Rick Scott’s Top Latino Fundraiser Leaves Campaign After Campaign Staff Allegedly Made Racist Jokes

BY ADAM PECK/Think Progress

On late Thursday, billionaire Mike Fernandez abruptly resigned his post as the finance co-chair of Governor Rick Scott’s (R-FL) reelection campaign. The prominent Cuban-American health care mogul’s departure has fueled rumors of racism among Scott’s campaign staff.

Tensions between Scott’s campaign staff and Fernandez had been building for weeks. And the last straw, according to people within the campaign who spoke with the Miami Herald this weekend, was an incident in which several of Scott’s campaign staffers allegedly began joking around in a cartoonish, over-the-top Mexican accent while on the way to a Mexican restaurant.

Fernandez, who is Cuban, reportedly shot off an angry email to campaign leadership after word of the incident leaked out. In statements made to the press following his departure, he didn’t address the controversy at all, instead pointing to disagreements with the direction of the campaign and shouldering some of the blame himself.

But the charges of racism by members of his staff comes at a delicate time for Scott, who has been on something of an Hispanic outreach kick in recent weeks. He came out in favor of allowing in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants earlier this month, and selected Carlos Lopez-Cantera as his lieutenant governor in January, the first time a Latino has held that position in Florida.

Complaints of racial insensitivity by people in his employ could further undermine Scott’s efforts to attract more Hispanic voters in November. Republicans on the national and state level have been very public about their minority outreach in states like Florida, where non-white voters make up a huge percentage of the eligible voter population, but they continue to alienate even their own minority employees.

Fernandez’s departure from the campaign is the latest blow to Florida Republicans’ outreach efforts. Last May, the RNC’s State Director of Hispanic Outreach, specifically hired to attract more Hispanic voters in Florida, resigned and registered as a Democrat after noting his former party’s “culture of intolerance.” Earlier this year, Ana Rivas Logan, a former Republican state representative, changed her party affiliation because she felt the GOP was becoming “a party that attacks women and minorities.”

Scott’s campaign manager Melissa Sellers tried to downplay the severity of the racist remarks that supposedly motivated Fernandez’s departure, but stopped short of denying they took place. “Mike was not in the van,” she told the Miami Herald via email. “I spoke to every staffer in the van…If something was said in an accent, no one remembers what it was. We are a diverse organization and we do not tolerate inappropriate comments.”

In his four years as governor, Rick Scott has faced tremendous backlash from the state’s sizable Latino population after supporting legislation like HB 7089, which contained many similar provisions to those found in Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 bill. He is also the chief architect and staunchest defender of many of the state’s voter suppression efforts, which Republicans have admitted was targeted at the state’s minority population, a constituency that has historically favored Democrats by a wide margin.

Rick Scott’s Drug Testing of Florida’s Welfare Recipients Ruled Unconstitutional

by Salvatore Aversa/Occupy Democrats

Shortly after Rick Scott was elected Governor of Florida, he began pursuing mandatory drug testing for those who receive welfare.  In Republican controlled Florida, the bill had no problem being passed in June of 2011.  A controversial issue, many in the ACLU and the political Left decried the new law as unconstitutional.  On Tuesday, December 31, 2013, a federal judge agreed that the drug testing law was indeed unconstitutional.

Judge Mary S. Scriven of the United States District Court in Orlando held that the testing requirement, the signature legislation of Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who campaigned on the issue, violated the protection against unreasonable searches.

“The court finds there is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless [sic] drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied,” she wrote. The ruling made permanent an earlier, temporary ban by the judge.

Governor Scott stated that this was about the greater good, and saving the children.

“Any illegal drug use in a family is harmful and even abusive to a child,” he said in a statement. “We should have a zero-tolerance policy for illegal drug use in families — especially those families who struggle to make ends meet and need welfare assistance to provide for their children.”

Let’s break Governor Scott’s comments down one by one.  First and foremost, Scott is equating taking a hit of marijuana to beating a child, or worse.  While it is true there are harder drugs out there, and some such as crack cocaine are harmful to be around in any way, that distinction is not made with Governor Scott’s drug testing.

