Florida’s governor trying to ‘poach jobs’ from Tennessee?

The Tampa Bay Times questions whether Florida Gov. Rick Scott is “breaking one of his cardinal rules” with a trip to Nashville aimed at convincing Tennessee companies to relocate into the Sunshine State. His effort to “poach jobs from the Volunteer State” follows similar past trips to California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and New York – all states with Democratic governors.

Tennessee, as the Times notes, has a Republican governor – Bill Haslam.

The News Service of Florida initially reported on Scott’s Tennessee trip, which came on Wednesday. That blurb – quoted intact by The Times – notes Scott also made a recruiting trip to Nevada, which also has a Republican governor (Brian Sandoval).

 A schedule released by Scott’s office included an afternoon itinerary of “business development” meetings with Tractor Supply Co. in Brentwood, Tenn., and with electronics company Griffin Technology and tire company Bridgestone Americas in Nashville. Similar to a July 21 trip to Las Vegas for meetings with Allegiant Air, online shoe retailer Zappos and the company GigaCrete, the governor’s office did not make a prior announcement of the Tennessee trip. That contrasts with pre-travel announcements about past business-development trips to Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, California and Kentucky, states that all had Democratic governors at the time of the trips. Before some of those trips, the economic-development agency Enterprise Florida ran radio ads touting the benefits of Florida.

UPDATE/Note: The Palm Beach Post notes that, with Republicans serving as governor in 34 states, it’s tough to “limit poaching to blue states.” Excerpt:

“Gov. Scott takes every opportunity to meet with businesses and convince them to move to Florida. This includes meetings with businesses in both Nevada and Tennessee in past few weeks,” Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said today. “The governor will continue to find businesses across the country and world to recruit to move to our state.