Out Here | Everglades National Park, Fla.: The Governor Likes Alligators in Only One Size

Gov. Rick Scott was praising Florida’s many outdoor pleasures — fishing, hunting, bird-watching — when he let slip that he did not have much fondness for alligators.

“I don’t want to be close to them that much,” Mr. Scott said during a recent visit to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In fact, he said he would be “receptive” to putting a bullet in a gator if someone believed that it might help promote the state’s tourism.

The governor’s swat at the Sunshine State’s unofficial tourism symbol surprised rangers at Everglades National Park, who lead tours on the Anhinga Trail for its 800,000 annual visitors, most of whom relish the chance to get very close to alligators.

“Gators are native,” said Charlie Arazoza, a volunteer ranger and chairman of the South Florida National Parks Trust, a fund-raising group. “If you want to indiscriminately kill some reptiles, let’s focus on exotics, like Burmese pythons. We’re already hunting them.”

The Anhinga Trail is actually a winding boardwalk that provides a somewhat safe distance from the dozens of alligators sunning themselves and hunting.

Visitors can get even closer to an eight-foot alligator now residing in a stand of soaring cypress trees. Rangers lead people out through the tall saw grass into the “Movie Dome,” where many films have been shot, to commune with the gator. On a recent afternoon, he was napping on the edge of a cool pond (a drought has made cool, wet places difficult to find).

“He came in and muscled out all the smaller ones,” Mr. Arazoza said.

A few skittish visitors were not sure if it was smart to stand 10 yards from a big alligator. “Don’t worry — you’re not really in danger,” he assured them. “Gators don’t like to use a lot of energy.”

This might be news to Mr. Scott, who gets close to a gator only when he slips on gold-embossed, custom-made “governor” boots, made of alligator skin.

DON VAN NATTA JR.

 

Governor of Mississippi Won’t Run for President

In a telephone call to supporters, followed by a brief statement, Mr. Barbour said he lacked the “absolute fire in the belly,” that a candidacy would require. He apologized for flirting with a presidential bid over the last six months and then backing away, but said he had concluded that he was not ready to dedicate himself to the “all-consuming effort” a campaign would require.

“I cannot offer that with certainty,” he said, “and total certainty is required.”

The decision by Mr. Barbour, 63, provided the biggest shake-up yet of the 2012 presidential race. His departure adds another layer of uncertainty to the wide-open fight for the party’s nomination and set off a scramble among other candidates seeking to sign up his donors and supporters.

Throughout the spring, Mr. Barbour has been traveling to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, testing his support among Republicans who cast the first votes. He recruited a team of operatives in those states, along with national campaign strategists, and rivals expected him to join the first Republican debate next week in South Carolina.

But his candidacy faced many challenges. As a lobbyist, for example, he represented tobacco companies, the pharmaceutical industry and several foreign governments. He sought to sell the experience as an advantage, telling audiences, “I saw the sausage factory up close,” but his aides braced for intense scrutiny.

Mr. Barbour founded the Washington lobbying firm now known as BGR in 1991 with Ed Rogers, a close friend who had worked with him in the Reagan White House. The next year, Lanny Griffith, who worked in the administration of President George Bush and also hailed from Mississippi, joined them. They formed the foundation of a powerhouse firm with close ties to the Republican establishment.

Mr. Barbour left the firm in 2004 when he became governor of Mississippi, but associates say he is a frequent visitor to the office when he is in Washington. Since his formal departure, reports have shown that he has continued to draw hundreds of thousands of dollars from a blind trust that held stock in the firm’s parent company.

His decision touched off a new round of speculation about Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, a close friend who is also weighing the possibility of entering the Republican race. Mr. Daniels has said he intends to make a decision as early as next month. (Representative Ron Paul of Texas is set to announce on Tuesday that he is opening a presidential exploratory committee.)

It remained an open question where Mr. Barbour’s supporters would go — or if he would try to direct them to one candidate — but his decision could help other contenders, including those trying to emerge as the leading alternative to Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts. Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor, probably faces an easier time winning establishment support with Mr. Barbour out of the picture.

Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House from Georgia, is now expected to be the only Southerner in the race. That could help him in the South Carolina primary, which follows the opening contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, said in an interview that he believed Mr. Gingrich would stand to gain the most from Mr. Barbour’s decision. But Mr. Dawson said that the contest remained remarkably unpredictable and that other potential candidates, like former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, needed to make their decisions soon.

There had been questions about Mr. Barbour’s health. He had back surgery last week, hoping to correct a condition that caused him noticeable pain. Last month, he said he had lost 20 pounds and intended to lose 20 more by the end of April.

But nine days ago, after speaking at a Republican county convention in South Carolina, Mr. Barbour grabbed a doughnut before heading for the door. He had not been seen doing that — in public, at least — in months.

Eric Lichtblau contributed reporting.

 

Arizona Governor Rejects Bid to Loosen Gun Rules

The surprise veto of the gun measure disappointed advocates of gun rights, who vowed to bring it back next year. The bill, as originally proposed, would have allowed guns everywhere on campus, including in classrooms. In the face of strong criticism, it was amended to permit weapons only on “a public right of way” within campuses, which legislative supporters said they understood to mean sidewalks and roads.

But Ms. Brewer, a strong advocate of gun rights, who has supported loosening restrictions on guns in the past, said the language was unclear.

Cheering the governor’s decision were university administrators, faculty members, police chiefs and students, all of whom strongly opposed the measure because they said it would have brought an element of danger into the academy.

“We come to school to learn and don’t need any more distractions,” said Kim Sell, a nutritional sciences major at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who was interviewed near a sign at the entrance to campus that declares, “Weapon free zone.”

A desire to spare additional problems for Arizona prompted Ms. Brewer to veto the so-called birther bill that would have required presidential candidates to present their long-form birth certificates or other documents to prove their citizenship, a measure pressed by lawmakers who question President Obama’s birthplace.

“I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit ‘early baptismal or circumcision certificates’ among other records to the Arizona secretary of state,” the governor wrote in her veto statement. “This is a bridge too far.”

On the gun measure, State Senator Ron Gould, a Republican from Lake Havasu City , argued that students and professors were vulnerable to armed attackers and should not have their Second Amendment rights restricted on campus. Utah is the only state that requires universities to allow guns on their campuses.

A requirement in early versions of the bill that those carrying weapons on campus complete a concealed-weapon training course did little to assuage the concerns of critics.

“Law enforcement intervention should be done by law enforcement personnel who have been specifically selected and trained to perform these duties, not by individuals who may have marginally completed an eight-hour course years ago or other marginal training and possibly have not practiced with the firearm they are now carrying,” the chiefs of police from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University said in a joint letter to lawmakers urging defeat of the bill.

Arizona leaves it up to the state’s colleges and universities to set their own policies on firearms, and all institutions of higher education currently ban them.

Marisa Gerber contributed reporting from Tucson.