Lastly, and perhaps the most infuriating, is stating there is a zero-tolerance policy for illegal drug use.  If he wants to follow that belief, fine.  However, how can there be a “zero-tolerance” with the addition “especially those families who struggle to make ends meet and need welfare assistance to provide for their children.”

If Governor Scott believes any kind of drug use is the equivalent of child abuse, why not require drug testing of each and every individual, regardless of income.  No, this is about a deep seeded hatred for the poor.

The largest beneficiaries of welfare programs are children.  Reagan’s attempted to paint a picture of a “welfare queen” as a woman “on the South side of Chicago” that, “has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veteran’s benefits on four nonexisting deceased husbands. And she is collecting Social Security on her cards. She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000.”

From that day forward, it was a free-for-all against the poor.  Governor Scott is just carrying the flag for the Republican Party.  This may be a step backwards for the Party, but they will regroup and attack it from a different angle.  Already, one Conservative group is planning their next offense.

Tarren Bragdon, chief executive of the Foundation for Government Accountability, a conservative group in Naples, Fla., that focuses on health care and welfare policy, said the judge’s decision would most likely result in states around the country adjusting their laws so they could meet constitutional muster.

“I think what we are seeing is Florida pursuing a strategy of protecting kids by testing all applicants,” Mr. Bragdon said. “You’re going to see a shift in strategy of how to best protect kids in a constitutional way.”

For example, some states are now screening applicants and require drug tests only of those who appear to be drug users. “The decision is not that you can’t drug test applicants,” Mr. Bragdon said. “It’s that you can’t blanket drug test all of them.”

Again, it is about protecting children.  Cowards seem to hide behind children to protect their true intentions.  If this is about doing what is best for children, why are they trying to take food off of their tables for the mistakes of their parents?  Why did Governor Scott cut over $1.3 billion from public education in his first year and higher education by $300 million in his second year?

And then there is this little thorn in the side that Governor Scott would rather you forget.  In the time period that the drug testing of welfare recipients occurred, 4086 were tested.  The net revealed only 108 people, or 2.6%, turned up positive for drugs.

When somebody tests positive, they lose their benefits immediately.  They must also pay for the cost of the drug test.  However, for those who are clean, taxpayers must pick up the tab.  Not only does this use more funds that what is being saved, you must also follow the money.  If you thought Governor Scott did not want you to pay attention to the previous numbers, consider this.

If you have a $62 million investment, representing the biggest single chunk of your $218 million in wealth, and you put it in a trust under your wife’s name, does that mean you’re no longer involved in the company?

Florida Gov. Rick Scott says it does.

Scott has aggressively pursued policies like testing state workers and welfare recipients for drugs, switching Medicaid patients to private HMOs and shrinking public health clinics. All these changes could benefit that $62 million investment, but Scott sees no legal conflict between his public role and private investments.

And, experts say, under Florida law he is correct.

So, Scott is able to look like a Republican hero by attacking the poor, while simultaneously pocketing over $60 million—and it is all legal.

The federal judge that struck down the decision made the right call.  With no suspicion or grounds for a drug test, and no warrant, the Government has no right to violate your body in such a way.  You would expect Republicans to oppose such a violation of civil right, but instead they laud it.  It is a strange hypocrisy that likely will find it’s way to the Supreme Court.

Video

The Young Turks discuss the failure of Florida’s welfare drug test program.

For 200 Hours And Counting, Sit-In At Florida Capitol Demands Stand Your Ground Repeal

By Rebecca Leber/Think Progress

For more than eight days, a group of activists and students organized by the Dream Defendershave occupied the Florida Capitol, right outside Florida Governor Rick Scott’s (R) office. The activists say they plan to occupy the Capitol until the governor calls a special session to review the state’s Stand Your Ground law, racial profiling, and the school-to-prison pipeline, and consider what they call the Trayvon Martin Act. But after meeting with the protesters last week, Scott announced he has no intention to review Stand Your Ground, which played a role in jury deliberations that led to George Zimmerman’s acquittal.

