Crist Continues South Florida Kitchen Table Tour

BOCA RATON (CBSMiami) - Democratic governor candidate Charlie Crist continued visiting locals around South Florida, but this time he brought company.

Crist was joined by Annette Taddeo and former Congressman Robert Wexler as the group toured local restaurants in Boca Raton on Tuesday.

The tour's focus is on individuals "struggling" with increased property insurance and utility rates, as well as cuts to the state's popular Bright Futures scholarship program.

Crist's final stop was to the kitchen of Oakland Park resident Barbara Johnson.

Johnson became a U.S. citizen last month and wanted to talk to Crist about the rising cost of living in South Florida.

She is a nurse's aide who told CBS4's Joan Murray she earns $9.50 an hour and struggles to pay her bills.

"Between the gas and food and everything, it's like you are dying, drowning," Johnson said.

Crist told her that's why he supports raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

"It's become what I call a low wage, high cost economy state and part of the reason is our governor opposes raising the minimum wage," said Crist.

Murray asked Crist what he thought about the new Florida 0ptimus poll that has Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie pulling in 13 percent of support from likely voters.

"The polls don't affect me. What affects me are people like Barbara. That's what I care about," Crist said.

While Crist has convinced Johnson to vote for him, a few miles away, Republican Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera was making his case for re-electing Gov. Rick Scott while visiting a call center in Fort Lauderdale.

"Charlie Crist cares about Charlie Crist. He doesn't want to talk about the things Gov. Scott has done like pay increases for teachers, cutting taxes forty times; including 500 million dollars this year alone and bringing 644 thousand jobs back to our state," Lopez-Cantera said.

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