How will Scott lead? Follow his early clues

TALLAHASSEE -- Rick Scott's improbable journey from political unknown to Florida governor took just seven months. Keeping his many promises will take much longer.

``I think what people expect is, they expect me to do what I said,'' Scott says. ``I'm willing to upset the apple cart and say we've got to do business differently here now, and I think that's not the easiest thing to do.''

By labeling himself ``the jobs governor,'' Scott carries the burden of reviving Florida's economy. He wants to be held accountable and he senses political traps ahead. After all, he has lived in the private sector, is unfamiliar with how the state Capitol works and has no experience at political leadership.

How effectively he uses the bully pulpit of governor will shape his success.

``Nobody did it better than Jeb Bush. We have no idea whether Rick Scott can do that or not. That's an unanswered question,'' said Pete Dunbar, a lobbyist, former Pinellas County lawmaker and one-time counsel to former Gov. Bob Martinez. ``He may turn out to be like Lawton Chiles or Bob Graham, who were not effective in relation to their legislative voice. Or he could turn out to be like Jeb Bush and Reubin Askew, who were strong-voiced governors and really threw their elbows around.''

Scott's narrow win over Democrat Alex Sink on Tuesday, coupled with a Republican sweep of all three Cabinet seats and gains in the Legislature, gives Florida its most conservative leadership in years.

Central to Scott's vision is a belief in smaller, limited government. That view is shared by Sen. Mike Haridopolos and Rep. Dean Cannon, incoming leaders of a veto-proof Legislature.

Scott has laid the groundwork for significant changes:

• On the economy, he pledges to create 700,000 jobs in addition to expected job growth in a state where more than one million people are unemployed.

• On education, he supports a re-do of a teacher tenure and merit-pay bill Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed in April, and he favors paying the best teachers more and expanding school choice.

• On the size of government, he wants to lay off 5 percent of state workers, require them to contribute to their pensions, and cut $1 billion from the prison budget.

• On abortion, he favors a law similar to Nebraska's, which prohibits abortions in most cases after the 20th week of pregnancy.

In addition, he wants to cut property taxes by 19 percent, phase out the corporate income tax over seven years, drug-test welfare recipients, recruit more private property insurers to Florida, make it harder to sue Florida businesses and enact an Arizona-style law to curb illegal immigration.

Trouble may lie ahead with legislative leaders who control political committees that funded vicious attack ads against Scott in the Republican primary. But Scott got 2.5 million votes, is now the titular head of the Republican Party, and he'll likely anoint the next state GOP chief, points he may need to remind Haridopolos and Cannon about.

MAN WITH A PLAN

When Scott takes the oath of office on Jan. 4, 2011, he will insist on benchmarking everything, with the goal of making Florida the best.

To hear Scott tell it, governing isn't complicated: It means having a plan and executing it.

``It's just like a business in that you write your plan and you staff your plan,'' Scott said. ``I'm going to staff my plan with the best people I can find.''

Tense moments for Sink, Scott camps as votes were talliedRidley Scott Plans User-Generated YouTube Documentary