ST. PETERSBURG – It wasn’t just Rays fans who flocked to Tropicana Field Friday for the Rays season opener against Baltimore.
The festivities of the game were interrupted by angry protests against Gov. Rick Scott that were organized via Facebook and Twitter in the weeks before the game.
“We got wind of this on the Internet,” said Michelle Cairms of Clearwater, a state worker.
Scott threw out the ceremonial first pitch Fridat night at Tropicana Field in downtown St. Petersburg.
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter took advantage in advance, rousing the public to demonstrate against some of Scott’s more unpopular decisions in his first few months as the state’s chief executive. They include plans for state spending cuts and turning down billions in federal rail funds.
Hundreds of protesters lined the main entrance to the Tropicana Field parking lots on both sides of the street. Throughout the afternoon they chanted “Boo Rick Scott,” which was the stated purpose of the Boo Rick Scott social media campaign by activists.
Some ticketholders to the April 1 game even tried to bring in homemade signs to the stadium denouncing the governor. People also chanted inside the stadium when the governor made the first pitch.
The common denominator voiced by the protesters — who seemed to have different reasons for coming — was plans by Scott to slash different state programs.
Mark Feldman of Port Richey alleged that the governor is a felon and is serving illegally, because of Scott’s former ties to Columbia/HCA, which paid more than $600 million in fines for illegally billing Medicare. Scott was forced to resign as the company’s CEO in 1997 during the federal investigation.
“He is not eligible to even be governor because he is a felon,” Feldman claimed. “He has no right being in office.”
Feldman has been to previous Scott demonstrations and plans to go to future gatherings. As a result, he was not surprised by the size of the group of protestors.
“This is exactly what I thought it would be,” Feldman said. “Every time I come out to one of these, it gets bigger and it will only continue to get bigger.”
