Rick Scott has the lowest approval rating of any governor out of six states polled by Quinnipiac.

By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

The latest Quinnipiac University poll has confirmed it: Florida’s Rick Scott is the most despised governor in the country.

Congratulations, Guv. Quite an honor.

Turns out that Esther, his mom, was indeed right. Gov. Scott is quite the overachiever. All it took was cutting about 9,000 state jobs. The decimation of Florida’s public education system. The gutting of hospitals, higher education and environmental protections. And single-handedly shutting down a decade-long effort to create a high-speed rail system from Orlando to Tampa, which would have created 24,000 jobs.

All in less than six months. So much accomplished in such a short time.

And he still found the time to infuriate fellow Republican lawmakers by vetoing most of their projects.

But at least Scott remains the darling of the slash-and-burn wing of the Republican Party — and the tea party. After all, he announced his proposed budget at a tea party rally and signed the budget in a tea party-heavy  community in Central Florida.

And those are probably the 29 percent who believe he’s doing a good job. The 29 percent also happen to be the same number who believe the budget is fair to them. More than half — 54 percent — believe the budget is unfair to people like them.

The numbers are even lower when people are asked whether the budget he signed Thursday will create jobs. Only 26 percent believe it will. Scott ran on the promise he would create jobs for Floridians. But after the thousands of job cuts, his “Let’s Get To Work” campaign slogan has turned into a taunt.