Rick Scott hates you, and other election year observations

Ed Killer | Treasure Coast Newspapers

Show Caption Hide Caption Gov. Scott and Sen. Negron tour St. Lucie River Florida Gov. Rick Scott and state Sen. Joe Negron tour algae affected areas of the St. Lucie River on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018, in Stuart.

Is it just me, or can Tuesday not get here fast enough?

This past month, and week, the headlines have driven me over the edge. Maybe not "pedaling a 10-speed bicycle while naked down I-95 in Fort Lauderdale during rush hour" over the edge, but pretty dang close.

How did we get here? Let me recap. In mid-May, crazy rains fell from the sky over Florida. Records were broken. All of our inland waterways swelled to overflowing.

Then the sun came out, and the algae bloomed. Being an election year, I feared the worst. And politicians delivered.

At bedtime each night, I knelt down to say my prayers. I asked the good Lord to provide a summer free from the toxic algae bloom growing into a campaign issue. Needless to say, my prayers went unanswered.

We've all suffered through mind-numbing campaign rhetoric from neatly-dressed politicians who parachute in to our communities and feign concern about an ecological and economical cataclysm some of them helped to create.

As the great state I call home rots from its waterways out, we're left to watching election results Tuesday and again Nov. 6 to gauge whether there is any light at the end of the tunnel.

Here are my rapid-fire takes on the month of August 2018 in review:

Aug. 1: Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, press conference — With the St. Lucie Lock and Dam as a backdrop, and sheets of blue-green cyanobacteria drifting over the dam's waterfalls, Mast announces legislation he introduced to help move money to clean waterways. My role: Provide Facebook live for TCPalm.com. My take: Mast has been a leader working to fix the problems facing the Treasure Coast with its struggle to change water management policy.

More: U.S. Rep. Brian Mast: 'Call in the cavalry' to combat St. Lucie River's toxic algae blooms

Aug. 1: Chris King, Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate, press conference — At Central Marine in Rio, King receives the endorsement of bullsugar.org. My role: Provide Facebook live for TCPalm.com. My take: I learned of this event about 15 minutes before it took place and while I was working on another project. King is well-educated on the subject, but not sure if we'll hear his name much after Tuesday.

More: Gubernatorial candidate Chris King on algae issues

Aug. 3: Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, round table at Florida Sportsman magazine offices — Nelson's second round table discussion in Stuart this summer included input from a group made up of about a dozen scientists and local politicians. Absent: Republicans and Martin County leaders. My role: Provide Facebook live for TCPalm.com. My take: I'm sure I cannot hear another 15-minute history lesson about our water from any elected official, including Nelson. Also, I love Florida Sportsman magazine, but it's office kitchen is too small for a round table discussion with a U.S. Senator, plus I think former employee Jerry McBride left his lunch in there from 2005.

More: Rick Scott, Bill Nelson battle over algae blooms in U.S. Senate race

Aug. 10: Gov. Rick Scott, boat tour of St. Lucie River in Stuart — The governor's office announced to us at 9 p.m. the day before he would be touring the river at 8 a.m. departing from Sunset Bay Marina. My role: Provide Facebook live for TCPalm.com. My take: Ten minutes before his arrival, we received word, not from Scott's senatorial campaign people, but from Brian Mast's re-election campaign, that Scott would board a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission boat elsewhere due to "security concerns." There were none, unless Scott's campaign was worried about the friction between state representative Gayle Harrell and her challenger Belinda Keiser, both of whom were also waiting at Sunset Bay, along with more than 10 members of Martin County Sheriff's Dept., Stuart City Police, FWC law enforcement, a couple of Martin County Commissioners, a handful of county staff, about two dozen river advocates and several members of the media. He proceeded to do a weird drive-by of Central Marine in Rio without speaking to its management or even waving, then skipped out of town claiming a campaign event in Tampa. He refused to address any media, or citizens, even supporters while here. Let me just say that I've seen dictators with more transparency than Scott. Make no mistake, Rick Scott hates you, Florida, but yet he wants to be your next Senator.

More: Gov. Rick Scott avoids public, media during St. Lucie River boat tour to see algae bloom

Aug. 17: Rep. Brian Mast, water solutions work group at Stuart City Hall — Mast brought together the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, South Florida Water Management District, Dept. of Interior, Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection and several local scientists in a public forum in an overflowing room to ask pointed questions about water management policy. My role: Provide Facebook live for TCPalm.com. My take: I thank the military members of the Corps of Engineers, and all military service personnel, for their service to our country. I wish former Jacksonville district commander Col. Jason Kirk all the best in his next role, and incoming commander Col. Andrew Kelly, honored Friday in a change of command ceremony in Jacksonville, the best in his next three years here as the district's 58th commander. Mast did not receive answers to his questions. No fault of Mast, but this is how this relationship has worked for the past 85 years. The Corps takes orders. It does not answer questions, nor is it responsive to the voters of Florida. Give them new orders. By the way, Mast has backed up exactly what he said he would do when he ran for his seat two years ago and has said and done things none of his predecessors ever did. Patrick Murphy did some while he was in that position for two terms, but not one member of Congress who represented the Treasure Coast prior to Murphy ever lifted a finger to help us get clean water.

More: How low can Lake Okeechobee go to cut discharges? Army Corps, water district won't say

Aug. 20: Rep. Ron Desantis, R-Palm Coast, and candidate for Florida governor, boat tour of St. Lucie River — Toured St. Lucie River with members of Captains for Clean Water, scientists, activists and leaders. My role: None. My take: First time in my lifetime I've heard a Republican candidate for governor say the words "send the water south" or talk about appointing people to boards like water management districts who are educated in water problems. TCPalm politics reporter Ali Schmitz wrote: DeSantis said one of the first things he would do if elected governor is appoint people who better understand the impacts of algae on the coasts to the South Florida Water Management District.

"If you don't understand what's happening on the Treasure Coast or southwest Florida, don't even bother with seeking that appointment. This needs to be a priority for those folks, and I think that'll make a difference," DeSantis said.

Encouraging.

More: Ron DeSantis says 'send the water south' during Stuart campaign visit to view toxic algae

Aug. 24: Gwen Graham, Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate, work day with Ocean Research Conservation Association in Stuart — She walked the waterway at Shepard Park in downtown Stuart before heading to ORCA offices in Fort Pierce. My role: Provide Facebook live for TCPalm.com. My take: Graham visited Stuart in 2016 when the algae problem was worse in many ways, not that it won't be at the same point next week. She gets it, but it would have been nice to hear some of the same talking points Desantis mentioned.

More: Gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham says she'll push for science-driven solutions to algae

So much else has happened this week, too. Martin County awarded a $700,000 contract to vacuum the algae out of county waterways, but the demonstration left many who were in attendance uninspired. Then Martin County closed many of its beaches because blue-green algae washed ashore. While this was taking place, a troll on Facebook posted a photo of dead fish floating at sea and proclaimed it to be off Stuart. It was, in fact, off Manasota Key on the Gulf Coast, about 180 miles from where the Russian bot farm said it was. Charter boat captains were livid.

We are living in complicated times and it has been hard to keep one's sanity this summer. The only way I'm going to make it is to remember the line from the Bruce Cockburn song, "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" which I only know through the U2 song "On God Part II."

"Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight; Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight."

I'm kicking, y'all, but my feet are bleeding.

Ed Killer is the outdoors columnist for Treasure Coast Newspapers and TCPalm.com, and this column reflects his opinion. Friend him on Facebook at Ed Killer, follow him on Twitter @tcpalmekiller or email him at ed.killer@tcpalm.com or call him at 772-221-4201.