“That’s very disappointing on our part,” Dream Defenders legal and policy director Ahmad Abuznaid told ThinkProgress. “We are attempting to get Governor Rick Scott and the state leadership here to be real leaders and so far they have not stepped up to the plate. So far, we have decided to hold our own legislative session to show them how it’s done.”

Next Tuesday, Dream Defenders plan mock legislative sessions where civic leaders and juvenile experts will weigh the pros and cons of Trayvon’s law.

Their support is only building. From the sit-in’s first days of around 30 protesters, the number has grown to between 60 to 100 participants at peak times, according to Abuznaid. Now, they are attracting national attention, as groups from Baltimore, Philly, and New York, as well as Florida Democrats, bring supporters and supplies.

One of Dream Defenders’ main goals is to repeal Stand Your Ground, which worsens the effects of racial bias in criminal justice. For example, white defendants who shot a black person and invoked Stand Your Ground were 11 times more likely to go unpunished as black defendants who shot a white person.

Beyond Stand Your Ground, the group is fighting for policies that end zero tolerance in the justice system for minority youth, including a civil citation program statewide that issues tickets over jailtime for first-time offenders. Miami Dade has implemented it, and activists want to see a broader application. “Its’ not enough,” Abuznaid said. “Improving one county is not enough and it’s not successful. If that was a grade in school, 1 in 67, [Scott] would be failing.”

But Scott is unlikely to budge on these issues. Having played a pivotal role in protecting Stand Your Ground, Scott has deferred to the conclusion of the task force he appointed last year to keep the American Legislative Exchange Council-sponsored law. “Look, this thing should not be politicized,” Scott said last Thursday. “I mean, we lost a 17-year-old young man in our state.”

Governor Rick Scott Announces Florida Will Sue Obama Administration Over Voter Purge

By Judd Legum/Think Progress

During an appearance on Fox News Monday afternoon, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced that the state will sue the Department of Homeland Security to obtain access to a database that it believes will provide more accurate information on the citizenship status of Florida voters.

“The Florida’s Secretary of State office wil be filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database,” Scott said. “We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and so we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.” The move comes after Scott disregarded a request from the Department of Justice on Wednesday to abandon efforts to purge eligible voters.

Neil Cavuto, who conducted the interview, pressed Scott on why many of those who objected to the purge were Republican election supervisors. Cavuto also noted that other prominent Florida Republicans, notably Sen. Marco Rubio, were notably silent on the purge.

Watch it:

DHS has expressed skepticism at allowing Scott to use its database — called SAVE or “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements” — in order to suppress the vote, telling the Orlando Sentinel last week that the data is incomplete and does not provide comprehensive information on all eligible voters:

On Thursday, a senior DHS official, who would speak only on background, saidthe agency was waiting for Florida and the U.S. Justice Department to settle their dispute on whether Florida’s purge violates federal voter-protection laws before allowing the state access the SAVE database. Only then would DHS consider access legally authorized, the official said.

“Obviously, removing folks from the voter rolls is something we take seriously,” said the official.

The DHS representative also cautioned that even if Florida could use SAVE, it would not paint a complete picture of who is a U.S. citizen — as the list deals largely with green-card holders and naturalized citizens, and is not a comprehensive list of all Americans who have the right to vote.

We will update the post as more information becomes available.

Florida Governor Rick Scott Defends Voter Purge: We’re ‘Doing The Right Thing’

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) denied that his effort to purge voters from the rolls disproportionately targets minorities who support Democratic candidates on Friday morning, even as independent investigations have confirmed that 58 percent “of those flagged as potential noncitizens are Hispanics.” “The Secretary of State’s office is doing the right thing,” Scott told the Miami Herald in defending his effort, before insisting that the administration is “absolutely not” targeting minorities.

Asked if he was planning to heed the Department of Justice’s request that the state abandon its voter-cleansing program, Scott said that the Secretary of State is still reviewing the matter.

“The Secretary of State’s office is going to review what the Department of Justice has said,” he said “And then we’re going to make a decision.”

In a letter released on Thursday, the federal government claimed that Scott’s purge violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act — which requires the state to seek federal approval of its campaign — and the National Voter Registration Act. That measure says that “a State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.” As a result, Florida should have finished the process by May 16.

