Charlie Crist’s three day school bus tour of the Sunshine State is wrapping up in Miami tonight. He trying to unseat Gov. Rick Scott who he says has cut funding for public education.
Crist admits he can't match Scott's deep-pocketed TV advertising, so he's going back to the basics of grassroots campaigning.
“It's efficient, and we have to be efficient, just like I want to be with Floridians' tax money. Being efficient during a campaign, when you're running against somebody who's a multi-multi-millionaire, is unbelievable. I mean, the guy said he's going to spend a hundred million dollars on this campaign. We're not going to be able to match that; he won't be able to match our effort,” said Crist.
Still, for all the handshakes and photo ops, Republicans say Democrats are divided, with many of them backing underdog Nan Rich in the August 26th primary. And when it comes to education, the GOP argues it's not Scott, but Crist who hurt the public schools.
“Education funding is one of the areas where we were able to clean up the mess that Charlie Crist created,” said Matt Gaetz/(R) Ft. Walton Beach.
But Crist disagrees and he's predicting voters will, too. The heart of that disagreement: the education budgets under Crist and Scott and which one was higher.
Scott's overall education funding is at a record high this year but, per-student funding was higher under Crist in 2007.
The Scott campaign said the election will hinge on Florida's job growth over the last three and a half years.
Scott was also campaigning in south Florida Friday with another former governor, Jeb Bush. Bush told a crowd in homestead he's confident Scott will be re-elected.