VIERA, Fla. – Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) spent Monday campaigning in Central Florida with the help from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Scott and Christie made stops in Viera and Ormond Beach, trying to drum up support ahead of next week's election.
Christie was characteristically blunt in firing up a crowd of 200 supporters Scott, who's in a tight race for re-election.
Christie told an audience at the Brevard Zoo that Scott's opponent Charlie Crist, who was governor before Scott, is desperately seeking a new title now that he is out of office. Christie suggested a title voters could give to Crist -- "loser."
In a campaign in which both Scott and Crist have been going after their opponent hard, it was business as usual. Crist was a target of several speakers at Scott's half-hour "Get Out the Vote" rally on the deck of the zoo's Nyami River Lodge. Every mention of Crist elicited boos from the Scott supporters in the crowd.
Joining Scott and Cristie as speakers at the event were Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, Florida Sen. Thad Altman, 18th Judicial Circuit Public Defender Blaise Trettis, and Scott's wife, Ann. Florida Reps. Tom Goodson and Ritch Workman also were standing with Scott on the speaker's platform.
In Ormond Beach Scott was joined by his wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson.
Scott believes the election is about jobs.
"I grew up in a very poor family, they struggled for work, my parents knew the importance of a job," Scott told the crowd.
A new poll by Gravis Marketing has Crist leading Scott 44 to 42. The company took a poll before "Fangate," the debate when Scott didn't appear on stage for seven minutes because Crist broke the rules by bringing a fan on stage.
In that poll Scott was ahead by two points, so the poll suggests Fangate caused Scott to dip in the poll.
Local 6 asked Scott for his reaction to the poll.
"You should ask Charlie about polls. He makes all his decisions based on polls. We're going to win the election because we're going to get the vote out," Scott said.
Crist is running as a Democrat after previously being elected governor as a Republican. He lost an Independent bid in a race for U.S. senator against Marco Rubio.
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