But while Scott is still considering his options, a growing number of election officials have already rejected his error-ridden voter purge list. A ThinkProgress analysis of several county supervisors in Florida has also found that a large number of the voters on the list are indeed eligible voters, including at least two World War II veterans.

Virtual Blackout From National Media On Voter Suppression In Florida

By Adam Peck/Think Progress

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has directed his administration to purge the state’s voting rolls of thousands of registered voters prior to the November election. But his list, which purports to include only “non-citizens,” targets mostly Democrats and Hispanics and, as ThinkProgress hasdocumented, may disenfranchise hundreds of citizens who are eligible to vote.

The story of a sitting governor of a state with a history of presidential election shenanigansknowingly purging his own, eligible constituents from the voter rolls is the definition of major news, and yet remarkably, in the first five months of the year, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today have published a total of zero articles about Scott’s actions. The New York Times did slightly better, printing one story on page 16 of the Friday, May 18th edition. The article ran under the credulous headline: “Florida Steps Up Effort Against Illegal Voters.”

Florida’s local newspapers, led by The Miami Herald, have been far more diligent in reporting the governor’s effort to disenfranchise eligible voters. While it may be easy to dismiss this as local fare, the implications of Scott’s purge could potentially swing the presidential election come November. Remember, months before anyone had ever heard of hanging chads, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) conducted a similar cleansing of the voter rolls in 2000, which resulted in thousands of eligible voters being knocked off the rolls in time for the infamous Gore v. Bush election.

Fla. governor tries relating to black students with public housing tale

By Stephen C. Webster/Raw Story

Confronted by a group of angry Florida A&M students outside his home on Thursday night, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) attempted to generate some empathy by telling the mostly black crowd that he grew up in public housing.

The students were protesting the governor’s call for James Ammons, president of Florida A&M, to be suspended following the hazing death of one of the school’s students.

Students from the school, which has a mostly black constituency, showed up on Scott’s lawn to let him know they weren’t happy with his decision. Scott, who’d just arrived back from a trip to Israel, reportedly came out wearing sweatpants and offered to address the crowd.

“The white guv bizarrely attempted to quell the mostly black crowd by beginning his speech with some version of: ‘Hey, I grew up in public housing,’” the Miami New Times explained. “To which students protested, ‘We’re not poor!’”

He ultimately reinforced his decision, telling students that he would not rescind the call for Ammons’ suspension.

It might not have been called out as sounding racist if Scott hadn’t tried that very same approach with a group of black lawmakers in February.

“I grew up probably in the same situation as you guys,” he said to a collection of black Democrats. “I started school in public housing. My dad had a sixth-grade education.”

The comments led to Scott being booted from the luncheon.

Rick Scott Says ‘I Care Completely’ About Homelessness After He Proposed Cutting All Funding For Homeless Programs

By Tanya Somanader/Think Progress

In a state that is near the top of the national chart in food insecurity, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) took time this holiday to pass out Thanksgiving dinner to about 1,000 families at a shelter in East Naples. The shelter’s program fed about 7,000 families last week, with roughly 200 volunteers packing and distributing meals.

“I care completely about all these programs,” said Scott while handing out food. However, he possesses a singular way of showing it, as his sweeping budget cuts this year “slashed funding to some veteran and farm surplus programs that helped the homeless.” To justify those cuts, Scott simply explained, “all the programs are very important, but nobody wants their taxes to go up”:

“I care completely about all these programs,” said Scott, whose budget cuts earlier this year slashed funding to some veteran and farm surplus programs that helped the homeless.

“All the programs are very important, but nobody wants their taxes to go up,” Scott explained, noting that businesses also can help spur the economy. “They’ve got to grow. We’ve got to make this a place people can do well.”

One Jacksonville homeless shelter official noted that Scott “zeroed out all homeless funding” — $7 million worth — in his budget proposal. That funding supported programs dedicated to homelessness prevention, housing initiatives, and programs that “re-house” people once they’re on the street. “Not only that, he took out the line items so it can never be funded again,” said the official.

