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Gov. Rick Scott Votes Early In Naples, Says He'll Spend His Own Money On Campaign

Ashley Lopez
/
WGCU

Gov. Rick Scott stopped in Naples to cast his vote Thursday. He was also in town to kick off his “Get Out the Early Vote Bus Tour” for the last leg of his re-election campaign.

The Republican incumbent voted on the first day of early voting in Collier County.

“My wife Anne and my daughter Allison, we all voted,” Scott told a group of reporters as he walked out of his early voting site at Collier County Public Library on Orange Blossom Drive in Naples.

Lee County’s early voting started Monday.

After casting his vote, Scott held a small rally at Chrissy’s Tavern to start his bus tour.

Credit Ashley Lopez / WGCU
/
WGCU

“This election is about voting,” he told a small crowd of supporters. “This is just get out the vote. We are traveling the state we have a bus—Let’s Keep Working bus—but all of what we are doing the next two weeks is traveling the state. Get people out to vote.”

Polls show Scott is nearly neck and neck with his Democratic opponent Charlie Crist.

Right now, all major media markets in the state are being inundated with attack ads from both campaigns.  That’s why spending is at an all-time high and the candidates are trying to keep up.

Two years ago Scott said he was confident he would not have to spend his own personal fortune on his re-election campaign. But as Election Day nears, Scott announced he would be spending a lot of his own money on his campaign.

Credit Ashley Lopez / WGCU
/
WGCU
Scott with his grandson outside an early voting site.

“There is a left-wing radical billionaire out of the west coast that is putting on a smear campaign,” Scott said. “So, I am putting – Anne and I are putting in-- some money here at the end to combat his smear campaign. But we are going to make sure we have a strong finish.”

Billionaire investor and environmental activist Tom Steyer has a political action committee that has spent millions on TV ads trashing Scott’s environmental record. The next stops for Scott’s bus tour are Punta Gorda, Tampa and Coral Springs. Crist will also be traveling the state soon. 

Ashley Lopez is a reporter forWGCUNews. A native of Miami, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism degree.
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