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So, remember that flap over Gov. Rick Scott adopting a shelter dog, naming it Reagan, using it for campaign publicity, and then dumping it on another family as soon as he was inaugurated? Yes, we know it’s hard to keep Rick Scott scandals straight.
Well, its appears to have cost Brian Burgess, the spokesman for the Republican Party of Florida, his job.
Burgess had been Scott’s communications director but took over the same duties for the entire state party this September. He was not particularly well liked by the Tallahassee press corps.
Saint Petersblog has rounded up his most colorful moments, including one in which he sent a direct message on Twitter to the blogger, pleading, “Please for the love of God stop kicking me in the balls.” He often took feuds with reporters public on Twitter.
Apparently, though, Burgess’s handling of the dog scandal was the last straw.
The Tampa Bay Times‘ Lucy Morgan implies he’s been shown the door because of it. Burgess promised he’d have an answer about the fate of Reagan when the newspaper began asking about the whereabouts of the dog, but after five days, he never provided an answer. The result made the guv look worse than he should have. (Reagan, by the way, supposedly had a habit of biting people and is reportedly living on a horse ranch somewhere here in South Florida.)
Burgess will go to Meteoric Media Strategies, where he’ll join Brian Hughes, another former RPOF spokesman.
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