To show how much he cares about the homeless, Scott went further by vetoing $12 million in funding that state legislature had passed to support homeless veterans. There are an estimated 17,000 homeless veterans in Florida — the second highest in the nation. Overall, a record 17.2 million Americans went hungry last year.

PoliticsNation:Nice try Rick Scott, we got you.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Gov. Rick Scott Aide Admits That Scott’s Corporate Tax Cut Won’t Create Jobs

By Tanya Somanader/Think Progress

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) started out as the jobs candidate, promising to create 700,000 jobs “on top of” the jobs added from Florida’s normal growth. He then revised that plan down to just “700,000″ before recently declaring, “I don’t have to create any jobs.”

Scott’s need to divorce himself from his own job-creation promises is not surprising, since many of his policies have actually killed job growth. While admitting that his preference is to cut “people,” Scott has directed his focus toward corporate tax cuts rather than job creation. In fact, his legislative affairs director Jon Costello publicly admitted as much. Asked about the value of Scott’s most recent corporate tax break, Costello admitted “quite frankly” that the tax breaks might not be enough for a company to hire even one person:

Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach, asked Costello of the governor’s plan would require that companies create jobs in exchange for the new tax breaks.

“The last thing we would want to do is just have a CEO pocket the money and just say ‘Thanks for the cash,’” Jenne said during a meeting of the House Economic Affairs Committee .

“Quite frankly, depending on the size and scope of the company, their savings and tax breaks might not be enough to bring a new person on,” Costello answered. “But it might be enough to buy a new piece of equipment or do something that injects money back into the economy.”

In a state with 10.7 unemployment rate, Scott chose to kill a high-speed rail project that would’ve created 71,000 jobs, boasted about laying off 15,000 government employees, and plans to reject funds from Obama’s new jobs plan that would create more than 60,000 jobs.

Instead, he champions corporate tax breaks that even his own administration says likely won’t work. We’ve noted before how it is exceedingly unlikely that Scott’s corporate tax cut — particularly his original plan to eliminate the corporate tax entirely — would create any jobs.

Asked point blank whether Scott is “backtracking” from his promise to create at least 700,000 jobs, Costello admitted, “it’s a very difficult question.” Given his policy choices, the answer actually seems pretty obvious.

Gov. Rick Scott Brags About Laying Off 15,000 Government Workers After Decrying Florida’s High Unemployment

By Marie Diamond/Think Progress

The GOP presidential candidates and other prominent conservatives spoke today at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida. This afternoon, Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) took to the stage to talk about “successes” in his state, including decreasing the state’s unemployment rate to 10.7 percent — which he noted is still well above the national average.

In the next sentence, though, Scott touted another “success” — laying off 15,000 public sector workers, which of course increased the unemployment rolls in his state. Scott then declared, “government can’t create jobs”:

SCOTT: We’ve had plenty of success so far. Not enough…In Florida, unemployment rate’s gone from 12 percent down to 10.7. We’re still above the national average, but we’ve generated 87,200 private sector jobs — private sector! And we have 15,000 less government jobs in the state of Florida. [Applause] Government doesn’t create jobs.

Watch it:

Scott’s reminder that he laid of thousands of Floridians drew big applause from the conservative crowd. At least 600,000 government workers have lost their jobs since the recession began, but Republicans nevertheless keep scapegoating public employees who have shouldered more than their fair share of economic pain.

In fact, massive job losses in the public sector are one of the main factors keeping national unemployment so high. In August, a gain of 17,000 private sector jobs was completely negatedby 17,000 public sector job losses. According to David Leonhardt, if state and local governments had continued to hire at their previous pace, they would have added half a million jobs to the economy. In other words, government austerity over the past two years “has cost the economy about one million jobs.”

Florida’s welfare drug testing costs more than it saves

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to test welfare recipients for drugs is costing the state money, despite his claims that the program would actually save tax dollars.

A WFTV investigation found that out of the 40 recipients tested by Department of Central Florida’s (DCF) region, only two resulted in positive results. And one of those tests is being appealed.

