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Hundreds of candidates qualified today for state and local officers on what is the official opening of the 2014 campaign season, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the candidates include those for the highest office in the state.

Sheria Griffin hand delivered the paperwork making Charlie Crist an official candidate for Governor. Included in the packet…the qualifying  check for just over 78 hundred dollars. We asked the sixth grade teacher why she was there. “Rick Scott has constantly cut funding for education and I believe Charlie Crist is for education” said Griffin.

The now official Democratic gubernatorial candidate spent just over an hour listening to the concerns of a group of teachers.

“it’s all about the future” he told them.

Afterwards, Crist said the fix was easy…elect him to the job he had until 2011. “What I would not do is what Rick Scott has done. He’s taken almost an entire university and wiped it off the map by taking almost 30,000 bright future’s scholarships. It’s unconscionable” said Crist.

Campaigning in Tampa, Governor Rick Scott took aim at Crist. “Well as we know Charlie Crist left us with a mess. He left me with a 3.6 billion dollar budget deficit. But we turned around our economy. Charlie Crist lost 832,000 jobs when he was Governor.”

An aid for Governor Rick Scott filed his paperwork, including three years of income tax returns late in the afternoon. Scott called on Crist to do the same. “I believe in transparency” said Scott.  “I’m asking Charlie and Carol to release their income tax returns.”

Rick Scott picked up two surprise opponents on the first day, and Charlie Crist will see a real Democratic opponent on Tuesday.

The filings are the beginning of what will be the most expensive governor’s race in the states history.