There have been some troubling economic statistics published in the past week about household incomes in the Tampa Bay area. With this being an election year, it shouldn't be surprising that state Democrats would seize on that intelligence and blame Rick Scott for all of it.
On Friday it was announced that the Tampa Bay area added 9,000 new jobs in August while maintaining a 6.8 percent unemployment rate. But the Bay area is now fifth in the state in adding new jobs, behind Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale.
It was also reported that per person, the gross domestic product in Tampa Bay is down dramatically compared to the GDP of cities like Orlando, and that the median household income in Tampa Bay is also now lower that it was after the recession ended more than three years ago.
With those unflattering numbers, it would be political malpractice for Democrats in the Tampa Bay area not to exploit them. Enter Tampa-area based Congresswoman Kathy Castor.
In a conference call arranged by the Charlie Crist campaign Monday morning, Castor blasted Governor Scott's policies for folks in the Tampa Bay area, saying that "Rick Scott's low-wage, high-cost economy is unfortunately hitting the Tampa Bay area the hardest."
Castor went on to say that living in Florida has traditionally been affordable for most middle-income earning people, but now she says "that's not true anymore." She went on to say that's no longer the case under our current governor, and blames that in part for his refusal to stand up to the utility companies in the state — an issue that local Bay area Democrats have been hammering home hard in recent weeks, attempting to use the disaffection in particular of Duke Energy.
Although Charlie Crist partisans say it's unfair to blame him for a worldwide recession that hit during the middle of his one term as governor six years ago, in this case they're ready to blame the current governor for the slight downturn in Florida's economy.
"It's working for the big corporations that get big tax breaks and the freedom to raise rates," Castor said, referring to property insurance and utility companies. "Rick Scott thinks things are going well — because they're going well for those at the top."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Florida was second in the nation in new jobs added in August, trailing only California with 22,700.
Joining Castor on the call was Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith from Fort Lauderdale. He criticized the governor for the unemployment numbers for blacks and Latinos, which are much higher than the state average, and extolled the value in raising the minimum wage, something that Charlie Crist says he would raise to $10.10 an hour if elected in November (It's currently at $7.93 an hour).