Scott launches senate tour in PCB

PANAMA CITY BEACH — With 58 days left until the general election, Gov. Rick Scott kicked off his statewide Make Washington Work bus tour Sunday afternoon in Panama City Beach, hoping to bolster his Senate campaign, as well as political ally Jimmy Patronis’ run for Chief Financial Officer.

“You’re about to see Florida take a lead to change Washington just the same way Gov. Scott has changed Florida,” Patronis said during the intimate gathering of supporters at Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant — owned by the Patronis family. “We’re going to see the state of Florida show and lead the way.”

Scott appeared relaxed and at home in the Bay County crowd, where he’s been a frequent visitor throughout his two terms as governor. Patronis began the event by reminding Scott that if it weren’t for Bay County, he likely would not have been elected.

“I love to remind everybody that the only reason why Rick Scott became Governor Rick Scott was because of Bay County,” Patronis said, referencing the historic turnout in the area that propelled Scott past the 2010 primary.

In keeping with the Make Washington Work theme, Scott leaned heavily on his jobs record, touting 1.6 million jobs added to the Florida economy during his tenure, with one out of six jobs tied to tourism and hospitality, which has seen a 50 percent increase over the last eight years. He also espoused cutting taxes to promote business growth, cutting regulations and streamlining permitting processes.

“We’ve made it better for business,” Scott said. “That’s what we need to do.”

Scott also swiped at his opponent, incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, and Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum, accusing them of pushing “big government socialism” and adding that, under any government around the world, “people do worse” under socialism.

“If you think about the way the Democrats have run the federal government, they’ve over-promised and under-delivered," he said.

Scott’s Make Washington Work plan includes pushing for term limits, requiring a supermajority vote to approve tax or fee increases, giving the president the power of line item veto for individual budget projects, requiring Congress to forego their salary if they fail to pass an annual budget, requiring members of Congress to work full-time for full-time salary and eliminating omnibus bills.

The event drew a small crowd of local Democrat and liberal protestors clustered on North Lagoon Drive heading toward the restaurant, with signs and a megaphone urging people to “vote no for Rick Scott.”

“We don’t need another crazy to go to Washington,” said Beverly Wall, who was rallying the crowd. “We need a leader.”

Earlier in the day, Scott skipped a scheduled campaign event scheduled for 11 a.m. The Donut Hole in Santa Rosa Beach. Campaign workers had passed out signs at the location and installed a sound system, according to the Tampa Bay Times, but a small contingency of protests calling on Scott to repeal the controversial beach access law HB 631, showed up ahead of his appearance. Walton County has become ground zero in the customary use struggle, with a public hearing on the subject Saturday night at South Walton High School drew over 800 people in attendance, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.

At around 12:30 p.m., Scott tweeted a photo of himself at a different Donut Hole in Inlet Beach.

This story has been updated from a previous version to reflect new information.