Scott told a crowd of veterans gathered in the museum. The G.I. bill, which paid for his college and law school, “was a great opportunity for me,” he said.

Scott was especially excited about the new memorial.
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Gov. Rick Scott defended his administration’s public records policy to a roomful of newspaper executives at the Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors annual meeting in St. Petersburg.

Scott has come under fire from the media for charging for more for public records than his predecessor, Charlie Crist, who made a habit of giving away most documents for free. Scott is charging the maximum amount allowed under Florida’s broad Sunshine Law, including costs for his legal staff to scrub the documents of private information.

The number of requests “has skyrocketed” since Scott took office in January, he said.

“Part of my job is to make sure we don’t waste taxpayers money. It costs us money to do it. We pass that cost on. It’s the right thing to do,” Scott said in a brief question-and-answer period.

Scott said he plans to put more records on the internet, but did not elaborate. His office has already put online records his staff has generated – including databases of state employees’ salaries and state workers with pensions worth at least $100,000.

Dozens of demonstrators protesting the governor’s economic agenda shouted “Pink Slip Rick” across the street from the waterfront Renaissance Vinoy Hotel as Scott spoke.

After his remarks, Scott fielded a few questions from reporters.

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Gov. Rick Scott defended his decision to allow a controversial Central Florida commuter rail project to move forward, saying he legally had no authority to block the $1.5 billion SunRail line as he did when rejecting $2.4 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail.

Scott, a tea party favorite, put SunRail on hold when he took office in January, freezing four contracts totaling $235 million. Tea party activists, railing against the commuter line, met privately with Scott to urge him to axe it.

Scott earned national headlines when he said ‘no thanks’ to $2.4 billion in federal stimulus funds for high-speed rail. Two lawmakers – one of them a fellow Republican – sued Scott but failed to convince the courts that Scott had overstepped his authority in sending back the money.

Scott said his lawyers told him there was a “significant risk” he would have lost a similar court challenge had he tried to block the commuter project.

“These are two totally different projects,” Scott told newspaper executives at the annual Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors meeting at the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel in St. Petersburg. “It’s like comparing apples to oranges.”

Local officials’ pledge to cover cost overruns gave Scott some security in approving the project, backed by powerful GOP legislators including House Speaker Dean Cannon of Winter Park – and local officials of both parties.

Even so, he said, “I don’t know that I would have made the decision to go forward with this if I had been around three or four years ago.”

Chanting “Pink Slip Rick,” dozens of left-leaning activists staged a protest as Gov. Rick Scott addressed a gathering of the media in St. Petersburg.

Florida Watch Action, Progress Florida and Awake the State organized the protest to coincide with Scott’s speech and more than a hundred new laws went into effect today.

As of today, teachers, firemen, police officers and other state workers will have to contribute 3 percent of their salaries to their pensions. And more than 4,500 state workers will lose their jobs under the new $69.1 billion budget that also goes into effect today. Lawmakers also slashed education spending, all part of an effort to fill a $3.62 billion budget gap.

Wearing a “Governor Scott Enemy of the State” T-shirt, Madeira Beach teacher Mary Niemeyer held a sign decrying the state’s education cuts. “Our future is at stake,” she said.

Middle school teacher Steve Adams and his wife Mary drove from Lakeland to participate in the protest across the street from the waterfront Renaissance Vinoy Hotel where the Florida Press Association and the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors held their annual meeting.

“I object to the way teachers and public employees have been the ones forced to pay for Florida’s deficit,” Adams, 67, said.

While the protest may have little – if any – impact on Scott, Adams, who said he did not vote for the first-term governor, said it and similar events have worked.

“The tea party made a difference and this is how they started. So we should take a lesson,” Adams said.

After President Obama mentioned a tax break for corporate jets six times (count ‘em in the official White House transcript) in a Wednesday press conference, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio took to the floor of the Senate Thursday to blast the president’s framing of the deficit-reduction debate.

“It’s class warfare, and it’s the kind of language that you would expect from the leader of a third world country, not the President of the United States,” said Rubio.

Rubio was more colorful in a National Review interview, saying Obama’s words were “more appropriate for some left-wing strong man than for the president of the United States.”

The Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog suggests the much-referenced break for corporate jets is fairly insignificant compared to the nation’s deficit and debt woes.