In an election year suddenly Florida Republicans are all about the algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee. It's all about pond scum..... "Sounds bleak, but Jordan Schwartz, owner of Ohana Surf Shop in Stuart, has a bit of hope. “The good thing is that it’s an election year,†he said. Indeed, Gov. Rick Scott, who just happens to be running for the U.S. Senate, has suddenly — after seven years in office — started railing about the algae crisis (albeit without offering much in the way of solutions). Last month, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast showed up on the floor of the House of Representatives with a jar of scum-green river water. Someone must have noticed. The Corps announced on June 28 that discharges into the St. Lucie would be curtailed for nine days. That didn’t help the folks on the Caloosahatchee side of the lake, but for the folks along the St. Lucie, it was at least a temporary reprieve from disaster."