Hollingsworth: Rick Scott adviser had inside track to keep AAF rail project roll

[thelakelander]

Very interesting....

TALLAHASSEE _ When Gov. Rick Scott ran for governor in 2010, the GOP establishment supported former Attorney General  Bill McCollum.

So, when Scott, a former health care executive, spent nearly $40 million of his own wealth to beat McCollum in the Republican primary, fences needed to be mended between the rookie politician and the party he now led.

Enter Adam Hollingsworth.

At the time of the 2010 primary, Hollingsworth was making $189,000-per-year as chief of staff to then-Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton. He took a leave of absence, recruited by both the Republican Party of Florida chairman and Scott campaign manager Susie Wiles, to help fix the relationship between Scott and the party's elite.

Hollingsworth became one of Scott's most trusted advisers, a position he used to influence the administration's rejection of billions in federal high-speed rail money, then later lobby for a rail project that would benefit his employer, emails, text messages and administration documents obtained by the Scripps/Tribune Capital Bureau show.

full article: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2014/jul/05/rick-scott-adviser-had-inside-track-to-keep-all/

[Ocklawaha]

I know that Hollingsworth attended/taught a Sunday School class full of railroad executives, he no doubt has many personal friends that can help guide this through in a way that is acceptable to the industry for writing a new page in passenger rail history.

[tufsu1]

So Adam Hollingsworth, a former CSX employee kept the state from investing in HSR?

perhaps more importantly....the future employee of what was at the time called Rail America....a partner company of FEC

[spuwho]

She is just ticked because no one was trying to kiss her ring like they were with Adam.

I guess she wasn't acquiring enough political capital. And the fact she is so willing to spill his beans clearly means they saw her as a liability.

Since she is threatening to spill she clearly accepts her political career is over.

[civil42806]

I'm sure after getting corrine  brown a few sandbags during the next tropical storm, he may be able to find another job.  of course this time he will have to fill them himself instead of city employees