Senator eyes rejected Florida bullet train funds

New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez (D), a former chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, is campaigning for something else these days: Florida's high-speed rail money.
 
Menendez, who ran the DSCC from 2008-2010, said on his Twitter page Wednesday that he had met with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to make the case that his state should receive at least some of the $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed trains that Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) turned down last month.
 
"Met with @RayLaHood to advocate for redirecting the $ that FL rejected to the Northeast Corridor #HSR," Menendez said on his Twitter Website Wednesday.
 
Menendez was one of 10 northeastern senators who wrote to LaHood last week, saying that the money should be redirected to the northeast corridor, which already has trains running.

But at the same time, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) trumpeted a study released Wednesday by his state transportation officials showing that the proposed train connecting Tampa and Orlando would have generated a $10 million surplus in its first year of operation.
 
Gov. Scott, in rejecting the funds, had argued that the train would generate losses the state government in Florida would have to make up.
 
"As John Adams once said, 'Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidence,'” Nelson said in a statement, referring to the state DoT study.
 
"Gov. Rick Scott had these facts in-hand when he made his decision to strike down $2.4 billion from the federal government for high-speed rail two weeks ago," Nelson said.
 
Nelson said he still had hope that LaHood would allow a consortium of Florida cities to compete with states like New Jersey for the rejected money.
 
“I still have a sliver of hope that common sense and the facts will prevail,” Nelson said.