Future Florida Gov Adam Putnam gets little local love

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The future governor of this state came to town Wednesday, and none of usual suspects came to see him.

In fact, the only elected at the meet-and-greet opening of the new Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs office in Doral with Ag Commissioner Adam Putnam was new Doral Councilwoman Christi Fraga. Well,for the whole thing, anyway. I was later told that Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez also stopped by, but she left before I arrived — and before Putnam made his remarks. You would think that newly-elected city Mayor Luigi Boria would want to welcome the man who is almost certain to be state governor — one day, if not in two years.

The pastor mayor was nowhere in sight, but Putnam convinced me that he is not going to run against Gov. Rick Scott in the 2014 primary — despite some murmuring for months about such a face-off and his recent high-profile duties during the RNC event in Tampa and what seems like an endless barrage of campaign stops (he was in Bradenton Tuesday).

But I’d be willing to wager that he will run in the future — and that he will win.

The former U.S. Congressman told me straight up that he was not running against his boss — well, sorta; Putnam serves in Scott’s cabinet — in the 2014 primary, repeating what he’s been telling reporters since the summer.

And he sounded convincing.

“I’m very happy where I am,” Putnam said at the opening of the department’s new one-stop shop in Doral, which consolidates several offices in South Florida. “And I’m looking forward to re-election as Commissioner of Agriculture.”

Ladra asked if he would at least acknowledge that he had been encouraged to run, since I’ve heard his name in connection to that more than a few times. And, then, he was less convincing.

“I will not confirm that,” he said. But he did not deny it, either. You know what that mean (read: yes).

Republicans see the writing on the wall and even some of them can’t stomach Scott too much. They may be quietly looking for “someone we can rally around’ — their words, not mine — that actually has a chance of beating the incumbent in the primary and can do better against the Democratic challenger. And/or Charlie Crist, because everybody thinks it’s going to come to that. And the buzz about the polling numbers published since last spring on such a rematch is not making the red team happy.

And on the heels of Nov. 6, the Republicans have had a V-8 moment about their need to appeal to a broader voter base.

Enter Putnam. With his Richie Cunningham good looks and aw shucks southern drawl, the relatively young pol at 38 is really a whiz-kid-turned-GOP insider with a track record that is hard to beat: A decade in the nation’s capital as the U.S. Rep for Florida’s 12th District (Bartow), the youngest Congressman ever elected at age 26, and four years in the state house before that.

He is a moderate who can attract the new and disenfranchised voters that the Republican Party so desperately wants, and needs, as evidenced a month ago.

But therein also lies the problem. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a less conservative to beat a more conservative incumbent in Florida’s highest office. And Putnam may not want to risk shaking up his own party and going against the top guy if he can wait. And there is that chance that Scott or whoever would lose anyway to Alex Sink and/or Charlie Crist. So why not let the Dems do the dirty work? And/or Crist. And then he can come in for a clean sweep in 2016.

When I asked him wanting to live at the governor’s mansion in the future, Putnam — who once told his grandfather when he was 11 that he wanted to be the governor — just smiled and repeated that he was looking forward to running for Ag Commissioner again — “and serving out that term.”

Which, by the way is four years, like the guv’s. What a coincidence.

But watch him because Ladra predicts we’ll be calling him Gov. Putnam before the decade is out.

I hope he invites new Fraga and I to his inauguration. Not because she is the youngest member of the Doral council, even though he can appreciate that. “I’m a big fan of young people getting involved in politics,” Putnam told the small group gathered. No, rather because she was the only elected who took the time when he was but a lowly Ag Commissioner.

Not that others were not invited. Several nametags for other representatives of the people lay unclaimed on the table by the door. They included Doral Vice Mayor Michael De Pietro and all the other council members as well as Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz.

Bet you they’ll regret that in 2018.