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Gov. Rick Scott at Springtime Tallahassee Parade

"Thanks Gov. Scott for standing up for the Constitution and smaller federal and state government. Government closest to the people works best. Thanks for being a modern day Davy Crockett.  Thanks also to all the Horatio Bunces living in the TEA PARTY MOVEMENT. Five hats to Gov. Rick Scott and modern day Col. Davy Crocketts and Horatio Bunces. DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND FOR FREEDOM." Pace

Gov. Scott and Pace Allen prior to Springtime Tallahassee Parade, April 2, 2011

Update: Gov. Scott gets warm -- sometimes heated -- reception at Springtime parade

By BIll Cotterell • Florida Capital Bureau • Published: April 02. 2011 2:00AM - Last modified:
April 02. 2011 1:10PM Update 1:08 p.m.

The first Florida governor to smile and wave his way down Monroe Street as grand marshal of the Springtime Tallahassee parade got a warm – sometimes heated – welcome this morning from spectators who lined the route.

Gov. Rick Scott slipped on a colorful string of beads and eschewed a Chrysler convertible with his name on it, grabbing the hand of his wife Ann for the mile-long walk from the base of Thomasville Road to Gaines Street. Hundreds of bright pink picket signs, emblazoned “Pink Slip Rick” greeted him on both sides of the route, with hundreds of spectators jeering and protesting his budget policies.

But hundreds also applauded loudly, shouting encouragement and flashing thumbs-up as the
couple strode by. The Lincoln High School band grouped around them for photographs as the Scotts strolled from the governor’s mansion, as dozens of costumed krewe participants and parade figureheads – along with tourists and other spectators – stopped by to meet the chief executive before the parade started.

“Tallahassee has been a wonderful town,” Scott said at the end of the trek. “I really love parades and I had a lot of fun the whole time I was out there.”

He smilingly shrugged off a question about the protestors, saying “it’s always great to be in a
parade like this one.” He had run in the Springtime 5K earlier in the day.

The “Pink Slip Rick” picket signs were handed out in front of AFL-CIO state headquarters, along with a liberal sprinkling of pink leaflets claiming that “Florida has LOST thousands of jobs” since the inauguration of Scott. His campaign slogan last year was “Let’s get to work.”

State Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, dressed in black for the parade, an idea spread by critics on social media in the weeks since Scott’s selection as grand marshal was announced by Springtime Tallahassee organizers. Williams has been busy in the Legislature for the past month, opposing GOP policies that eliminate state jobs, require members of the Florida Retirement System to pay into the pension fund, end tenure for teachers and stop dues deduction for members of public-employee unions.

Williams went by the governor’s mustering point before the parade to chat with visitors. He said the protestors were not trying to inject politics in to the festival.

“He wants to engage with a bunch of folks from the Tea Party to speak for his political philosophy and it’s important that we have folks on the other side in this public forum,” said Williams.

Pace Allen, an attorney and accountant active in Tea Party activities, greeted Scott with a large, bright yellow flag bearing the Revolutionary War-era “Don’t tread on me” snake emblem.

“It was fantastic to see him,” said Allen. “Rick Scott is kind of a Davy Crockett of our time, someone who follows our Constitution and stands up for less government.”

Allen said unionized public employees are provoking a voter backlash by loudly protesting
conservative budget policies in Wisconsin and other capitals with Republican governors.

Billie Jo Owens, a retired attorney who said “I used to be a Republican,” strode the length of the parade on the east sidewalk with a boom box and microphone, carefully keeping pace with the governor.

“Fight back, Florida!” she chanted. “He bought the election. He did not buy Florida!”

The Tallahassee NAACP sat out the parade in protest of Scott’s selection as grand marshal, but did not boycott the street festival and other activities because of Springtime’s economic importance to the town. It issued a statement saying Scott “represents and works from a platform that will decimate our community.”