Under the rules of the program, the state must reimburse recipients who receive negative test results. The state paid about $1,140 for the 38 negative tests, while saving less than $240 a month by denying benefits over the two positive tests.

“We have a diminishing amount of returns for our tax dollars,” the ACLU’s Derek Brett told WFTV. “Do we want our governor throwing our precious tax dollars into a program that has already been proven not to work?”

The cost to taxpayers could end up being significantly higher because the state expects to have to defend the law in court.

Watch this video from WFTV, broadcast Aug. 18, 2011.

Facing Flurry of Lawsuits, a Governor Loses a Round

 By LIZETTE ALVAREZ/ New York Times


MIAMI — Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican conservative, took office this year on a promise to shake things up. That he did, and now the aggrieved — teachers, prison workers, food stamp recipients, doctors — are plastering him with lawsuits.

The lawsuits have rolled in over the past few months, making Governor Scott as popular in the legal sphere as he is at a Tea Party meet-and-greet.

On Tuesday, he lost a round. The Florida Supreme Court concluded that Mr. Scott “overstepped his constitutional authority” and “violated the separation of powers” when he suspended all proposed rules until he could review and approve them. It was the governor’s first executive order. A majority of judges stated that Mr. Scott encroached on the State Legislature’s authority when he opted to unilaterally freeze rule-making.

The governor, who issued the order to stave off any burdensome rules for the private sector, was sued in June by a blind Miami woman collecting food stamps. The woman, Rosalie Whiley, said Governor Scott had delayed a rule that made it easier for her to collect food stamps.

“It’s a disappointment,” Mr. Scott said, about the decision. “You know, think about it. The secretaries of these agencies report to me. They work for me at will, then I’m not supposed to supervise them? It doesn’t make any sense.”

But the governor has many more chances to vindicate himself in court.

He is being sued for requiring state agencies to test job applicants for drugs and conduct random screening on existing employees (none are taking place pending the outcome of the suit).

Florida doctors and their lobbyists are suing him to block a law that hampers their ability to ask patients about guns in their homes. The law states that any question about guns must be relevant to the patient’s case.

Three unions representing state workers, including the teachers’ union, filed a class-action suit against the governor for taking 3 percent of their salaries and shifting the money into the pension system. The unions say the state violated its contractual obligation to the workers and broke the law. At the same time, the union that represents state correctional officers is suing him in the hope of derailing a plan to privatize 30 Florida prisons.

Also pending is a lawsuit that challenges the governor and his administration over the establishment of a new voting law, which would among other things tighten rules on third party registration, until the Department of Justice completes a full review.

Last week, Citizens for National Security jumped in the fray. The volunteer group, which monitors national security and extremism, sued Governor Scott over a new law that changes the way textbooks are reviewed and selected. In particular, the group is concerned about how religions are depicted in the textbooks. The law, a cost-saving measure, cut the number of people assigned to oversee textbooks from at least 10 to 2 people, making a thorough review almost impossible, the group said in the suit.

Lane Wright, a spokesman for Mr. Scott, played down the lawsuits, saying it was not exactly surprising for a new governor to be sued. Plus, Mr. Wright added, placing the governor’s name on a lawsuit, as opposed to the Florida Legislature or any one of its lesser-known members, attracts a lot more attention to a cause.

“Sometimes special interests will file lawsuits to try to get their views represented,” Mr. Wright said. “Often, they name the governor, even though it’s not always appropriate to do that. The governor does sign things into law. That doesn’t make him a de facto defendant in the suit.”

But Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said the governor had earned the title of lead defendant in the suits because of his disregard for the Constitution, the legislative branch and courts. The A.C.L.U. is party to several of the lawsuits.

“And there is more coming,” Mr. Simon said. “He has to take ownership and responsibility for bad laws.”

But Mr. Simon did concede: “It’s not only him. You’ve had an out-of-control Legislature.”

At the root of this, Mr. Simon said, is the governor’s failure to make the transition from corporate chief executive to governor.

“Government doesn’t operate in the way that you wake up one morning and you issue an edict and you expect everyone to jump,” Mr. Simon said. “There is shared power. He is not used to sharing power.”