Scott's Inner Circle

Florida's new governor is drafting heavily from the private sector -- and from outside the state -- as he makes key appointments.

Amy Keller | 3/1/2011

Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee, controversial former chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public school system who fired 270 teachers during her first year and half, is an informal adviser to Scott on education issues.

Brian Burgess

Brian Burgess, the governor's communications director, has been working for Scott since 2009, when Scott launched an organization called Conservatives for Patients' Rights to fight federal healthcare legislation.

A former U.S. Army communications specialist who graduated from a Christian college in Kansas, Burgess sent a January memo to other agency communication directors instructing them not to allow agency heads or any agency personnel to make public appearances or speeches without prior notification and
approval from the governor's office.

Donna Arduin

Donna Arduin, a former state budget director under Gov. Jeb Bush and author of Marco Rubio's property tax swap proposal, is the governor's top adviser on economic and budget policy. Arduin also served as finance director to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during his first year in office. Upon her arrival in Sacramento in 2003, Arduin was labeled an "ogre" by one legislative leader because of her advocacy of a Florida budget cut that would have ended Medicaid payments for adults needing eyeglasses and dental work. Arduin embraced the nickname, hanging an "Ogre X-ing" sign on her office door.

Mary Anne "Mac" Carter

Mary Anne "Mac" Carter serves as chief adviser to the governor, overseeing and implementing Scott's policy initiatives, legislative agenda and external communications and guiding the powerful Office of Policy and Budget. Scott describes Carter — a former staffer with the conservative Heritage Foundation and the former head of his Conservatives for Patients' Rights —?as a longtime friend who has "stood side by side with me in challenging the status quo and the evils of big government."

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Tags: Politics & Law, Government/Politics & Law

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